The committee on the education summit recently organised by the Osun state government to see ways to reposition the education sector of the state recently said the last time the state had the best WAEC result was in 2018 during the administration of Rauf Aregbesola. The chairman of the committee, Professor Oyesoji Aremu made this known while presenting the report of the committee to the Governor of the state, Senator Ademola Adeleke at his office in Abere.
He said, “When we started, we looked at the last five years, excluding 2023, results of WAEC and NECO in Osun state the best we could lay claim to was 2018 when Osun was number 7. Your Excellency in the following year 2019, Osun was number 14. In 2020, Osun was the number 34. In 2022, Osun was number 36.
“To make it unpalatable, the UNICEF report showed that Osun State is leading in the Southwest with out of out-of-school children which.” Speaking after receiving the report, Adeleke lamented the state of education in Osun, saying urgent attention was needed to address the issue.
As governor, Aregbesola built 11 state-of-the-art 3,000-capacity model secondary schools, in addition to rehabilitating and upgrading the existing ones. Each school has 72 classrooms which can comfortably accommodate 49 students and six rooms for study groups. It is equipped with six laboratories, 36 toilets separated equally for boys and girls, two libraries for science and arts each, a facility manager’s office, a bookshop, and a sick bay. Aregbesola introduced ‘Opon Imo’ (the tablet of knowledge), a digital education tool, ethics and discipline in public schools, and even established a state-wide agency on public school discipline. He introduced calisthenics and school feeding and health programme.
There are 11 mega schools that Rauf Aregbesola administration constructed, 10 are being used, the 11th one is 95% completed . The schools can accommodate 3000 students each, but those schools were underutilised by former Governor Oyetola and President Tinubu can partner with Osun State to use the mega schools for out of school children in Nigeria.
I want to call for federal-state partnership to use the mega schools. Federal-State partnership could be introduced in these mega schools so that pupils could come from any part of Nigeria to Osun to learn and enjoy the facilities in these schools as a solution to 13.5 out of school children in Nigeria. The truth now is that Aregbesola has built schools that can reduce the number of out of school children in Nigeria. I want to appeal to President Tinubu to use Osun mega schools for out of school children
One of the landmark initiatives of Rauf Aregbesola as former governor of Osun State was the introduction of Osun Sukuk fund and Sovereign Sukuk in the domestic financial markets in 2013 to raise N11 billion to finance 11 Osun sukuk schools. Each of the 11 mega schools has 72 classrooms with a capacity for 3,000 pupils (one of the schools is still under construction).
Former Governor Aregbesola was honoured by WAEC for taking the lead in digital education in Nigeria and JAMB statistics on Osun applicants has proven that WAEC honour was right. This truly is a tremendous opportunity for Aregbesola to help more Osun students get access to quality education. In the new global economy, digital education is an increasingly important part of education, and Aregbesola looks forward to guiding efforts to further expand the reach and breadth of digital education and its courses throughout Nigeria. West African Examination Council and JAMB, WAEC, endorsed Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s policies, especially in the education sector. Delivering a frame of endorsement to the governor on 3rd February, 2017, Head of the Nigeria National Office of the council, Mr. Olutise Isaac Adenipekun, who led a delegation of the national management of WAEC to the Governor’s office in Osogbo, said Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s interventions in education is “second to none” in Nigeria.
Adenipekun said, “The ongoing revolution in the infrastructural re-engineering of the school complexes in the state of Osun has also caught the attention of all stakeholders in the education sector in Nigeria and beyond. “The immense contribution of Osun state government in the development of infrastructural facilities in schools, in particular, the “Mega Schools Project” is remarkable. It is in fact second to none in Nigeria”, he stressed.
Adenipekun said Osun has contributed significantly towards enhancing Information and Communication Technology, ICT required in education sector which according to him remains the prerequisite to development of quality education in the country. Adenipekun, who recommended the Tablet of Knowledge to other states of the federation said the initiative had contributed towards educational development. He described the innovation as a tool of educational revolution, breakthrough aimed at enhancing and encouraging the process of teaching and learning through the use of innovative technology.
The inspiring efforts of the OgbeniRauf Aregbesola administration in reforming and investing in education in Osun State can be appreciated through JAMB ranking statistics and WAEC honour. The conviction of the administration that education holds the key to the realisation of the all-encompassing transformation in its visions for the state informs the undistracted attention it accords educational development right from 2010 when it assumed office. The administration makes education the bedrock of the various policies it has designed and been executing to improve the existential condition of the people of the state.
For Osun State government, the functional education the children of the state must receive has to take place in befitting structures, which have advanced facilities, are conducive for learning, and enhance human dignity. By embarking on educational projects, the state government is simply saying the culture of excellence that guide the affairs of standard private schools is possible for it to attain. What exists in Osun in terms of educational infrastructure development is not symbolism but substance.
About 12,000 teachers have been added to the already existing pool of teachers across the schools in the state. It is not just about physical infrastructure; the human infrastructural is also seriously taken into cognisance, for no educational system can rise above the quality of the teachers. The idea of education for development motivates Osun to prioritise education. Former Governor Aregbesola underscores this in the address he delivered at the opening of the Osogbo Government High School. In his words, ‘Education for us, therefore, is the path to development. We are 25 years now, but we are looking at the next 25 years and we want to create and determine the next 25 years through education.’
In spite of the financial constraint it has, Osun refuses to give up its walk on the path of educational development. It continues to invest in it because it is persuaded that doing so has many invaluable benefits and not bankruptcy. One of Africa’s most talked-about ICT success stories in the education sector is the adoption of Computer Based Test (CBT) for entrance examination into tertiary schools organized by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) a Nigerian examination body with a core mandate to conduct Matriculation Examination for entry into all Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education in Nigeria and Osun State applicants are ranked second on the table because of the quality education that Aregbesola has introduced in Osun state. .
History of Digital Education will remember former Governor Aregbesola as the first Nigerian to implement UNESCO 2011 recommendation on digital education. Nigerians need to visit Osun Sukuk Schools, Middle Schools and Elementary Schools. Governor Aregbesola has undertaken to build and equip schools with computer classrooms and training teachers to use digital media in education.
Inwalomhe Donald
