Edo State Commissioner for Education, Dr. Paddy Iyamu, in this interview with Southsouth Bureau Chief, BISI OLANIYI, as part of the activities to mark 100 days in office of Edo Governor, Senator Monday Okpebholo, expresses displeasure over previous government’s waste of World Bank’s N200 billion and discloses why he wept during inspection of public schools in the state. Excerpts:
Can you take us through what Edo State Ministry of Education has been able to achieve in 100 days of Governor Monday Okpebholo’s administration, in terms of policies and actions, as they relate to education?
For our 100 days in office, we have achieved quite a lot. Let me start with this morning, we have just launched a technological platform, where all Edo State students can go online and assess their certificates.
You know, before, you usually have to go and start checking for your certificates manually, and we had cases of students misplacing their certificates, and they would start all over, going to their different schools to look for copies of their manual certificates, but all that will now be a thing of the past, with the unveiling of Edo Cert 2.0, to ensure that our students have access to technology.
All you need to do is just to put the students’ numbers on the platform, and you can print your certificates. So, these are one of the things that we launched.
When the incumbent Edo State Governor, Senator Monday Okpebholo, came on board, we went to the length and breadth of the state and the three senatorial districts, to identify some of the infrastructure decay in our schools, and we saw quite a number of them.
Edo governor immediately gave a marching order that the decayed and dilapidated schools be renovated and reconstructed. In some cases, we have demolished many schools and reconstructed them as we speak, because the governor is someone who matches words with actions.
So, immediately that directive was given, we swung into action and today, the story is different
I am sure you must have seen some videos of Eweka Primary School, Oruma Primary School, Irrua Girls, Ekhile Primary School, New Era Girls Secondary School, and the list is endless. We are working day and night tirelessly to ensure that the average Edo child has access to education, in a conducive environment.
Moving from that, I am sure you are also aware of the 128 medical students of Edo State Government-owned Ambrose Alli University (AAU), Ekpoma, who were denied induction, they cried, but no hope came.
On one of the occasions, Governor Okpebholo was going to his village, and the 128 medical students of AAU cried endlessly to him.
Edo governor again gave his word that he was going to change the narrative, as it regard their induction. True to his word, we were in Abuja tirelessly, and we kept visiting the office of the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria. By the grace of God, those students were inducted just three days ago. The students are now Medical Doctors, ready to practise, ready to fit into the society, and proffer solutions.
One of the major areas that we looked at was the workforce. Governor Okpebholo, having started the revamping of Edo schools, we need teachers to teach our students in the schools. He has approved the employment over 500 teachers, to help strengthen the workforce. That is just the first tranche, because we are not done. We have just started the process.
So, the first 500 teachers are going to fit into our classes in the schools across the three senatorial districts of Edo state.
The second tranche will also come, once we conclude the needs assessment, the biometrics and teachers’ audit, because we understand that in every society, as we have the death rate, we also have the birth rate.
Mortality is something that happens every day. New people also come into the system, while in the old set, some persons will retire, and some may pass on. You will also have the people who are no longer in the system, but they still have their names in the payroll.
So, the biometrics will help us fish out people like that, so that we can know the exact number that we are having, and how to bring in new hands to fill the spaces that need to be filled.
You know that the place of skills’ acquisition cannot be overemphasised. We have got to a point in history where just the certificates can no longer guarantee 100 pwr cent employment for the teeming youths.
We have people who have gone to school, but at the end of the day are seeking for jobs. Some of them, they now turn the other way to start engaging in some social vices, but having a youthful population with the required skills is also another dimension of employment and wealth creation.
We looked at the technical colleges, three technical colleges across the three senatorial districts. As we speak, we are presently overhauling the syllabus to meet the present day challenges, so that they can proffer solutions to the present day realities and problems in the society.
One of the things that we have identified is the issue of staffing. We have the old hands, who are accustomed to the old practice and standards. If ten years ago, the in thing was shoemaking in those technical colleges, now the world has advanced. We now need to train people in POP and furniture making, construction, and phones repair.
We want to be able to create a GSM village, where we have youths that are skilled, and that are trained to be able to man those roles. By so doing, they will be useful to themselves and the society. They will not just be employed, self employed, but will also be employers of labour.
So, a lot of things have been achieved in these 100 days. We have the case of over 10,000 books that were hoarded in the warehouse, because the books had the face of President Bola Tinubu on them.
The immediate past administration of Mr. Godwin Obaseki refused to distribute the books. The books, I can conveniently and comfortably tell you that we have distributed them for learning by our children. The intention is to make the lives of the benefiting students better.
Irrespective of party affiliation, one expects that the books ought to have been distributed, but Obaseki’s administration, for reasons best known to the officials, hoarded them, but forgot that they denied Edo children their rights. Their condemnable action did not affect President Tinubu, but affected Edo children. The bottleneck was removed.
Today, every Edo child now has a sense of belonging. The students are now learning in a good environment. They have qualified teachers to teach them. They have books to learn with. Now, the world has gone digital, and today, we have launched the technological components for the Edo Edu Cert, where they can go online.
You do not have cases where a parent or guardian will be telling the child or ward that the results were altered. That is the beauty of the platform, because even if you are an uncle in America, and you are paying the school fees of your cousin in Nigeria, you do not need to ask the student for his results anymore. All you need to do is just to put the students ID and boom, you have the certificates.
So, we have achieved a lot in 100 days in office, and more development in terms of policies, programmes and infrastructure are being expected.
What of the promotion of Edo teachers and other staff?
We also have promotion for our teachers taking place. Those who are due, and long overdue, but neglected, are being considered. Edo governor has asked that some of the teachers be promoted, in order to encourage them, and serve as a motivation for those who are in line to be promoted.
We have also launched the Help Desk. We had a situation where we received many complaints from teachers, students and parents. So, we hot a direct line, a hotline, and a help desk, where, if you notice any infraction in any Edo school, you can send a text message to the line. The desk officer is directly in my office. So that there will be no distortion in the information process. It was initiated to ensure that we regularly get timely reports from parents/guardians and students.
Even in the areas where we have abuse from teachers, the help desk is very useful. We want teachers to be guardians, not predictors. We know the place of the girl child in the educational sector. So, we also launched the Protect the Girl Child Initiative. This drive was initiated to reduce rape in Edo schools.
Perhaps teachers, who may have issues with some of our students, and you want to abuse or molest them, we are equal to the task. We have zero tolerance for abuse of students. We have told the teachers that the girl child is important to Edo state government, and they must be protected at all costs. There are more programmes that we have achieved, just in these 100 days in office.
Moving forward, there is a category of teachers engaged under the Edo Supporting Teachers to Achieve Results (EdoSTAR). They are like contract staff. What is this government doing about them, and are they going to be absorbed into Edo schools as permanent staff or relieved of their appointments, at the expiration of their contracts?
Most of the time, people may just bring their friends and well-wishers, and pack them into the system and that is okay in the name of anything.
Practically, I visited one school, and I went to a student, and looked at the books of the student. The student was given dictation (spellings), and I just opened the book, and checked the note of the child. The child was given a spelling work for five items. In place of rejoice, the child spelt it as “reegoce,” that’s wrong. But EdoSTAR teacher marked it correct.
There were three spellings that the child got wrong, but the teacher marked them right/correct. Then, I asked the teacher what it was. I told her that she did not have any business being in the school. Such a person will also call herself an EdoSTAR teacher, and claim to a graduate!m, meanwhile, she is a half-baked graduate.
I asked the EdoSTAR teacher what she was transferring to the child. She wanted to make the case even worse, as she said that on that day, she was not feeling well, and asked another student to help her do the marking. I told her that she was even making things complicated for us. So, because things like that, when we have people who are not really competent, they do not have business being in Edo schools. Just permanenting all of them will be difficult.
We also have a system in place where we are able to carry out our own assessment, carry out assessment for them, then those that we think are qualified and good enough will be considered for permanent employment. But for now, it cannot be automatic, because we are mindful of the kind of teachers that will be in the classrooms to teach our students in Edo state.
Somebody may be in office and just bring his girlfriend and his family members, because there is a contract they are developing for teachers. They just put the people there. But what we as a government are particular about is the output, the learning output of our students. You cannot achieve success, if the people that are the change makers, the drivers, and the implementers of the policies are not sound. So, they are going to be considered after meeting all our criteria academically.
Many of the EdoSTAR teachers were offered permanent employment opportunities in Edo’s public schools, based on their competence and capacities, while some of them were not employed, and they mostly complained of double standard, unfair treatment and favouritism. What is your ministry doing about such cases?
We have heard the reports and complaints, and we are looking at them.
Obaseki’s administration put in place the Edo Basic Education Sector Transformation (EdoBEST) programme. What is Okpebholo’s government doing about the initiative?
The EdoBEST initiative, if you want to look at it holistically, one of the major problems with the initiative is that you cannot be teaching students where the teachers are using tablets that cost Obaseki’s administration billions of Naira, but the students are sitting on the floor, without windows or doors in the classrooms. Then, what is the essence of such education? In view of the decay, I wept during the inspection of one of the public schools in Edo State.
In Obaseki’s EdoBEST programme, one teacher was teaching primary one, two, three and four. The primary one, two, and three would be in one class. When the teacher wanted to teach primary one and two, primary three and four students would wait inside the same class? Is that what is EdoBEST?
So, the reviews that we are doing are not to witch-hunt anybody and they are not politically-motivated, but the right things must be done. We are solving the problems created by Obaseki’s administration.
Governor Okpebholo has seen it all. There is even a report that you will see in the coming days. Looking at a holistic view, the EdoBEST programme got over N200 billion. By this time, we are not supposed to be talking about classrooms. The N200 billion from the World Bank is a lot of money. That is $70 million. We met an appalling situation.
So, we are taking it one at a time. By the grace of God, we will succeed. Online, you would have been seeing some of the reports, particularly assets’ recovery reports. In the coming days, more things will be revealed about Obaseki’s administration. We are interested and committed to better the lives of our students with the available resources we have.
What has Okpebholo’s government achieved in 100 days in tertiary institutions in Edo State?
We are committed to education, especially the overall education of the child. Edo governor, upon assumption of office on November 12, 2024, we saw a paltry sum of N41 million subvention for the state government-owned AAU, Ekpoma by Obaseki’s government, and that money was increased to N500 million by this administration. That is to tell you that this government means business.
There are tertiary institutions in Edo state that do not enjoy the N70,000 minimum wage. We set up a committee to look at the challenge. We also have so many infrastructural development plans.
We still have tertiary institutions in Edo were the staff and students still have borehole and electricity problems, but they will soon be things of the past. We are doing a needs assessment across all the tertiary institutions in the state and we are solving the problems one after another.
In AAU, Ekpoma, the medical students have been inducted and the subversion has been increased. That means the university can develop more programmes and policies to better the lives of the average students of the higher institution. Governor Okpebholo also ordered the closing of unnecessary satellite campuses across Edo state, thereby directing verybody go back to AAU’s main campus at Ekpoma.
The current administration is also strengthening the workforce, and improving the AAU,Ekpoma’s environment, so that at the end of the day, we can have decent academic calendar and programmes, unlike the satellite campuses where there are no chairs and regulatory framework. People were just doing what they liked, and would come out with certificates, without even knowing what they were doing.
We had cases where they would just park people into the tertiary institutions, without being able to do matriculation or convocation. I am glad to announce that Edo State University, Iyamho will be having its convocation on February 27, 2025.
What of Igarra Technical College in Edo North Senatorial District?
Just imagine Obaseki’s administration building a satellite campus for Edo State Polytechnic, Usen at Igarra, while Igarra Technical College is dead. Igarra Technical College has no workshop and no electricity supply, and you are bringing the satellite campus of a polytechnic to the same Igarra. When students want to practicalise constructions, they would go outside Igarra. It is a shame. We have so many misplaced priorities in Obaseki’s administration.
When I inspected Irrua Technical College in Edo Central Senatorial District, there was no light. I was the one that cleared the three years’ electricity bill of Irrua Technical College, with my money.
I had a meeting with some German groups who were reading theories. I told them that we were not here for theories alone, but what we could do. What is the effect of the training that you want to give us? I told them that what we are looking at in this government is not to come and be reading theories.
Let us get assembly plants. In Germany, they have Mercedes Benz, and other big automobile industrues. Let us have conversations on how we can come and set up an assembly plant in Edo state, for our youths to learn and be adequately trained and equipped.
How could Obaseki’s government be building Radisson Blu’s five-star hotel at the Government Reservation Area (GRA), Benin City, without any Edo person being engaged or employed? People were brought from outside Edo state. The first place the construction workers were supposed to come from were the technical colleges, with the students to be exposed to the real practical learning.
Before I came into the educational sector, I was in the oil and gas sector. I was doing business and owned barges and vessels. What is wrong if our youths can learn welding and start building barges? To build a barge is highly profitable.
If you have students who have learnt welding, you move and then progress them into underwater welding. This is another area that is highly lucrative. We are even in the phase where the Federal Government wants to change the pipelines in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, because they are corroded. By the grace of God, we will change the narrative, so that our youths can be gainfully employed.
What of accreditation of courses in the tertiary institutions owned by Edo State Government?
This is another area where we have not left unattended to. We are doing a lot. In the 100 days in office, we have achieved even to eight accreditations across for our tertiary institutions. We had about four accreditations at Edo State Polytechnic, Usen in the last three weeks.
We have a role to play as a government in building infrastructure and personnel that would make the regulatory councils to give full accreditations to the courses in our tertiary institutions. So, these are the areas that we are going to strengthen, so that the issue of non-accreditation of courses would be a thing of the past.
