Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun has changed the school curriculum from studying to acquire certificates to studying to acquire knowledge and skills. This is the basis of the educational reforms in the state.
Before Aregbesola’s reform, students were studying mainly to obtain certificates rather than to acquire knowledge and skills. Students who once lacked access to modern-day digital tools are now fully exploiting the internet, interactive apps, online courses, and computing technology as part of their daily lessons, opening doors to new opportunities and a promising future.
 

 
Osun educational policy therefore seeks an integrative approach to the education of children and youth.  This spans, education infrastructure in O’Schools – massive building of new school structures to replace the old dilapidated ones; standardised school uniforms in O’Uniform – to rebrand Osun public schools as well as create employment  for designers, tailors and allied artisans, as employed by Omoluabi Garments Factory, the biggest of its type in the whole of West Africa; and innovative teaching materials and learning aids, which clear showpiece is the award-winning Opon Imo, the computer tablet that captures all the textbooks in the school curriculum for high schools.
Talk of good nutrition to fully develop the physical and mental readiness of school children for life-long learning; co-curricular activities as integral parts of the school curriculum as in O’Calisthenics, physical education drills, since a sound mind sits pretty well in a sound body; and educational competitions in quiz and debates; games and sports; and co-curricular societies like the Literary and Debating Societies, Science Clubs,  Geography Societies, the Omoluabi Boys and Girls Clubs, etc.
Technical and Vocational Education and entrepreneurial education in the curriculum implementation for functional and entrepreneurial education, is a crucial missing link in the Nigerian educational system as presently designed and has now been incorporated into the Osun curriculum.
The above are the major pillars of Osun education policy.  But these cover the formal education school years from Age 6.  The pre-school period, from birth to Age 6 comes with a strong stress on parent-government cooperation and collaboration.  For starters, the policy does not invest in nursery and other pre-school activities because the government expects parents and guardians to contribute their own quotas to preparing their children for school readiness.
Therefore, Osun education policy is tailored towards making the public schools system produce complete child, to become the complete youth and grow up to become the complete citizen, empowered in learning and in character, in the best tradition of the Yoruba ethos.  That way, they would be equipped, culturally and academically, anywhere they find themselves in the world, aside from becoming patriots, to take care of their state and country that had earlier taken care of them.
Science contributes to quality of life in so many areas: health, nutrition, agriculture, transportation, material and energy production, and industrial development. It ensures that the air we breathe and the water we drink are life sustaining and not vectors of disease and decay.
Science and technology have become crucial factors for sustainable development worldwide. Both have contributed immensely to the material progress of nations. It is in fact generally accepted that the adoption of a scientific framework is a prerequisite for development. Associated with this in any country are issues of education which are of considerable importance for economic prosperity. And, in a developing country, issues of science and technology education are even of more particular importance, as it is principally by means of science and technology education that its people can achieve national development.
Industry, universities and other research-based organisations thus need to recruit a highly skilled élite. However, the size of that élite may be quite modest, even in a highly industrialised society, and it would be a mistake to have this group principally in mind when reforming science and technology education in schools. A policy based mainly on the needs of this élite could decrease even further the proportion of young people interested in school science and technology.
Aregbesola understands a modern labour market which requires people with qualifications in science and technology. This need is great and growing fast, as knowledge and skills based on science and technology become prerequisites for employment in new or emerging sectors of the labour market. It is not only doctors, pharmacists, engineers and technicians who need a scientific or technological education.
The challenges facing science and technology education outlined above have been met in different ways. Osun has introduced more radical reforms, and there has been support for curriculum development and experiment. The reforms have been directed at both the content and framing of the curriculum and at pedagogy, i.e., at teaching methods and the organisation of the learning processes.
There seems to be something of general weakening of the traditional academic influence on the organisation of the Osun school curriculum and its content. An underlying concern, when ‘everyone’ attends school for 12-13 years, is that science and technology should contribute to the more general aims of schooling. The tendency, therefore, is to gradually redefine what counts as valid school science by broadening the perspective to give attention to some of the social and ethical aspects of science and technology. Some of the trends are discussed briefly below. Although listed separately, many are related and not all are found in all countries, but, collectively, they paint a picture of discernible change.
As the world shrinks due to globalisation, it is a known fact that new and complex challenges are emerging rapidly; these challenges need newer and sometimes radical tools to help address them. Most people agree that education, especially at the tertiary level, plays a fundamental part in addressing complex challenges. For us to address a critical challenge like the shrinking labour market and the rapid production of graduates yearly, we have to explore ways of adding knowledge to the quest for certificates and this has been the path Osun has been following over the years.

The State of Osun House of Assembly has directed officials of the Ministry of Environment and Sanitation to stop further lumbering at Mokore farm settlement pending the resolution of issues raised by the farmers in the area.
Speaker of the State Assembly, Dr. Najeem Salaam gave the directive through the Chairman House Committee on Agriculture and Food Security, Hon. Gbadebo Ibrahim while addressing the aggrieved farmers who came to intimate the Assembly on the alleged destruction of their cocoa farms by the activities of the loggers.
 

 
 
Hon Gbadebo commended the farmers for the matured way of registering their grievances.
He acknowledged the petition by the farmers concerning destructive effects of lumbering activities on their cocoa farms, saying the House is taking action on it to ensure that the support programmes of the State Government to the farmers in its desire to make agriculture the mainstay of economy is not sabotaged.
Hon. Gbadebo stated that effort of the present administration is already yielding fruits in the agricultural sector.
According to him, “It is unthinkable that anybody would want to work at cross purposes with the policies of Government”.
He assured that the concerned authorities would be invited for a meeting with a view to finding a way out of the problem.
However, while addressing the House, the president of Mokore Co-operative farm settlement Orile-Owu, Mr A.R. Famakinde through the representative of the farmers, Chief Rasak Adedapo lamented the level of destruction caused by the officials of the Ministry of environment to their farm land.
According to him, “We want to use this medium to intimate this honourable house of the destruction of our farmland by the officials of the Ministry of Environment via their tree felling activities at Mokore farm settlement”.
Adedapo made it known that the land on the settlement is not all that good for Cocoa plantation, trees have to be spared to provide shade for cocoa during dry weather and combat adverse effect of climate change.
He noted that the Ministry of Environment is now forcefully falling trees on their Cocoa plantation, which is destroying the farm and causing set back that can lead to early grave to many farmers.
He said, “We also believed that the development is the handwork of some disgruntled element who wants to use the avenue to achieve their selfish ends. The action taken by the Ministry of Environment is tantamount to killing the hen that lay the golden eggs and the farmers would not allow that to happen”, he added.
Adedapo emphasised that the farmers at the farm settlement are law abiding citizen and it was through their efforts that the state can now boast of being the second largest producer of Cocoa in Nigeria after Ondo State.
The chairman of Mokore Cooperative farm settlement therefore appealed to the House to stop the action of the Ministry of Environment to avert crises in order not to pitch the farmers against the government.
He urged the lawmakers to come to their rescue.
He recalled the establishment of Mokore Cooperative farm settlement in 2003 with valid document to individuals allotted space for farming activities.

The Commissioner for Information and Strategy in the State of Osun, Mr Adelani Baderinwa has averred that the state is prosperous, developed and transformed under Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s administration, saying that Osun needs a person that is better than him as a successor.
According to Baderinwa, Aregbesola is the most successful, popular and acceptable Governor in the history of the state, describing a statement credited to former president Goodluck Jonathan’s aide on the governor as fallacious, uninformed and extremely sentimental.
 

 
 
Baderinwa who spoke while receiving the executive members of a social media group, the ‘Progressive E-Group’ recently, said it is out of place, uncalled for and unbecoming of a former president to make statement out of context and misconstrue a clear and direct statement.
The commissioner noted that governance in Osun has been taken beyond pedestrian level and thus, the state needs a purposeful, focus and development driven person to succeed Aregbesola.
He said: “There is need for us to have a person with purpose, focus, development personified person to take over from Aregbesola, who has clearly raised the bar of governance beyond the pedestrian level. We need a person with vision, intelligence and administrative skill to succeed the governor. In fact, we need a person that is better than Aregbesola to succeed him.
“Aregbesola has been most successful in meeting the needs of the people in terms of what is the essence of governments which ultimately is the wellbeing of the people.”
Baderinwa stated that Aregbesola’s performance and efforts have been well appreciated and acknowledged by rationale and reasonable people from across the world, as many accolades and honours had been poured on his administration in recent times.
“Only supervisor of an administration that milked Nigeria dried and bastardized the economy can afford to say the kind of balderdash published recently concerning the administration of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola.
“It takes a former president who governed Nigerian in prosperity with nothing to show for it to assume that all public office holders are like him, and it is a sad commentary on the manner of personalities governing Nigeria.
“With the many credible organizations using scientific basis to acknowledge many programmes and projects carried out by the Aregbesola government as either the best or second best in the country, one wonders the state of mind and rationality of some people to have described Aregbesola government as a failure”, he stressed.
The commissioner, however, submitted that he is confident that none of the governorship aspirants of the All Progressives Congress (APC) would discontinue the developmental projects and social protection programmes of the Aregbesola’s administration.

To lead is “to show the way by going first”. It is to guide, to indicate the direction of movement and provide others in charting and following the new direction.  It is also to control.  But to control denotes not only to command and regulate, but to restrain and exercise self-restrain too. This is how Chambers Twentieth Century Dictionary sees it: (MacDonald, 1979:282, 748). Essentially, therefore leadership denotes guidance. It connotes encapsulating in oneself the basic elements of a chosen direction, serving as the embodiment, or the model, as well as the conveyer of a given social movement. Chinua Achebe was particularly right when he argued that the responsibility and the challenge of personal example “are the hall-marks of true leadership”.
 

 
 
Leadership is different from the exercise of authority, the wielding of power or use of legitimate force. Nor is leadership a matter of status and privilege. One can attain a high social or economic status and enjoy great privilege without being a leader. Having a high position or standing in a society or in a social group is different from providing the spiritual and intellectual guidance for the society or group. One is a condition, the other a behavior. One can attain the status of a professor in an academic discipline, yet be incapable of providing academic leadership. Similarly one can be in authority without being a leader.
To be in authority means to be in office. A Vice-chancellor of a university is an authority; but may or may not be a leader. And being in power is quite different from providing leadership. The chairman of a political party is in power; but he may not necessarily be the leader of the party. The president of a country is in office; but whether he occupies a political leadership position depends upon his behavior and performance.
In leadership, it is influence. Influence is the capacity to bring about an effect by subtle means -the sheer force of personality: the ability to evoke deep respect and administration; or the capacity to elicit affection, love and loyalty. All these attributes encapsulated in the personality of the man called Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola.
As a young man, Rauf loves politics and believes its is a way for him to partake in society and helps others. His love began when he was a very young man as a student at the Polytechnic Ibadan. He was active in student politics and was an active supporter of other progressive student’s movement worldwide. At the Polytechnic Ibadan, he became Honorable Speaker of the Students’ Union Parliament as well as president of the League Nationalist (LBN) between 1978 and 1980. He read several books and regularly travelled around Nigeria.
He came in contact with socialist orientation in Polytechnic Ibadan with his relationship with Late Comrade Olaoni, his ideology mentor and other Comrades of Bodija river valley revolutionary vanguard i.e. Comrade Laoye Sanda, Comrade Femi Aborisade, Comrade Bimbo Daniyan, Comrade Gbenga Awosode, Pro. Ojo, Prof. Bade Onimode, Prof. G. G Darah, Prof. Onoge Omafume and a host of others. They were all connected with scientific doctrine of dialectical philosophy and historical materialism which is the core of the philosophical system of Maxism-Leininisim.
Rauf Aregbesola is a strange and talented politician. His politics is different from that of many of his colleagues who believe that politics and power should be used to oppress the people and steal public funds. He sees public office as a place to serve people and manage resources efficiently to the greatest benefit of all. He believes in the principle of respect for those who voted and put public office holders in the positions of authority. He is excellent as a pro-democracy and human rights activist who joined others to lead the struggle of Nigerians to free themselves from military rule and bring democracy to the country at the end of the 1990s.
Rauf keeps his lifestyle very simple and modest. He is a serious-minded politician who does not have time for flamboyant, extravagant and ostentatious life because he wants to remain like the rest of the people. He is well-focused and resourceful.
Rauf loved and enjoyed his work in Lagos, but his desire to contribute to the improvement of the people in Osun was yet to be satisfied. He never for once deserted Osun, his home state where his aged mother – now late, brothers, sisters, and numerous members of his family live. He visited Ilesa regularly and took interest in the affairs of the state.
Rauf and his team laid out specific plans on how they could make Osun to be great. In his campaign manifesto, he captured the mood of the people of the state of Osun. He then used the six point’s integral action plan to canvass for his election as governor.
The Six Points Integral Action Plan is:
Banish Unemployment, Banish Poverty, Banish Hunger, Restore Healthy Living, Enhance Communal Peace and Progress, and Promote Functional Education.
It was this agenda that made people to vote for Rauf in the April 2007 gubernatorial election. The task ahead was great and Rauf, as a hard working and honest man, was quite aware of the great burden that the mantle of leadership had been placed upon his shoulders.
The man Rauf vigorously pursued his progressive development agenda which today has placed Osun in the global picture of development and growth. He has changed the face of Osun from the low level of economy wretchedness to prosperity.
The state capital has been lifted from a glorify village to the status of a state capital in any part of Africa.
Ogbeni has brought social development, infrastructural development and economic development which are the three key fundamentals for growth.
Bravo to our revolutionary leader @61

The Oluwo of Iwoland, Oba Abdul-Rasheed Adewale Akanbi, has described the Governor of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, as the architect of modern Osun with the level of development he has brought to the state.

 
The monarch said Aregbesola has taken the lead among his peers in the area of infrastructure as manifested in the spate of developments the state has recorded in the last seven and a half years of his government.

Akanbi ‎contented that no governor has matched Aregbesola’s achievement in the history Osun as evident in the giant strides recorded in the state.‎
Oluwo stated this on Friday in his palace in Iwo while playing host to the Governor and his entourage who were on a goodwill visit to Iwo Federal Constituency as part of activities marking the All Progressives Congress (APC) visitation tours to the nine Federal Constituencies in the state.
He stated that it is evident that the present administration has brought dividends of democracy to every household in the state, a bid he said no governor has achieved since the creation of the state.

Akanbi emphasised that without mincing words or being sentimental, the present government under Aregbesola has  been able to change the perception of the people about government as some individuals being in office to flex power, explaining that the present administration has shown to all that the business of government is to make life better for the people.
The royal father while commending the fight against corruption by the APC led Federal Government, eulogised Aregbesola for using the available funds at his disposal for the development of the state, saying if he had chosen otherwise, the state would have remained stagnant.
Recounting some of Aregbesola’s infrastructural projects in the state, Oba Akanbi stressed that he is particularly pleased with the bridges constructed by the government just as he noted that the beautiful school structures put up by the Aregbesola administration will go a long way in encouraging pupils to want to attend school.
According to the monarch, “I am not a politician and I am not being sentimental with what I am about to say, among all the governors and leaders in Nigeria, Aregbesola has redefined governance, he has brought a paradigm shift to governance in the country and he has brought a change to leadership in our land.
“He has shown us the way it should be done and I strongly think others should take a cue from this; I so much love Aregbesola and the All Progressives Congress because they hate what I hate and they love what I love.
“I detest corruption and I am happy that the APC too are seriously fighting corruption because it is destructive. On the other hand I love development and Aregbesola and the APC love development as demonstrated through the various developmental projects we are seeing in Osun.

“I am happy Aregbesola is using government resources to develop the state and not embezzling the funds. I am not a sycophant and also not a praise singer, if Aregbesola has not done well, I will say it but the achievements of this administration is out there for all to see and this is the way it should be done.
“We have never seen an overhead bridge in Osun but now we have several of them to the pride of everybody in the state. I am proud of those bridges because they are a landmark for us in the state”. The Oluwo stated.
In his remarks, the Governor of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, described the visit as a necessity to pay the monarch a special homage and as well receive royal blessings as next governorship election draws nearer.
The Governor asked APC loyalists in Iwo quoting the Secretary to the State Government that what happened in the last Osun West Senatorial bye-election which the APC lost will never happen again.

“We are here to inform you on the need to buckle up and sit tight by forming a formidable frontier that will help to take our party to victory in all elections, particularly in forthcoming governorship polls.

“As we all know, the result of the last Osun West Senatorial Bye-Election in the state was not too palatable for our party and we don’t want this to repeat itself, hence the need to remind our people to be more dedicated to the party’s course so as to our party to victory.
“We must also see this visit as a warning signal not to allow the PDP to come back to government as we all know that PDP has nothing good to offer Nigerians”, Aregbesola added.