Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, yesterday said he wants to be remembered for transforming public education and preparing the young ones for a knowledge-based economy which is required to survive the fourth industrial revolution.
The governor explained that the vision to build education at the foundational level and scale up intervention through the various levels of education up to tertiary level is critical so as to build a workforce that will usher in a prosperous society.
Obaseki, who spoke at the Edo State Education week 2023 with the theme, “Education for Alaghodaro: Investing in quality education and access for our children and youth,” in Benin City, said his hope for the next decade is to see that the state does not rely on oil resources alone from the federal government to run the economy.
According to him, “The future we seek is one in which millions of well educated citizens can participate in our economy by undertaking various economic activities with the advantage of the knowledge and education which they have acquired.
“Our grand plan is to make Edo State the best place to live and work by the year 2050, and we have realized that there is no better way to achieve this dream than training the workforce for the future from the primary school level so that these children will be the guardians of the vision and see to its fulfillment in future,” Obaseki said.
The governor pointed out that the education week, which will feature spoken word poetry, debate, governor’s cup among other events, was targeted at underscoring his administration’s focus in transforming public education and to portray the successes of education reforms in Edo State.
“It is expedient to reiterate that the most cherished legacy I want to be remembered for as the governor of Edo State is a legacy that we were able to transform public education and create opportunities for hundreds of thousands of children from across the various strata of our society so that they can get a decent world class education just like we did growing up here.
“The education week, this year, has been rightly themed Education for Alaghodaro which means progress. The theme is education for progress and it ties to our vision to drive and develop plans with conscious and educated citizens,” the governor said.
Recalling the journey of the education drive, he said: “As many of you know, we started these reforms in 2018, when we launched the Edo State Basic Education Transformation (EdoBEST) program. When we started, we used a pilot scheme before we did a full scale rollout in all the schools across the basic school system in the three senatorial district in the state.
“The program sets a structure, system and support mechanism to address fundamental challenges such as teacher quality, infrastructure of our schools, teaching and learning materials,” he said.
He, however, expressed gratitude to world bank and other stakeholders for their support in sustaining the EdoBEST initiative and ensuring that millions of children didn’t drop off the educational radar globally.
Speaking on the theme of the Edo International book and art festival, “Every child a reading champion”, Joan Oviawe, commissioner for education, said it was chosen in line with the Obaseki-led government’s effort to eradicate learning poverty in the state.
Participants of the event were drawn from academic communities, including state-owned tertiary institutions, as well as students and teachers from various schools in Edo State.
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