BREAKING NEWS, Education

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Osun State government on Monday, November 23, unveils a multi-million naira secondary school, named after Wole Soyinka, a professor of literature and Nobel Laureate

THERE was carnival in the air as Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State, on Monday, November 23, commissioned Wole Soyinka Government High School valued at N750 million in Ejigbo, Osun State. Wole Soyinka, a professor of literature and Nobel Laureate, who joined Aregbesola to unveil the school said it was a shame that the nation still could not account for more than 200 missing Chibok girls.

Soyinka described the school, the first of its category in the mega schools series under the education reform programme of Aregbesola’s government as an emphatic rejection of what Boko Haram insurgents preach. It was the first of its category in the mega schools series under the education reform programme of the Aregbesola government.

The school is a 3,000-students capacity complex with 72 classrooms of 49 square-meters, each capable of sitting 49 students and has six offices for study groups.

It is also equipped with six laboratories, 18 toilets for ladies and 18 others for gentlemen, one science library, one Arts library, facility manager’s office, a bookshop and a sick bay.

Soyinka, who enjoined leaders in the country to ensure that children were brought up with a feeling that no religion was superior to the other, said that all hands must be on deck to ensure that children in schools were not differentiated along religious line for a better Nigeria.

He commended Governor Aregbesola for doing a great job with the construction of the school, saying he was elated that such honour was bestowed on him, pledging that he would not hesitate to frequent the school to see how it was faring.

Aregbesola, on his part, said that the cost of the high school though huge, considering the lean resources of the state was an investment worth it.

He said that within the first quarter of next year his government would also commission another set of schools in the same category.

He stressed that no government can overspend on the education of the people, saying education is human development and primary way any family can get a lasting benefit from government.

The governor noted that one of his first acts in office after inauguration in 2010 was to hold an education summit chaired by Prof Wole Soyinka, adding that the rehabilitation of schools and construction of new ones were derived from the outcome of the summit.

Aregbesola averred that it was befitting that Osun named the school after Soyinka who he described as an excellent product of public education in Nigeria and a distinguished academic who brought honour to Yorubaland, Nigeria, Africa and the black race with his Nobel Prize in Literature in 1986.

He said: “We can construct a good road that will last for 50 years and we are doing that, but this can never compare to the enlightenment an educated person receives, in terms of its value to the society and humanity.

“The state of education prior to our coming was appalling and frighteningly so. Zoos were better than the places where the pupils were receiving education. Many of them were dilapidated and falling down.

“These schools were therefore not encouraging any serious learning or character building. The result was that the pupils themselves were behaving like animals. They were forming cult groups, fighting regularly with dangerous weapons and engaged in all immoral acts.

“These are children aged seven and above. My heart bleeds to see the public education system disintegrate and become dysfunctional.”

The governor added that the commissioning of the school was Osun’s way of making a statement that public schools could be the best and be returned to the pre-eminent position it occupied in the past.

Speaking earlier, Titilayo Laoye-Tomori, deputy governor, held that the administration of Aregbesola on education had brought a lot of laurels to the state with his giant strides in education in Osun.

She also commended the intervention of the present government in education, adding that the state was redefining the environment of learning hence the construction of 100 brand new state-of-the-art elementary schools, 50 middle schools and 20 high schools, out of which 14 elementary schools, 15 middle schools and 11 high schools had been completed.

Laoye-Tomori said: “the school was named after Wole Soyinka and it should be seen by students as an inspiration for them to succeed in life, government of Aregbesola in providing functional education in the state has invested heavily in turning the fortune of education in the state for the greater height.”

— Nov 24, 2015 @ 18:30 GMT

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