Education is essential for everyone. It is an indispensable part of life, both personally and socially. But in our own part of the world, unequal standard of education or sadly, total absence of it, is still a major problem that needs to be solved.
The importance of education is undeniable for every single person. Thus, it is unarguable to say that education is pivotal to human life and development.
Every individual needs knowledge. Only with qualitative education can people gain knowledge and enlarge their world views. This is in tandem with Biblical saying that ‘My people perish for lack of knowledge.’
In other words, people become more useful and civilised if educated. In areas where residents are not able to receive an appropriate education, life cannot be as thriving and prosperous as locations where there is a high standard for education.
Education plays such a rudimentary role in our society that we cannot even imagine a life without it. It is a vital element of the civilisation of human society. Not only does it helps us develop healthy surroundings but it also generates an advance community. As a matter of fact, everything we create today is based on the knowledge that we obtain throughout our life by way of education.
It is the same education that opened the vista to the yet-unknown world that scientists stumbled on to discover and invent ground-breaking equipment and gadget, resulting in a high technology nowadays. The more developed life becomes, the more necessary education is for everyone.
Even at the risk of sounding immodest, without education, life would be disastrous, disappointing and rather detrimental. Consequently, every responsible government must do everything humanly possible to make education accessible to every youth of knowledge- seeking age bracket.
Education is therefore synonymous with the future any human being or nation. The future of a people or country rests on this pedestal, the lack of which guarantees a gloomy future for such people or country.
It is this future that occupies the mind of Osun State government on all policies formulation. The governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, made it top priority since the beginning of his administration in 2010.
Seeing the abysmal state the education sector was when he took over as chief executive, the governor quickly put on his thinking cap. He called an education summit where the future of the children of the state was placed on the table and given thorough assessment so as to properly plan for future.
The summit was chaired by the Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka. And a comprehensive long-term policy was fashioned out. The education programme in the state has followed the laid down recommendations of the summit, which started with school reclassifications and school free feeding programme.
Government is now on the last lap of the summit’s recommendations, the building of new schools. On Tuesday, October 24, another state-of-the-art school was commissioned in Ilesa.
This ultramodern Ilesa Government High School, Ilesa, brought the number of the state-of-the-art senior secondary schools commissioned to five out of 11 of such schools at various levels of completion.
Fakunle-Unity School, Osogbo and Oduduwa High School, Ile-Ife, have been completed, awaiting commissioning. The remaining four schools at Ila-Orangun, Iwo, Ikirun and Ikire, which are under construction, would also be completed before the end of the year.
Two first class traditional rulers, the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Eniitan Ogunwusi and the Owa Obokun of Ijesaland, Oba Adekunle Aromolaran led a pack of traditional rulers, who showered encomiums on the Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s education strides at the inauguration of yet another mega secondary school, in Ilesa.
It will be recalled that last year, President Muhammadu Buhari was also in the South-west state to inaugurate one of the 3000-capacity, Osogbo Grammar School.
Oba Ogunwusi and Oba Aromolaran in their separate remarks lauded the state government over its investment on education and showered Aregbesola with royal blessings.
Ooni, who was impressed by the size of hall, the classrooms and other modern facilities, noted that the governor would be remembered for good.
Ooni counselled politicians to strive to do what will make people remember them for good, saying, “Just like former Governor Lateef Jakande of Lagos State is being remembered in all spheres of life today, Osun people will reference Aregbesola in years to come.”
The facilities in the new schools are second to none and ones hitherto not seen in this part of the African continent south of the Sahara.
As befitting a modern architecture, the school complex has 72 classrooms of 49 square-meters each capable of sitting 49 students, six offices for study groups, six laboratories, 18 toilets for young ladies, 18 toilets for young men, one Science library, one Art Library, one Facility manager’s office, one Bookshop, one Sick Bay, one Bursar’s office, three Principal’s offices, three General Staff office, one Senior principal’s office, one Record store and one Security shed/Reception.
Besides, there is a total of 1000 square-metres of floor space hall capable of sitting 1000 students for external examinations. This hall has storage for equipment, utility storage, a stage, office space, storage for documents, four female toilets and four male toilets.
Sports is not left behind as the school boasts of a an Olympic sized football field, seven-lane sprint tracks for 100 metres and 400 metres events, a pavilion and an outdoor Basketball court that doubles as tennis court.
Also equipped with stand-alone transformer for powering electricity and a borehole, the school cost N1.3 billion, including the cost of furnishing, landscape and electronic boards.
At the end of his tenure next November, Aregbesola’s government would have constructed 20 Elementary Schools, 22 Middle Schools and 11 High Schools – all brand new and state-of-the-art.
Aregbesola captured the essence of education and of preparing for the future this way: “All these are in fulfilment of our promise to provide functional basic education. This stems from our conviction that every child is owed basic education.
“It is a fundamental and inalienable right of every child. We have gone to this length and committed such huge amount on education because we are preparing for the future.
“A good basic education fulfils the definition of literacy as the ability to read and write and is a solid foundation on which other superstructure of vocational training or higher education can be built.”
What is on ground in Osun today contradicts what the naysayers mouth around that the government of Aregbesola has not performed.
It seems as if any government with people-centred policies and programmes always draw flaks from political buccaneers whose brand of wasteful political hegemony has been permanently consigned onto the waste bin in Osun.
Yet, Aregbesola remained undeterred by their campaign of calumny. One thing seems clear in his horizon: the future of his people.
Certainly, Aregbesola has a grasp of what immortality means in respect of what education can do – ability of others to continue moving where he stops.
No other platform is better than the one he is building on the pedestal of education. With this landmark achievement, the future of Osun youths is assured a là Aregbesola’ education revolution.
- Owolabi writes from Osogbo, Osun State.
