Gov Aregbesola And Education Decay In Osun, By Mutalub Yusuff

 

Recently we marked the World Teachers' Day and on the basis of that I will like to write on education in Osun State. I like to start by saying unequivocally that our Governor Aregbesola has not done enough in this vital sector to put it mildly.

 

From building of new structures to the Opon Imo project to school merging and what have you, most of government's policies are misplaced.

 

I have toured virtually most schools in at least Iwoland (Ayedire, Iwo and Ola-Oluwa LGs), and I can say it categorically that what our schools need is renovation and not new class rooms. In fact there are excess classrooms in some schools visited and I want to believe the same thing is applicable in most local governments in the state. Aregbe wasted billions of naira in erecting new structures instead of renovating the existing ones with little millions of naira.

 

That's misplaced of priority if I may say. I expected Aregbe to do what Ameachi did in Portharcourt, Green revolution. Schools were renovated, painted all in green colour, adequate chairs are provided and every school have a playing ground. Little money would have been spent on this and better result would be achieved. Average students in Osun still go to school with chair and table, else they sit on the floor. We need more chair and table, conducive learning environment and the likes.

 

School merging is one of the greatest mistake Aregbe made. Awolowo' vision was to have a school within 500m radius. Now students needs to walk as far as 3km to the nearest school in the name of merger. Some students now need to walk as long as a journey between Igege and Ilemowu in the name of going to school. This policy alone got a lot of students out of school. The merger is meaningless to me and has contributed to the present condition of our eduction.

 

Opon Imo is a scam and it's obvious to the blind. Such innovation can't work in our environment for now. And it has never worked since it's introduction. It has simply made our teachers more lazy. Students are refer to the tablets by their teachers and these are tablets that do not get to students until few weeks to WARC. Mind you, only SS3 have access to the Opon Imo. What's the faith of other thousands of students in both secondary and primary school. Half of Opon Imo budget can buys textbooks for all pupils and students in Osun state.

 

Incentives to Teachers; how would you get the best out of an hungry man?! While other states are rewarding teachers that have done excellently with car gift, Osun government owes teachers several months of salary. There was a time there were no chalk in Osun schools for teacher to use to teach their students.

 

Schools in Osun needs more teachers. A teacher takes Physics, Chemistry and biology from SS1 to SS3 in Olupo High school. The same scenario is found in most schools in Osun. Government has done absolutely nothing to ameliorate these problem of inadequate teachers.

 

Osun schools write terminal exam just once in the last one year. Is there any justification for such?! And tell me how our students won't come behind in WAEC exams.

 

Out of 212 that sat for mathematics in WAEC this year in a school in Iwo, only 41 made credit. You can do that mathematics to get the percentage of failure. And this has been the scenario in our state in the last four years despite the claim of Aregbe to have spent billion in improving education standard.

 

Aregbesola may have good intention but his manner of approach are wrong. He has little understanding of how things work in Osun and that is the main reason we are in this mess.

 

The education summit that was chaired by Prof Wole Soyinka has brought no meaningful advancement to our education. We have continued to go down the ladder among other States.

 

What has the reclassification of school brought to the development of our education?! Absolutely nothing.

 

Osun government needs to revisit their education policy and review it. Seriously it's not working.

 

Aregbe got it wrong in his education policy and we are presently experiencing the worst in the state in our education system.