Oshiomhole launches one student, one desk, total school transformation

Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole

LIKE one man, one vote, for credible election, Edo State Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, has come up with another innovation to boost quality education in the country.
He has launched one student, one desk, in Edo Schools, saying it will enhance quality education and reduce examination malpractice, worsened by over crowded classrooms.
“When students are packed together in a classroom like sardines, there is the tendency for examination malpractice to thrive. Students will cheat and try to spy on each other when they are crowded in a classroom.”
Oshiomhole believes one student, one desk will provide a conducive environment for students to learn in comfort and ease. He said that our students deserve the best facilities in school in order for them to excel in their academic pursuits.
He pointed out that the objective of his administration is to make public schools attractive enough for those in private schools to want to leave and attend the public ones.

This can be achieved by providing good facilities and infrastructures for public schools that will be far better than those found in private schools.
Commissioning two renovated public schools—Idia College (four blocks of 32 classrooms) and Niger College in Benin City recently, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole declared:
“Today, I am very delighted and feel highly fulfilled to commission two renovated public schools, Idia College and Niger College. These two schools are the first in a series of public schools that have undergone comprehensive transformation under our Total School Transformation Programme.
Before the transformation of these schools, they were just like the typical public school in Edo State. Many classrooms had no roofs or had leaking roofs; the students and teachers had no furniture or they improvised with bricks and planks; the environment was generally squalid and completely unconducive for learning and teaching.”
According to the Edo Governor, “during the electioneering campaign, I had at one of the public schools remarked that leaders of tomorrow could hardly emerge from most of our public schools because of the rot in the system. Some of those public schools are more like incubators for breeding illiterates and criminals.
The neglect of public education constitutes a direct attack on the poor and their children. Even with the UBE Scheme, the emphasis is on the free element, rather than quality.
Therefore, I resolved that in order to empower the poor, the priority must be to invest in qualitative public education at primary and junior secondary levels.
The transformation and furnishing of public schools are the key elements of our strategy of improving the quality of public education.
In Idia and Niger Colleges, this government has: renovated the classrooms, halls and staff rooms, replaced the roofs with long span aluminum, replaced the floors with tiles and installed modern windows and doors, provided modern toilet facilities, improved on the landscape.
In addition, we have provided modern furniture for both staff and students.
The next phase of the renovation exercise is the upgrading of the sporting and recreational facilities, because we do appreciate that the education needs to target the mental, physical, and cultural development of students and pupils. We will also grade the roads in the colleges.
“Our vision is to transform our schools to international standards and restore the glory of public education. I am encouraged by the enthusiasm shown by our children over the renovation exercise. Indeed, on one occasion, one of the students had remarked that her school is now much better than any of the highbrow private school in the State.
For me, the school environment must give confidence, pride and qualitative identity to pupils and students. Beyond that, the comfort of pupils and students are critical elements in learning,” he emphasised at the commissioning ceremony.
In addition, for our children to get the best, we have to provide modern furniture and other conveniences that make their teachers more fulfilled, comfortable and respectable as professionals. Therefore, we have also invested in furnishing the staff rooms.
“My message is that education is part of the solution and a fundamental component of our development strategy. In a digital and knowledge_driven, what gives nations the edge over others is the quality of human capital, rather than Oil, Gas, Iron and Steel and other physical resources.
Investing in people is also the most viable strategy to combat poverty. We are confronted today with the dynasty of the poor, that is, poor parents begetting poor children, without opportunities for advancement. To break out of the Poverty Cycle and terminate the dynasty of the poor, we need quality public education.
He said that knowledge and human capital are the values that Edo State add to the Nigerian Federation.
“We must sustain the edge we have in human capital to even out our disadvantages in other resources and other areas. Let me urge the staff and students to protect these facilities against theft and vandalisation. May I also announce that these will be no increase in fees because of the renovations.
I wish to assure the people of Edo State that we will accelerate the ongoing renovation of the other schools while the second phase will include more schools.”