A strong economy dictates the phase of political development. Prominent Nigerians have lately advocated the need to diversify the economy of the country. There were strong comments that the country should diversify from oil based to agro-allied based economy. Thus, since the advent of the current political dispensation about 14 years ago, many states have embarked on various shades of commercial agriculture. However, some of the states have turned the lofty policy and programmes into a political propaganda rather than the intended objective. In the light of the above, a critical appraisal of some of Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s agricultural policies and programmes of activities is necessary. 
Governor Rauf Aregbesola, while justifying the huge amount committed by his administration to agricultural sector in the state opined that; “The neglect of agricultural sector by successive administrations in the country has the tendency of exposing the nation to famine as it is being experienced in some developing nations like Somalia, Niger Republic and Sudan.”
Warning the country, he said: “The phenomenon could also affect Nigeria’s foreign earnings if the current development in all nations of the world as regards the discoveries of oil is anything to go by. The United States of America, China and other developed countries which Nigeria rely upon for consumption of its oil produce could now guarantee large deposit of oil in its land, by implication, Nigeria is heading to a doom.”
He added, “To this end, Nigeria would find it difficult to meet its obligation through proceeds from oil, hence there is urgent need for the nation to diversify its economy to agricultural sector.”
“It is in realisation of its green book called: Six Point Integral Action Plan of banishment of hunger, poverty, unemployment, provision of functional education and restoration of healthy living and enhancement of communal peace and progress that make government to reposition the sector for economic gains.
The state Commissioner for Agriculture and Food sufficiency, Hon. Richard Adewale  Adedoyin in giving the score sheet of the administration in the sector said that :”In recognition of the agrarian nature of Osun State and its enormous potential for employment generation, a deliberate policy for mass food production, the Osun Rural Enterprise and Agricultural Programme (O-REAP) has been designed to enable the Ministry gives priority attention to agriculture commodity value chain spanning production, processing, storage, preservation and marketing.
“The mission of O-REAP is to achieve food security, wealth and job creation, youth empowerment, economic transformation and making the state the hub of agriculture and an emporium of commerce in the South-West. The mission is a strategy to capture Lagos market through supply of at least 10% of the daily three billion worth of food in the state. As part of
efforts to fulfil its social contract with the people of the state, Aregbesola placed considerable emphasis on hunger and poverty alleviation which is the core value of National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy, (NEEDS) and attainment of Millennium Development Goals.
“The present administration is working round the clock towards the attainment of the objectives of the O-REAP programme through sustainable implementation strategies to aid the operation of farmers through land acquisition, land clearing, tractorisation and private public partnership as well as provision of enabling environment for farmers to maximise their potential. O-REAP programme focus on different agricultural initiatives which include Osun Broilers Out growers’ production scheme. The Beef Chain Development Programme, O-REAP Fish Farm Estates, Osun Fisheries Out-growers production scheme, O-REAP Youth Academy, Agricultural credit, Farm Service Centres, Provision of storage facilities and seedling production as well as farm settlement scheme.
“These schemes have drastically redefined agricultural system in the state as farmers have access to over 1,000 day chicks under the Osun Broilers Out-growers Production Scheme (O-BOPS). Most of the farmers who participated in O-Broiler scheme made sustainable profit. The O-Broiler initiative is yielding positive results due to its linkage to O-Meals, a school feeding programme which provides a sustainable market for poultry farmers in the state.
“O-Fish scheme of the present administration has opened window of opportunitiess for fish farmers through public private partnership arrangement. Over 800,000 kilogram of cat fish are expected to be produced and processed by over four thousand fish farmers yearly in the state.
“Having realised the need for Youths Empowerment through agricultural programme, the present administration in Osun State under the leadership of Aregbesola established O-REAP Youth Academy. The Academy is expected to serve as tool for youth empowerment and job creation. Over nine hundred youths selected from Osun State Youths Empowerment Scheme,
OYES Cadets are undergoing eight months training in modern skills and techniques in agricultural practices. Upon their graduation, the government would equip the youths with farm land, farm inputs and credit facilities.
The training centres are located at Osogbo, Ila, Ede, Ile-Ogbo, Wasinmi,
Ilesa, Oyan and Esa-Odo, as well as Ile-Ife.
“In its bid to make the state the food basket of the nation through adaptation of modern farming techniques, 20 youths of the state are currently in Germany for training in modern agricultural practices. The beauty of various training programmes often organised for the youths by the government under its Agricultural Intervention Programme lies in the provision of enabling environment for the application of their acquired skills with the conceptualisation of the state rural enterprise and agriculture programme, the programme has created opportunity for investors to come and establish agro allied industries in the state.
“Also, the present administration also designed quick impact intervention programme, which focuses on small holding farmers and micro-credit management for cooperative farmers. The programme has made significant impact as cooperative groups were strengthened and agricultural activities increased substantially in the state.  Within two years, 77 farmers were registered for farmers’ cooperative groups and over 1,000 hectares of land were cultivated while over 1,000 jobs were created through the intervention.
“There is no doubt that the success recorded by government under the intervention programme informed the design of Central Bank, commercial banks and agricultural enterprises to support government to enhance production of maize, cassava, rice and vegetables in the state.
“Aside from making agriculture a key component of its economy, the present administration also belief in the ideal of making the sector more attractive to youth, government has designed an agriculture programme for the training of primary and secondary school students in the art of farming. To ensure actualisation of the dream, Osun State Government has provided schools in the state with necessary inputs for practical training for the production of cassava, maize and cocoa-yam, while about 10 schools were assisted on piggery and poultry production.
“In its stride to revitalise farm settlement in the state and make the state the food basket of the nation, the incumbent administration has focused on farm settlement with a view to repositioning the settlement to be in tandem with global practice. In the year 2011, about 50 hectares of virgin forest land were cleared, prepared and allocated to 10 farmers free of charge at Mokore Farm Settlement as part of efforts to enhance productivity of farmers and provide food in abundance for people of the state.
“In 2012, government extends the gesture to Iwo Farm Settlement with clearing of one hundred hectares of land to 20 farmers. Government also provided accessible road for the farm settlement so as to link farmers with the market. Other farm settlements that are also enjoying the presence of government include – Ago-Owu and Oyere Aborisade farm settlements, among others.
“Also in its bid to make life more bearable for farmers and enhance  production, the state government has distributed farm inputs ranging from CP 15 Sprayer, Grammozone and Atrazine to one 1,830 (One thousand, eight hundred and thirty) farmers in the state. The beauty of the present administration’s agricultural policies and programmes lies in the application of technology into farming through provision of agro chemicals to farmers to encourage massive food production across the state. To say the present administration is working towards reclaiming the old glory of people of South-West is stating the obvious, This is as a result of the efforts of government in providing free cocoa seedlings to cocoa farmers in the state.
To crown it up, over N10m was released to cocoa farmers recently to boost cocoa production and boost Internally Generated Revenue of the state. The state has enormous Agricultural resources that can be optimally exploited to achieve laudable objectives of poverty alleviation and overall economic prosperity for the entire state.
The climate of the state is very clement and conducive for the commercial production of eight major categories of agricultural produce with extensive potential for industrial utilisation. The agricultural produce include cereals like maize, roots and tubers, e.g cassava yam, coco-yam, fruits and vegetable, orange, cashew, mango, tomatoes, etc.
“With the current stride in the sector, the present administration has opened windows of opportunity for both local and foreign investors to tap into production of produce for commercial purpose and industrial use, thus, attesting to government’s determination to diversify the state economy to agricultural sector.”
The commissioner maintained that various interventions of the ministry is yielding positive results towards attainment of the six point integral action plan of the present administration in the state. Adedoyin noted that the training of some youths in Germany on modern agricultural practice and training of over 900 youths in modern farming techniques under O-REAP programme would not only serve as source of wealth generation, but a viable tool for employment generation in the state.
The commissioner said further that, “O-Concept’ as strategy for the revitalisation of the agricultural sector in the state was aimed at transforming the state economy through the sector. Food is life, it is in realisation of this fact that the present administration under the leadership of Aregbesola increased budgetary allocation of the sector to over eight billion Naira in 2013 fiscal year to cater for various programmes of the Ministry to make agriculture more profitable and attractive, as well as a good venture for making food available in the state, with spill over effects on other states of the federation”.
DAILY NEWSWATCH

From left, President,UN World Summit Awards , Professor Peter Bruck ,
Governor State of Osun , Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola , Mr. Foluso Phillps ,
Chairman/CEO, Phillips Consulting , Management Consultant Company for Opon
Imo *at the presentation of the World Summit Awards for Opon Imo at WSA
Global Congress in Sri Lanka Saturday night

Africa’s leading representative, Nigeria, won two awards in eight categories, at the Grand Finale of the ceremony. The award ceremony was the climax of the week-long annual assembly of the world’s most innovative e-content initiatives in the following categories: e-Government & Open Data, e-Health & Environment, e-Learning & Science, e-Entertainment & Games, e-Business & Commerce, e-Culture & Tourism, e-Media & Journalism and e-Inclusion & Participation.

The august event was inaugurated by His Excellency, Mahinda Rajapaksa, the President of Sri Lanka.

The winning projects, TRANSPARENT NIGERIA (e-Government & Open Data category), pioneered by Harvard based Mr. Uchechi Iweala (son of Nigeria’s Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala), and OPON IMO – Tablet of Knowledge (e-Learning & Science category) from the State of Osun, triumphed over 421 other innovations for the 2013 Awards vetted by the grand jury of global eminent experts.
The World Summit Awards (WSA) is a project of the International Centre for New Media, which is organised among 190 UN-member States and runs within the United Nations (UN) framework of the World Summit on the Information Society. The World Summit Awards has been an on-going activity since 2003 in cooperation with UNIDO, UNESCO, ITU, ISOC, UN GAID and UNDP.
Osun’s Tablet of Knowledge, OPON IMO received its award following a Grand Jury evaluation
“The State Government of Osun in Nigeria, as part of its strategic mandate to meet the educational needs of students in Osun, commissioned delivery of 150,000 units custom-based Android tablets (a library of easily navigable text books). The tablets are packed in bear rugged leather to protect from harsh conditions of various remote areas of Nigeria and its schools.
What makes the project attractive is the archival availability of content in terms of questions for the last ten years for the Senior Secondary students of all 3 levels. Hoping that the students may not be required to look for physical text books, the tablet is enriched with multimedia contents including video, images, text and referential materials and test questions for practice.”
The grandeur of the closing ceremony obviously sets the tone for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) coming up at the same venue, same city, in the next two weeks in Sri Lanka. Professor Peter Bruck, Chairman of WSA and, the Secretary to the Government of Sri Lanka, Mr. Lalith Weeratunga drew the curtains on this Year’s event. The next event comes up in 2015.

Photos from the graduation and presentation on Investment for Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme (O-Yes) Cadets from Ilesha, held at the Governor’s office, Abere, Osogbo, State of Osun, at the weekend

Participant of investment training, Ogedengbe Beatrice (lef); Abiola
Oluwaseun (front); Oyewale Micheal (3rd right) and other O-Yes Cadets
who participated in Goodness Insecticide and airfreshner making
project, during the graduation and presentation on Investment for
Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme (O-Yes) Cadets from Ilesha, held at
Governors office, Abere, Osogbo, State of Osun , at the weekend

From right, Director General, Bureau of Economic Development and
Partnership, State of Osun, Dr. Charles Akinola; Managing Director,
Generation Enterprise, Mr Bunmi Otegbade and One of the Coordinators
of O-Yes, Mr Femi Faturoti, during the graduation and presentation on
Investment for Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme (O-Yes) Cadets from
Ilesha, held at Governors office, Abere, Osogbo, State of Osun, at the
weekend

From left, Director General, Bureau of Economic Development and
Partnership, State of Osun, Dr. Charles Akinola; Co coordinator,
Goodness Insecticide Project, Mr. Kunle Odenola and Managing Director,
Generation Enterprise, Mr Bunmi Otegbade, during the graduation and
presentation on Investment for Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme (O-Yes)
Cadets from Ilesha, held at Governors office, Abere, Osogbo, State of
Osun, at the weekend

IT is disheartening that at this present age, a group is still calling for disunity and intolerance in the country.
Reading through the position of protesters under the aegis of Osun Baptist Conference and the effort of the state government to douse the tension created as a result of the new education policy, makes me feel total sorry for our existence as a nation, especially due to our inability to see any good in our diversity as human beings living together in one nation.
Religious and ethnic sentiments are affecting our mentality, as we always relate any government policy with our belief as Muslims or Christians or our ethnic group, and this is part of the challenges militating against our progress in Nigeria.
Now, coming back to the case of Osun, although, the missionaries might have founded many of the merged schools, however, in as much they are funded by government, it is very illogical to raise our opinion in contrary to the policy made on the schools based on religious sentiments. What should concern patriotic minds is how the policy can be of immense contribution to the development of the state. According to the Nigerian constitution, it is ridiculous, pathetic and a total disregard of the fundamental human rights of the 1999 constitution (as amended) for any Christian group to deny a Muslim child the constitutional right of “freedom of religion” to attend a Christian named public school simply because such child uses Hijab.
On the other hand, it is a total breach of law for a Muslim group also to deny a Christian child the opportunity to attend a Muslim government school just because such child refuses to wear Hijab.
Nigerians should be wise. Enough is enough of religious bigotry that is making us to lose our watchword as one nation. Both the scriptural books of Muslims and Christians preach tolerance in all spheres of life.
Therefore,  the Christian community in Osun State should not entertain any fear; rather, they should join hands with government towards making the policy a success.
TRIBUNE

I do not know how many of our present crop of political leaders subscribes to utilitarian values of leadership. The popular imagination is that Nigeria is a huge desert of inept leaderships with few oases of entities parading purposeful and sparkling leaders. One of them, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, the governor of the State of Osun, is the focus of my article.
In his South West abode, charlatanism is a much disparaged leadership paradigm. Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the region’s foremost political leader in history, lit the light of progressive politics, and with his disciples such as Alhaji Lateef Jakande, Chief Bisi Onabanjo, Chief Bola Ige, and Pa Adekunle Ajasin, among other too many to list, he gave new meaning to governance and established the benchmark for progressivism. Which was why the counterrevolution that swept the progressives out of power in 2003 burnt out very fast; and the likes of Ogbeni Aregbesola are now on the saddle.
He is a chip off the old block, radiating such candescence of Awoism. He displays such rare passion on issues of Osun State’s comprehensive development that you would think his political life, on daily basis, begins and ends with the State of Osun.
This is why I find it curious that his Education Reform as it affects the reclassification and merger of schools in the state has been met with stiff opposition from Christian leaders. And in justifying the opposition, all kinds of untruths have been peddled. The leadership of CAN in the state, especially the Baptist clerics, have created the impression that they remain the owners of all schools bearing such name and must therefore, resist any attempt to obliterate the Baptist values the schools are known for.
To avoid making blind postulations, I made several calls and did extensive investigations. Here are some of my findings. First, all the primary and secondary schools taken over in Osun State since 1975 have remained under the total control of the state government. The implication is that any school with the tag Baptist, Anglican, Methodist, Catholic, Apostolic and Ansar ud Deen, etc, only exist as such in name with the religious organizations having nothing to do with their funding and administration. Second, the current Education Reform is the product of an elaborate and exhaustive engagement of stakeholders, so named Education Summit, and held in February 2011 for two days with Professor Wole Soyinka presiding. And lastly, the opposition is nothing but the manifest cravings of those behind it for a dying legacy.
My investigation took me to Dr Isiaka Ayodele Owoade, Special Adviser on Education to Governor Aregbesola. I asked him two questions in the first instance. First if there are independent/private schools in the state, and second if the voluntary agencies could still establish faith schools in the state if they so desire. To the two questions he answered in the affirmative. Then I raised the issue of compensation for the owners of the schools.
His response to this last question was that there were demands for compensation by the various religious groups after the takeover in 1975, but that such demands were dropped no sooner they were made when the authorities then computed the contributions of the state to the maintenance of each of these schools and they discovered that they would indeed make refund to the state if they pursued their line of argument!
I am a Catholic and a product of a Catholic secondary education. I have been living with the aberration of ladies turning up for St Patrick’s College, Iwaro-Oka, Ondo State Old Students Association meeting. This was a single school up till the end of the 1973/74 session! There is no doubt the military perverted some of the nation’s cherished values, including religious education, in their self serving messianic mission to save Nigeria from unpatriotic politicians.
Some of the contradictions spawned by such intervention have created lingering distortions in our collective psyche. But life must go on. Some states have since handed over the faith schools in their domain to their original owners. But in the State of Osun, this has not happened. And so the rumpus over Aregbesola Education Reform is an unnecessary distraction. Curiously, even among the critics of the policy, none has accused the governor of nonperformance. The profound renewal in the state’s education sector has been roundly commended. But what remains problematic is the use of subterfuge by some religious leaders to hint at an ownership that has no legal basis.
My advice for this set of religious leaders is to start all over. One of the fruits of Pentecostalism in the South West region and indeed the entire nation is the new generation universities built by Deeper Life Bible Church, Redeemed Christian Church of God, Mountain of Fire, Living Faith Church World Wide (Winners Chapel) etc. There is nothing stopping the Baptists and any other religious group, from engaging in new secondary schools development in the state to compete with Aregbesola schools!
NATIONAL MIRROR

ADDRESS DELIVERED BY THE GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF OSUN, OGBENI RAUF AREGBESOLA, AT THE 2013 WORLD SUMMIT AWARD GLOBAL CONGRESS, HELD IN COLOMBO, SRI LANKA, ON TUESDAY OCTOBER 22, 2013

It is a most delightful experience for me to be here on this year’s occasion of the World Summit Award (WSA). This award has established itself as a prestigious platform for showcasing human creativity in the world of information and communications technology (ICT), as well as highlighting the fact that the world is on a full-tilt journey into a future that will be ICT-driven and ICT-controlled. For any thinking person, it should already be quite clear that that future begins now. It is a future that we can neither avoid nor from which escape is an option. Hence, it is a future for which we must be prepared. In the State of Osun in Nigeria, where I am governor, we have taken a giant stride in preparing ourselves for that future.

May I at this point sincerely thank the World Summit Award for organising this ICT Global Congress that provides a competitive opportunity for innovative ICT products to come into global reckoning. I must also express the gratitude of the people of Osun and their government to the selection jury for deeming our ICT product worthy of this prestigious award in the e-learning and science category. In this age of information and knowledge economy, the developing parts of the world suffer a huge disadvantage, euphemistically described as ‘knowledge gap’. However, for us in this part of that world, the implication of this gap, in reality, is far more grievous than the euphemism would suggest. The fact is that, with our deficiency in terms of the human capacity to be able to compete with our more developed counterparts, we have a world in which one part reaps all the benefits and the other part suffers all the setbacks.
There is therefore an urgent need for us in the developing world to brace ourselves for the rapidly unfolding era of ICT that is certain to come upon us. As is typically the case in much of our world, we face two crucial challenges – poor education and cash limitation. The two are mutually reinforcing in a manner that helps preserve and in fact advance our state of under-development. When I assumed office as governor in my state, these challenges were real and formidable. Osun had chronic financial incapacity and the public education sector was on the brink of collapse.
We decided as a government that a way had to be devised to solve these problems, and ICT became an inevitable choice. But our resort to ICT as a creative way to overcome our problem has a focus on the future, which requires that we equip our young people with qualitative education and the necessary ICT skills which they will certainly need now and in the future. The Opón-Ìmò Technology Enhanced Learning System (O’TELS) is our innovative answer. It is the flagship of our giant preparatory steps towards giving our public school students the high quality education they need, while simultaneously giving them an early start in ICT exposure.
Because our people are largely poor and unable to afford the needed materials for high standard education, many of the students in our public schools lacked the basic knowledge that was required even to pass their external examinations. So dismal was the situation that only three per cent of the students in Osun public schools could manage to obtain the five credit pass required for matriculation into higher institutions of learning. This e-learning ‘table of knowledge’ is a practical and radical solution to a very daunting and nagging problem. It is our smart ICT solution to produce smart public school students in the State. Like we have made clear, the vision behind Opón-Ìmò is: ‘to democratise access to learning; to complement our overall education reform; to help senior secondary school student better prepare for School Leaving Examinations; and to use technology as a silver bullet to the learning problem in Osun’.
Opón-Ìmò is like no other e-learning devise anywhere in the world. It is a complete, standalone library resource in a single computer tablet. It is a closed system that does not interface or interconnect with any other system, because it can function on its own. It provides three major content categories which are, e-library, virtual classroom, and an integrated test zone. Together the e-library and virtual classroom contains all the 63 textbooks in all the 17 core subject areas in which the students are examined in their final examinations at the high school stage. It is a smart device that delivers compelling self-paced courses, conducted in a highly interactive computer-based learning environment. It is synchronised with a library of relevant e-books and a computer-based testing environment. This section also contains an average of 16 chapters per subject and 823 chapters in all, with about 900 minutes or 15 hours of audio voiceovers.
The integrated test zone offers practice questions and answers dating back to 10 years in WASSCE. It also contains mock exam tests in 14 core subject areas, with an average of 500 questions each and approximately 1,800 images. Included in this zone are also practice tests for 46 courses with approximately 1,220 chapters containing approximately 29,000 questions referencing approximately 825 images. Despite its heavy burden of books and other learning materials, Opón-Ìmò weighs only 1.1kg, and runs on an Android 4.0 operating platform, with a 512MB of RAM and an internal storage capacity of 32GB. With a touchscreen interface, it is equipped with dictionary, the holy Bible, holy Qur’an and a health book. It also has inbuilt, mind development games such as chess, Sudoku and Tetris.
In addition to the 17 core subjects for senior secondary schools, it contains six extracurricular subjects viz. history of the Yoruba, sexuality education, civic education, Ifa on ethics and morals, enterprise education and healthy living.
While Opón-Ìmò tackles our peculiar learning problem through the instrumentality of ICT, it likewise takes cognisance of our local and environmental factors. For instance, the tablet comes with water and fire proof pouch. The Charging adaptor also comes with a fuse to protect the device from the very routine power surges that are the bane of electrical and electronic devices in our country. Its light weight makes for easy mobility that also enhances the ease of getting it charged.
To ensure its sustainability, there are support centres for the device across all the nine Federal Constituencies in the State, while an ICT factory has been established for the manufacture of 100,000 units of Opón-Ìmò. The establishment of this factory will have the effect of opening up further possibilities of ICT enablement for our people, with the accompanying economic prospects that are sure to follow. Building a base for ICT capacity in Osun will make the State an attractive centre for business enterprises that require such skills, while this will further increase the application of ICT to other areas of our social and economic life in the State.
Already, the introduction of this device has saved the State Government a stupendous N8billion that would have gone into the purchase of text books for our free education policy. This veritable tablet of knowledge will level the learning playing field for all students from different social and economic backgrounds. It would allow them to learn at their own pace, and in any place they choose. Opón-Ìmò also offers robust and uniform learning content for all students, and provides a feedback mechanism for monitoring their performance.
With Opón-Ìmò, we have not only introduced a game-changer into the landscape of learning in public schools, we have also laid a solid foundation for our children’s ICT future.
Once more I thank the WSA for the award.
I thank you all for giving me your valuable time.

The Senior Special Assistant to Governor Rauf Aregbesola of the State of Osun on Civil and Public Affairs, Comrade Waheed Lawal, has urged members of the public to see the ongoing education reform from a broader sense, rather than religious or personal perception.
According to Lawal, the reclassification and merging of schools should be viewed from holistic angle of how the reform will improve the standard of education and academic performance of public school students in the state.
Speaking with OSUN DEFENDER in an interview in Osogbo on Thursday, Lawal stated that only the discerning minds would appreciate the education reform, appealing to the people to be objective and sincere while criticizing the reform.
Lawal, who commended various religious groups that have in one way or the other shown concern on the education reform, said the reclassification and merging of schools is in fulfillment of Aregbesola’s campaign promise of promoting functional education.
The human rights crusader maintained that it would be wrong for any group of people to accuse Aregbesola of planning to relegate or promote a particular religion through the education reform, arguing that the governor has never prioritised any religion above the others.
He said: “We were all in this state, when our children were studying under dilapidated school buildings, which posed serious threat to them and their teachers. We were all in this state, when only three per cent of our children have five credits in WAEC and NECO-conducted examinations. We were all in this state, when education was in total mess and shambles.
“Today, we are all happy to see the improvement in the performances of our children in both internal and external examinations. From 34th position on pass level in SSCE, Osun moved to 18 and now 8th position in 2013. “All the dilapidated structures in the schools have been replaced with model schools. The present administration has given life, hope and future back to the children of the masses, who are attending public schools. It will be sinful and unjust for anybody not to acknowledge these achievements.”
The SSA, however, warned members of the public against politicizing the reclassification and merging of schools, saying that such step will blindfold the critics from seeing the goodness of the new education policy.
Lawal explained that the reclassification of schools into three segments: Elementary, Middle and High School did not contravene the Federal Government education policy of 6-3-3, which means that, pupils of age 6-9 years will be in Primary 1-4 now termed Grade 1-4 and named Elementary, those in ages 10-14 will be in Primary 5-6 and JSS 1-3 which is now Grade 5-9 and titled Middle and then the High School with age 15-18 in Grade 10-12. He said the education reform is aimed at finding solution to the problems of education in the state, saying that the policy has been yielding positive result through the encouraging performance of the students in external and external examinations and competitions.
OSUN DEFENDER

In 2011 Osun trudged behind other states of the federation with its 34th position in the Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) conducted by the West African Examination Council (WAEC) and the National Examination Council (NECO). The result was just woeful and it goes without saying that education needed a surgical operation in the State of Osun to stem the slide into a coma. And within just a year of the diagnosis and operation, the state leapt to the 18th position and with recuperation it has inched up to the 8th position.
Special Adviser to the Governor of Osun on Lands, Physical Planning and Urban Development, Dr Ayodele Owoade, in chat in Lagos, attributed the progressive performance to the innovative programmes and massive investment in the education sector by the Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola administration.
He said the quick turnaround in the sector was amazing, considering that Aregbesola inherited a defective education sector built on dilapidated school buildings and demoralized working staff when he assumed office on November 27, 2010. According to him, the quality of education in past years was so poor that less than three percent of Osun students that finished from public schools were able to secure admission into tertiary institutions in the country.
Owoade said truancy was so high in secondary schools that students roamed the streets and took to commercial motorcycle operations during school hours. Above all, learning facilities were in utter disrepair and teachers’ morale sunk like a deflated balloon. No doubt, students from the state always ended on the back seat in public examinations year after year, he added.
Moved by the passion to reverse the rot, Owoade said the governor convened an education summit within his first three months in office. The summit, held at the Osogbo campus of the Osun State University, had Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka as chairman, as well as other educationists from different parts of the country and African nations. Other members of the summit were Dr. Modupe Fagbulu, a renowned educationist and retired inspector of education; Professor Wale Omole, former vice chancellor, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife; and Professor Ibidapo Obe, former vice chancellor, University of Lagos, among other erudite scholars. Also, heads of all tertiary institutions and principal officers of the institutions owned by the Osun State government, members of the Nigeria Union of Teachers and selected students from both secondary and tertiary institutions in the state form the membership of the summit.
In line with the recommendation of the summit that identified conducive environment as a priority, Owoade said the government courageously took a dive in the troubled water and launched a programme called O’Schools, to address the infrastructural decay in schools. Under this programme, 170 state-of-the-art mega schools are being constructed across all the federal constituencies in the state, 100 of which are for elementary schools (Grade 1 to 4), which is 1,000-capacity; 50 middle schools (Grade 5 to 8) also of 1,000-capacity and 20 high schools (Grade 9 to 12) of 3,000-capacity each.
Besides these new schools, the state government has embarked on refurbishing of existing schools. The government also embarked on re-classification of schools, making all public schools co-educational. Such step, according to the state government, would weed out mushroom schools and help in achieving economies of scale. The initiative would also checkmate the rate of school dropout, because it allows automatic transfer from elementary to middle school.
Owoade said over 100,000 customised chairs and desks had been provided for students, noting that the government was also drilling water boreholes in schools, building new toilets, as well as refurbishing and repainting old classroom blocks.
Further investigation revealed that before the advent of the present administration, primary schools in the state were given N200 per school as running cost per term, a situation that overburdened parents with series of levies. To reduce the burden, the present administration directed that no teacher must collect a kobo from pupils for their education. Presently, the running cost per term has been placed at N400 per child, which translates to a minimum of N75,000 on the average for each school per term for primary schools. Also, secondary schools in the area were being given N150 per child, per term and it has now been increased to N550 per child every term.
Aside the relief on parents, this intervention also enhanced students’ overall performance in public examinations. For instance, in 2010, Out of 44, 388 students that sat for the 2010 May/ June WASSCE, only 6,773 of them had credit passes in five subjects including English and Mathematics. But in 2011 May /June WASSCE, a total of 54, 810 students sat for the examinations while 11, 949 students recorded credit level passes in five subjects, including English and Mathematics, which translated to an improvement of 76.4%.
The governor’s aide said the introduction of an electronic learning device, popularly called Opon Imo, transformed education into the digital age in the state. No fewer than 150,000 pupils were given free electronic tablets loaded with 63 relevant books, lesson notes, virtual classroom and other learning resources for secondary school pupils. It also contains a dictionary, the Bible, the Quran, books on the history of the Yoruba and Ifa. It also contains lesson notes for the 17 subjects taken in the WASSCE as well as JAMB exam questions for the past 10 years.
Sunday Sun gathered that the introduction of the device has saved the state government the whooping sum of N50.25billion it would have spent on procuring hard-copy versions of the resources embedded in the Opon Imo. Taking students to the fast lane of digital information has made learning a delightful experience for the young learners and as well eased the burden on their teachers.
Owoade said the Aregbesola administration also reviewed the School Feeding Programme for primary one to four pupils, known as O’Meal. An estimated N3.6 billion is being spent annually on this programme, which provides the pupils with highly nutritious food, rich in protein and vitamins. Every week, the pupils consume 300,000 eggs, 15,000 chickens, 400 tons of fish and daily fruits and vegetables, sourced from local farmers through the Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme (O’YES). The belief is that if the children were well-fed at their formative stage, their mental capacity would be enhanced for better concentration and performance.
Owoade said the success of the programme had been overwhelming, judging by the high enrolment and attendance in schools in the area. Above all, the new face of education in the state has reassured public confidence that qualitative education can also be accessible in public schools.
Counting on the successes recorded from these programmes, Owoade said the state government took another giant step recently in line with the recommendation by the education summit that public primary and secondary schools in the state should be merged for effective teaching and learning.
Sunday Sun gathered that the implementation of the schools merger system raised dust in the state, with accusations that the Aregbesola administration was bent on Islamising schools in the state.
Government’s attempt to embark on the implementation of the policy, which it tagged “Schools Re-classification System” last year was dogged by protests, spearheaded by the opposition party.
Reacting to this development, Owoade dismissed such speculation, noting that those that spread such allegations were either uninformed or deliberately mischievous. According to him, Governor Aregbesola had met with the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and emphasized that he had no intention of Islamising Osun State.
He explained that government had taken over all missionary schools 38 years ago. Since then, the state government had been funding the schools without any contribution from their former owners. Owoade said old names of the missionary schools were retained to preserve their legacies and traditions. According to him, with the positive transformation in Osun schools, it would be ridiculous for anyone to insinuate that the Aregbesola administration wanted to Islamise the schools.
OSUN DEFENDER