State of osun Oshogbo
Osun and Its Investment In Education, By Ademola Adesola
‘No nation goes bankrupt educating its people’ –
Confucius.
The epigraph to this piece by the Chinese
philosopher, Confucius, speaks appositely to the
significance of education in the development of a
country. His view correctly implies that
investment in education will always yield the
highest dividends. If quality investment in
education produces the highest dividends, it is
incontestable that a country which invests hugely
and consistently, and substantially, and not
symbolically, in education cannot become
bankrupt. In any case, human beings remain the
surest agencies of development. If their
capacities are purposefully enriched, meaningfully
enhanced, and consistently improved, they will
creatively initiate workable ideas and contribute
considerably in driving the multifarious engines of
sustainable socioeconomic development.
Education, for any society which privileges and
prioritises it, becomes the substratum of its
development which will always set it apart from
those that do not invest in education. This is the
core lesson that the informative book, Why
Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity,
and Poverty (2012), co-authored by Daron
Acemoglu and James Robinson, persuasively
teaches. According to the authors, consistent and
hefty investments in education and the necessary
infrastructure is one of the reasons why some
countries are developed and prosperous while
many others become unfortunate. Access to
educational facilities contributes greatly to
enabling people move forward and become useful
for self and society. No nation whose political
and economic institutions are unviable can invest
in education and provide motivation for the
people to be educated.
It is against this backdrop that the inspiring
efforts of the Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola
Administration in reforming and investing in
education in the State of Osun can be
appreciated. The conviction of the Administration
that education holds the key to the realisation of
the all-encompassing transformation it envisions
for the state informs the undistracted attention it
has accorded to educational development right
from 2010 when it assumed office. The
Administration makes education the bedrock of
the various policies it has designed and is
executing to improve the existential condition of
the people of the State.
The priority the Administration gives to the
development of education in Osun has inspired
many initiatives that have brought marked
differences to the grooming of minds there. The
blueprint that emerged from the Education
Summit organised in the first year of its
assumption of office provides useful direction for
its drive to reposition education in the state.
From huge investments in instructional materials
and teaching aids, crucial changes in curricula,
corrective restructuring of schools into
Elementary, Middle, and High in conformity with
international best practices in school
management, to the construction of mega
schools, the Administration manfully moves on to
ensure that public schools in the State become
virile emporiums of sustainable capacity building.
In the last six years, remarkable successes have
been recorded and rich lessons distilled from low
points.
What stands out in the Administration’s
unwavering pursuit of educational development in
Osun is the humongous amounts it continues to
invest in it. It does not consider any amount too
prohibitive if the task is educational development.
Like Aristotle, Governor Aregbesola understands
that ‘[t[he roots of education are bitter, but the
fruit is sweet’. Accordingly, the princely price of
investment in education has to be paid for the
grand prize of enduring socio-economic
development. Nothing can be more important
than creating the right environment and
emplacing the needed infrastructure for the
building of human capacity, the agency and
gateway of societal development.
Clearly, this accounts for why Osun is still able
to pluck new fruits of educational infrastructural
development even in the face of the disruptive
hurricane of cash crunch sweeping furiously
across the Nigerian federation. The notable
reduction and desultoriness in cash flow have not
discouraged Osun from going with its schools
infrastructural development project. On the first
day of this September, the state commissioned
the Osogbo Government High School in a
memorable ceremony witnessed by President
Muhammadu Buhari and many other dignitaries.
Conceived and constructed in line with
international standards, the building has the
capacity to seat 3,000 students; it has 72
classrooms, each capable of sitting 49 students;
with the capability to graduate 1,000 students
annually. Its other facilities include six offices for
study groups, six fully furnished laboratories, 60
toilets (30 apiece for boys and girls), one fully
furnished science library, one fully furnished art
library, one facility manager’s office, one
bookshop, one sick bay, one bursar’s office, three
furnished principals’ office, three general staff
offices, one furnished senior principal’s office, one
record storage, and one security shed/reception.
More so, it has an Olympic-sized football field, a
seven-lane sprinting track for 100 metres and
400 metres, a pavilion and an outdoor basketball
court that doubles as a tennis court. It has
parking space for 75 cars, and an examination
hall to sit a minimum of 1000 students. This hall
has a stage, office space, storage for documents,
and 10 toilets for males and females respectively.
Students of Grades 10-12 (SSS I-III), between
ages 15 to 17 years, will be using this school
sited on a-10-hectare land. The Aregbesola-led
Administration has a tidied plan to build 20 mega
High Schools across the state and in places
where the old, dilapidated buildings that were not
healthy for modern-day poultry once stood. The
Osogbo Government High School is one of the 11
that have been completed. Of the 100 school
buildings planned for the Elementary level, 14
have been completed, and 15 of the 50 for the
Middle school have also been finished.
For the State Government of Osun, the functional
education the children of the state must receive
has to take place within befitting structures,
which have advanced facilities, are conducive for
learning, and enhance human dignity. By
embarking on these projects, the State
Government is simply saying the culture of
excellence that guides the affairs of standard
private schools cannot be impossible for it to
attain. The quality, sound education vouchsafed
for the children has to take place within modern
facilities. What exists in Osun, in terms of
educational infrastructure development, is not
symbolism but substance.
About 12,000 teachers have been added to the
already existing pool of teachers across the
schools in the state. It is not just about physical
infrastructure; the human infrastructural is also
seriously taken into cognisance, for no
educational system can rise above the quality of
its teachers.
The idea of education for development motivates
Osun to prioritise education. Governor Aregbesola
underscores this in the address he delivered at
the opening of the Osogbo Government High
School last week. In his words, “Education for us,
therefore, is the path to development. We are 25
years now, but we are looking at the next 25
years and we want to create and determine the
next 25 years through education.”
That education, he adds, is the sort that sees to
the full development of the personalities of the
learners. “The overall aim”, he explained, “is to
develop the new man intellectually, socially and
morally. This new man is placed in the centre of
society who views his own development as part
of and for the development of society. This is a
non-parasitic and non-oppressive man who
views his existence in light of the growth of
others; he views whatever is acquired to be
subsumed in the overall interest of others. He is a
man in himself and a man for society.”
In spite of the financial constraint it has, Osun
refuses to give up its walk on the path of
educational development. It continues to invest
in it because it is persuaded that doing so has many invaluable benefits and not bankruptcy.
‘No nation goes bankrupt educating its people’ –
Confucius.
The epigraph to this piece by the Chinese
philosopher, Confucius, speaks appositely to the
significance of education in the development of a
country. His view correctly implies that
investment in education will always yield the
highest dividends. If quality investment in
education produces the highest dividends, it is
incontestable that a country which invests hugely
and consistently, and substantially, and not
symbolically, in education cannot become
bankrupt. In any case, human beings remain the
surest agencies of development. If their
capacities are purposefully enriched, meaningfully
enhanced, and consistently improved, they will
creatively initiate workable ideas and contribute
considerably in driving the multifarious engines of
sustainable socioeconomic development.
Education, for any society which privileges and
prioritises it, becomes the substratum of its
development which will always set it apart from
those that do not invest in education. This is the
core lesson that the informative book, Why
Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity,
and Poverty (2012), co-authored by Daron
Acemoglu and James Robinson, persuasively
teaches. According to the authors, consistent and
hefty investments in education and the necessary
infrastructure is one of the reasons why some
countries are developed and prosperous while
many others become unfortunate. Access to
educational facilities contributes greatly to
enabling people move forward and become useful
for self and society. No nation whose political
and economic institutions are unviable can invest
in education and provide motivation for the
people to be educated.
It is against this backdrop that the inspiring
efforts of the Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola
Administration in reforming and investing in
education in the State of Osun can be
appreciated. The conviction of the Administration
that education holds the key to the realisation of
the all-encompassing transformation it envisions
for the state informs the undistracted attention it
has accorded to educational development right
from 2010 when it assumed office. The
Administration makes education the bedrock of
the various policies it has designed and is
executing to improve the existential condition of
the people of the State.
The priority the Administration gives to the
development of education in Osun has inspired
many initiatives that have brought marked
differences to the grooming of minds there. The
blueprint that emerged from the Education
Summit organised in the first year of its
assumption of office provides useful direction for
its drive to reposition education in the state.
From huge investments in instructional materials
and teaching aids, crucial changes in curricula,
corrective restructuring of schools into
Elementary, Middle, and High in conformity with
international best practices in school
management, to the construction of mega
schools, the Administration manfully moves on to
ensure that public schools in the State become
virile emporiums of sustainable capacity building.
In the last six years, remarkable successes have
been recorded and rich lessons distilled from low
points.
What stands out in the Administration’s
unwavering pursuit of educational development in
Osun is the humongous amounts it continues to
invest in it. It does not consider any amount too
prohibitive if the task is educational development.
Like Aristotle, Governor Aregbesola understands
that ‘[t[he roots of education are bitter, but the
fruit is sweet’. Accordingly, the princely price of
investment in education has to be paid for the
grand prize of enduring socio-economic
development. Nothing can be more important
than creating the right environment and
emplacing the needed infrastructure for the
building of human capacity, the agency and
gateway of societal development.
Clearly, this accounts for why Osun is still able
to pluck new fruits of educational infrastructural
development even in the face of the disruptive
hurricane of cash crunch sweeping furiously
across the Nigerian federation. The notable
reduction and desultoriness in cash flow have not
discouraged Osun from going with its schools
infrastructural development project. On the first
day of this September, the state commissioned
the Osogbo Government High School in a
memorable ceremony witnessed by President
Muhammadu Buhari and many other dignitaries.
Conceived and constructed in line with
international standards, the building has the
capacity to seat 3,000 students; it has 72
classrooms, each capable of sitting 49 students;
with the capability to graduate 1,000 students
annually. Its other facilities include six offices for
study groups, six fully furnished laboratories, 60
toilets (30 apiece for boys and girls), one fully
furnished science library, one fully furnished art
library, one facility manager’s office, one
bookshop, one sick bay, one bursar’s office, three
furnished principals’ office, three general staff
offices, one furnished senior principal’s office, one
record storage, and one security shed/reception.
More so, it has an Olympic-sized football field, a
seven-lane sprinting track for 100 metres and
400 metres, a pavilion and an outdoor basketball
court that doubles as a tennis court. It has
parking space for 75 cars, and an examination
hall to sit a minimum of 1000 students. This hall
has a stage, office space, storage for documents,
and 10 toilets for males and females respectively.
Students of Grades 10-12 (SSS I-III), between
ages 15 to 17 years, will be using this school
sited on a-10-hectare land. The Aregbesola-led
Administration has a tidied plan to build 20 mega
High Schools across the state and in places
where the old, dilapidated buildings that were not
healthy for modern-day poultry once stood. The
Osogbo Government High School is one of the 11
that have been completed. Of the 100 school
buildings planned for the Elementary level, 14
have been completed, and 15 of the 50 for the
Middle school have also been finished.
For the State Government of Osun, the functional
education the children of the state must receive
has to take place within befitting structures,
which have advanced facilities, are conducive for
learning, and enhance human dignity. By
embarking on these projects, the State
Government is simply saying the culture of
excellence that guides the affairs of standard
private schools cannot be impossible for it to
attain. The quality, sound education vouchsafed
for the children has to take place within modern
facilities. What exists in Osun, in terms of
educational infrastructure development, is not
symbolism but substance.
About 12,000 teachers have been added to the
already existing pool of teachers across the
schools in the state. It is not just about physical
infrastructure; the human infrastructural is also
seriously taken into cognisance, for no
educational system can rise above the quality of
its teachers.
The idea of education for development motivates
Osun to prioritise education. Governor Aregbesola
underscores this in the address he delivered at
the opening of the Osogbo Government High
School last week. In his words, “Education for us,
therefore, is the path to development. We are 25
years now, but we are looking at the next 25
years and we want to create and determine the
next 25 years through education.”
That education, he adds, is the sort that sees to
the full development of the personalities of the
learners. “The overall aim”, he explained, “is to
develop the new man intellectually, socially and
morally. This new man is placed in the centre of
society who views his own development as part
of and for the development of society. This is a
non-parasitic and non-oppressive man who
views his existence in light of the growth of
others; he views whatever is acquired to be
subsumed in the overall interest of others. He is a
man in himself and a man for society.”
In spite of the financial constraint it has, Osun
refuses to give up its walk on the path of
educational development. It continues to invest
in it because it is persuaded that doing so has many invaluable benefits and not bankruptcy.
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