EDUCATION makes the difference. Always. Especially applied knowledge, in all areas of human endeavour. Countries such as China (fastest developing economy), India (best in medical tourism and ICT),Cuba(with the most computer literate citizens) and even neighbouring Ghana which has since become a destination of choice for the children of Nigeria’s nouveau riche, have shown what quality education could do for its people. It was for the singular purpose of the focus on education that the defunct Western Region administration of the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo first gained international attention back in the sixties. But we must ask ourselves what exactly that government did right? It was the first and still remains the only one in the country to have earmarked 26 per cent of its annual budget as earnings from cocoa to fund it. Thus, it fulfilled the benchmark set by the United Nations Organisation, as monitored by UNESCO.
Based on this premise, the gubernatorial candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, Barrister Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, has made public his party’s manifesto in the critical area of educational development. Worried about the parlous state of education in the country and more so in Ondo State, with the national embarrassment of increasing failure figures at external examinations such as those conducted by WAEC,NECO and JAMB Akeredolu, has affirmed that his administration will make a paradigm shift. In that wise, education will be made free and compulsory at the primary and secondary school levels. All public schools will be restored to their former glory.
To achieve his noble vision in this direction, emphasis will be placed on sustainable infrastructural development and training of teachers in all schools across the three Senatorial Districts of the state. He posited that unlike Mimiko who spent a whopping amount of over N600 million on one mega school, such huge sum would be equitably distributed to build solid structures for the public schools. It goes beyond mere fanciful school buildings to having well-equipped libraries, laboratories as well as the provision of state-of-the-art computers to pupils and students across the state. Only recently, Ekiti state, one of those under the ACN party was voted as the most ICT compliant amongst, the states. This will serve as an inspiration for us.
Furthermore, unlike the Mimiko administration which refused to employ one single teacher over the past three and half years, Akeredolu’s ACN-led government is going to channel much resources towards human capacity building. The teacher-to-students’ ratio as recommended by the UNO is far from being attained in the state. Therefore, more qualified teachers will be employed. And he affirms his commitment to the payment of the minimum wage, as a booster to increase performance.
In a similar vein, the querulous issue of underfunding in all the tertiary institutions of learning including Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education will be resolved. Of utmost significance to Barrister Akeredolu is the review of curriculum in such citadels of knowledge. This will be done to meet the challenges of the 21st Century. The salutary aim is to ensure that more graduates from Ondo State are not only employable but be gainfully employed through its forward-looking entrepreneurship scheme. The cardinal objective is also to make each graduate from the state to imbibe the attributes of critical thinking, initiative and effective communication skills.
Not left out in the determined drive to make the state the reference point in education as it was in the sixties, development will be holistic. Therefore, other institutions of learning such as schools of Nursing and Vocational schools are accorded the desired attention in terms of funding, provision of durable infrastructure and staffing.
Besides, the focus will be on applied scientific knowledge. On 5 that score, Information, Communication, Technology(ICT) shall form the solid plank upon which the administration will base development. Ondo State wishes to create its own Silicon Valley, comparable to what exists in the United States. If it could be done there, who says it cannot be replicated here or even done better? To give light to this lofty dream, efforts are afoot to have credible data on Ondo State indigenes in the Diaspora. The aim of course, is to get them back home to use their wealth of experience to industrialise their homeland. With a clement economic climate this will be made possible, through well structured Public Private Partnership, PPP.
The vision is to establish modern and well equipped TECHY VILLAGE (TV) in each of the three Senatorial Districts. There will be a synergy between technical colleges, local artisans and the TVs to update their knowledge. The government will encourage these artisans to take part in the execution of its projects. Several of them will gain easy access to soft loans spread over a reasonable period of time to actualise their dreams. Different vocations will be accommodated in this all-embracing attempt to free Ondo people from the clutches of the unjustifiable poverty foisted on them by the directionless government of Mimiko.
To increase their daily income such artisans in the state will be encouraged to take some quality time off their trades to update their skills at the TVs. Some will be involved in the fabrication of machines to expand the scope of small and medium scale enterprises across the state. Therefore, with time, many Ondo citizens will be active as collaborators with policy makers in the fields of agriculture, health care delivery, sound education development, road construction and tourism.
Consequentially, they would see themselves as part and parcel of government and not view government as a distant body of ‘them’ and ‘us’. It is for the good people of the state to realise that they have been short changed for far too long that campaigns are being taken to their door steps. Barrister Akeredolu and his able, resourceful and indefatigable team members are on a salvaging mission to take the state from the grip of impostors, rabble-rousers and fraudsters who have wasted the common patrimony of the Sunshine State. Their hands are firmly on deck to set sail to the harbour of hope for a brighter future. They are carrying out this salvaging mission through sound education. And it is all because, sound education makes the difference.
Ajanaku is director of Media and Publicity, Akeredolu
Campaign Organisation.
