From John Dike, Osogbo
Osun State Governor, Senator Ademola Adeleke, has reiterated his administration’s commitment to the development of the education sector in the state.
The governor said education is paramount to any developing nation, and as such should be taken seriously
He disclosed that the education sector in Osun requires urgent attention from the government, and his adminstration is committed to ensuring infrastructural development in Primary and Secondary schools in the State
Governor Adeleke made this disclosure during the official presentation of instructional materials to students of secondary schools in the state
His words: “from primary to secondary schools, the infrastructure is in bad condition. There three areas that affect learning are in need of urgent reforms.
“The learning environment, the teaching aids and teachers’ welfare are all issues our government is looking into at the moment and finding possible ways of solving them.”
He disclosed that the conditions are complicated by parental negligence, economic problems, breakdown of family value system and the increasing breakdown of law and order in the society.
He noted that the worst side was the bad educational policy and lack of political will by the previous administration.
“The result is that Osun is placed 34th or so on the national examination rating index.
“Our administration is determined to change the situation for the better. To this end, we have a comprehensive education sector reform agenda.
“We will soon hold an educational summit where all stakeholders will brainstorm. The summit will enable me to submit the Imole Education Agenda with a view to fast track the implementation process. Our aim is to ensure an education system that is in tune with the demands of the 21st century.
“our government has resolved to improve the learning environment, empower the teachers and provide learning aids. I have a very ambitious target for this sector. The ultimate goal is to improve the educational rating of Osun from the present 34th position to between 1 to 10th position.
“As part of the planned reform, our administration is today addressing a major constraint facing most students-access to instructional materials.
“The cost of books and other materials is becoming unaffordable for most parents. I will today share hundreds of instructional materials to aid learning in our secondary schools.
“This is however a temporary solution. A more trending solution is to apply technology in our schools. In the past, application of tech innovations in schools failed due to failure to abide by best practice. Administrators then abandoned expert advice, hence the failure of such innovations. Our government is ready to infuse technology to aid learning, to assist teachers and to improve the learning environment.”
Governor Adeleke who identified failure on national examinations as lack of familiarity with computer systems, hinted that majority of the students are not able to use computers until a few days before their examinations.
He said it is unfortunately that most examinations are now computer based, saying “Upgrading students’ computer skills is therefore one of the major goals of my administration.”
Adeleke however called on the Ministry of Education to clean up and re-open the nine computer centers located in selected schools across the nine Federal Constituencies. The facilities in those centers are rotten away. We must put them to good use for the betterment of our education system.
He urged the Ministry of Education to see the possibility of introducing tablets into the senior secondary school level.
This, he said will address the increasing cost of book purchase and also enhance Osun readiness for e-learning. The two ministries should look into best practices and engage TLG, a local company in which the Osun government is a shareholder, on the subject matter.
