When the governor of Osun state, Rauf Aregbesola started the education reform, many were of the opinion that it was a white elephant project billed to go the way of past unsuccessful gestures. But today, it is a success story. YEJIDE GBENGA-OGUNDARE reports that the education model and O-Schools in Osun are models to emulate.
The deputy governor who is also in charge of education, Mrs Titilayo Laoye Tomori, had stated that Osun state has succeeded in the implementation of all its policies and programmes as promised in the education sector as Governor Aregbesola’s passion for education has no limit. She attributed the feat to unwavering commitment attached to education by the Aregbesola led government in the state, adding that the state has successfully raised the bar of teaching and learning in the public education sector.
According to her, the state has designed a roadmap aimed at ensuring all round infrastructural and human development in the education sector without socio-economic or political backgrouLds of the citizen by building a lifetime assets in the education sector as many of its achievements are designed not only to improve the standard of education but to as well guarantee brighter future for the present and incoming generations.
The Osun model schools have been said to be architectural masterpieces that can never be found in public schools elsewhere in Nigeria. This assertion was confirmed by President Muhammadu Buhari when he visited the state to commission the Osogbo Government High School; a three-in-one school designed to accommodate 3,000 students each school with its own principal and a facility manager for maintenance with Wifi facilities.
The school is made up 72 classrooms of 40 square meter each capable of sitting 49 students with individual seats and classroom lockers and has six offices for study groups; six laboratories; 18 toilets for girls and 18 for boys; a science library; an arts library; facility manager’s office; a bookshop, a sick bay, staff rooms and an executive principal’s office.
Other schools that have the same facilities with the Osogbo Government High School; Wole Soyinka Government School, Ejigbo; Ataoja School of Science, Osogbo; Unity/Fakunle Comprehensive Government High School, Osogbo; Seventh Day Adventists, Ede; Ilesa Grammar School and the Iwo High School among others.
At inception, there were criticisms from many quarters that the Osun State Education Policy was a haphazard policy that will fizzle out without any positive result but the situation of the education sector in the state at present has proved critics wrong and has attested to the fact that the policy is a comprehensive and holistic response to an obvious educational rot. A proof of this is the upward movement in academic performance nationally. Osun moved from 34th position in ranking among Nigeria’s 36 states in 2010 to 18th position in 2011 and eighth position in 2012, in performance rankings in the West African School Certificate Examinations (WASCE).
Indeed, any serious child that goes through the Osun public schools system is expected to be a complete child that grow up to become a complete citizen empowered in learning, character and equipped to face the world in addition to being patriotic to the state and country as a whole.
What stand the Osun schools out are the structure as well as infrastructures that are alien to public schools in Nigeria. Aregbesola under the education reform and in line with his belief that all children irrespective of status of parents deserve qualitative education embarked on massive remodeling of schools to meet with international standards. Elementary schools are refurbished to have modern classrooms, administrative blocks, library and computer facilities as well as adequate playgrounds while some structures were completely pulled down to give room to new, modern structures.
The infrastructural reform further includes the construction of 100 primary schools, 50 middle schools and 20 high schools around the state with each school complex designed for a population of 1000 thousand pupils of the same age group while other dilapidating structures were renovated to standard. The underlying factor in all school buildings constructed and those renovated is the focus on creating conducive physical atmosphere that aids learning.
Today, public schools in Osun state can compete favourably with the best private schools across the country in terms of infrastructure as many private schools do not have the amenities that characterize public schools today. The schools have been given the best in terms of infrastructural facilities under the radical Aregbesola education reform and the difference is obvious to everyone; state of the art schools equipped with dining halls, potable water supply system with standard toilets facilities, reception areas, well organized staff rooms, library, recreation centre, common room, beautiful lawns and computer laboratory.
The school structures in Osun are tailored to international standards and have become a model for other states, reiterating the commitment of the Ogbeni Aregesola’s administration to education revolution and resolve to build a new man in every child to sustain the future of the state.
The governor while commissioning one of the schools had stated that, “We have state-of-the-arts schools with quality finishing. Our schools are incomparable most especially the facilities therein. We have put in place schools with beautiful environment conducive for learning and teaching. And for any parent to complement this gesture, his or her child must appear very neat to school. It is in view of that we urge our people to support education. This does not lie on parents alone; our teachers too must do the needful and ensure that every child is encouraged on neatness.
The deputy governor who is also in charge of education, Mrs Titilayo Laoye Tomori, had stated that Osun state has succeeded in the implementation of all its policies and programmes as promised in the education sector as Governor Aregbesola’s passion for education has no limit. She attributed the feat to unwavering commitment attached to education by the Aregbesola led government in the state, adding that the state has successfully raised the bar of teaching and learning in the public education sector.
According to her, the state has designed a roadmap aimed at ensuring all round infrastructural and human development in the education sector without socio-economic or political backgrounds of the citizen by building a lifetime assets in the education sector as many of its achievements are designed not only to improve the standard of education but to as well guarantee brighter future for the present and incoming generations.
The Osun model schools have been said to be architectural masterpieces that can never be found in public schools elsewhere in Nigeria. This assertion was confirmed by President Muhammadu Buhari when he visited the state to commission the Osogbo Government High School; a three-in-one school designed to accommodate 3,000 students each school with its own principal and a facility manager for maintenance with Wifi facilities.
The school is made up 72 classrooms of 40 square meter each capable of sitting 49 students with individual seats and classroom lockers and has six offices for study groups; six laboratories; 18 toilets for girls and 18 for boys; a science library; an arts library; facility manager’s office; a bookshop, a sick bay, staff rooms and an executive principal’s office.
Other schools that have the same facilities with the Osogbo Government High School; Wole Soyinka Government School, Ejigbo; Ataoja School of Science, Osogbo; Unity/Fakunle Comprehensive Government High School, Osogbo; Seventh Day Adventists, Ede; Ilesa Grammar School and the Iwo High School among others.
LIndeed, any serious child that goes through the Osun public schools system is expected to be a complete child that grow up to become a complete citizen empowered in learning, character and equipped to face the world in addition to being patriotic to the state and country as a whole.
(Osun Online News)
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