How Aregbesola Eliminated Infrastructure Gaps and Inconsistency in Osun Education
Aregbesola huge investment in education has eliminated infrastructure gaps and inconsistency in education in Osun. Section 18 (1) of the Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution as amended states that government shall direct its policy towards ensuring that there are equal and adequate educational opportunities at all levels. Section 18(3) notes that government shall strive to eradicate illiteracy; and to this end Government shall as and when practicable provide (a) free, compulsory and universal primary education; (b) free secondary education; (c) free university education; and (d) free adult literacy programme. These rights are hardly enforced, and many are still required to pay for their education.
Former Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun has changed Osun school curriculum from studying to acquire certificates to studying to acquire knowledge and skills. This is the basis of the educational reforms in the state. Before Aregbesola’s reform, students were studying mainly to obtain certificates rather than to acquire knowledge and skills. Students who once lacked access to modern-day digital tools are now fully exploiting the internet, interactive apps, online courses, and computing technology as part of their daily lessons, opening doors to new opportunities and a promising future.
Former Governor Aregbesola has identified the link between knowledge and economic miracles which is education, and has built and equipped schools in Osun with huge investment in education. The huge investment in education is a strategic foresight. The more educated a workforce is, the more it is able to absorb knowledge and translate it into economic growth. Aregbesola has said that the world is moving towards the use of knowledge rather than wealth to measure success, adding that those who invested in education stood the chance of becoming rich. Osun huge investment in education is a strategic foresight which has taken education beyond classroom. Aregbesola said, “What differentiates human beings from animals is education aside from good manners. In the history of mankind, those who lead the human race are usually the most knowledgeable.”
Former Governor Aregbesola realized that globally some people are at the risk of losing their jobs due to advances in computer technology. Therefore, policy like strategic foresight was needed to endow students with required skills in Osun. Aregbesola has introduced educational reforms in quest for knowledge and performance driven economy in Osun. Osun has been able to meet up with the 21st century job demand which is the information communication technology (ICT) to enhance teaching and learning. Aregbesola has embraced information technology in order to cope with the changing world and take education beyond classroom.
The intervention of former Governor Rauf Aregbesola in the education sector in Osun state has helped to secure the future of the state. The education policy of Osun is in tandem with that of the federal government which aims at improving school enrolment. Aregbesola has turned the state into a true metropolitan state emphasised that what the administration of the present government has done in the education sector is more than that of any state. The construction of modern school structures around the state coupled with the school Feeding programme of the state is capable of getting out of school children back to school just like the federal ministry of education has been clamouring for. Rauf Aregbesola has invested in public school education if the nation will have peace and move forward. His government decided to invest heavily in the public school education because of the realization that failure to this is planning for a future of doom. The former governor stressed that the children of the poor also deserves to attend good schools. He emphasised that the past glory of public schools needs to be rekindled for the benefit of all, noting that public school buildings used to be the best structures in the community before past governments neglected it.
Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola has painstakingly revamped education sector by making State of Osun to compete with developed world in infrastructure. In Aregbesola’s speech titled: “The Making of the Educated Person,” the former Governor, said the state now has public schools that can compete favourably with the best in the world and are the ones to beat in the country. Aregbesola said the provision of these new school buildings is in fulfilment of his administration’s promise to provide functional education to the children in the state.
Promoting functional education is one of the six–Point Integral Action plans of Aregbesola’s pact with the people of the state of Osun. Government inherited an appalling Education System, which led to the conveyance of a state Education Summit in February 2011, which provided the Blueprint for repositioning the education sector in Osun.
Whether critics like it or not, former Governor Aregbesola has laid the foundation and remains the pioneer of digital education in Nigeria and he represents an agent of change as far as digital education is concerned in Nigeria. The history of Digital Education will remember Governor Aregbesola as the first Nigerian to implement the UNESCO recommendation on digital education. Nigerians need to visit Osun Sukuk Schools, Middle Schools and Elementary Schools. Governor Aregbesola has undertaken to build and equip schools with computer classrooms and training teachers to use digital media in education. In this line, Opon Imo “local content’’ in digital education has allowed teachers to use tablets to teach students. In the history of Nigeria, Governor Aregbesola will be remembered as the first leader to introduce digital education. Like India, Osun State is working to improve on Opon Imo. In years to come, Governor Aregbesola will be remembered as part of digital education in Nigeria.
There is no doubt that Governor Aregbesola understands the role that technology can play in realising the vision for Nigeria’s growth – it is at the core of the Digital Opon Imo and a key driver across all plans devised by the Osun State government over the last four years. The government recognises the transformative power of technology and sees it as an enabler for the change that we all seek – be it in delivering better citizen services, digitising education records, efficient and productive functioning, or using technology to provide a new social security platform
Until recently many students in Osun had never touched a tablet computer. But it took them about “one minute to work out how to use one when such devices arrived at Osun schools. Osun students were no slower to embrace the new tool. Teaching used to be conducted with a blackboard and a handful of tattered textbooks. Now children in groups of five take turns to swipe the touch screen of the devices, which are loaded with a multimedia version of Nigeria’s syllabus.
The State Government of Osun, under the leadership of former Governor Rauf Aregbesola, in its resolve to champion inspiring innovations for Africa, has undertaken a ground breaking step to utilise ICTs to concisely tackle the learning problem through the Opón Ìmò Initiative.
The State, through its Opón Ìmò Technology Enhanced Learning System (OTELS), has developed a learning tool that could revolutionize learning in developing states around the world. This tool is called the Opón Ìmò, “Tablet of Knowledge”.
The digital revolution has hit education, with more and more classrooms plugged into the whole wired world. But are schools making the most of new technologies? Are they tapping into the learning potential of today’s Firefox/Facebook/cell phone generation? Have schools fallen through the crack of the digital divide? This groundbreaking book offers a vision for the future of Osun State education that goes well beyond the walls of the classroom to include online social networks, distance learning with “anytime, anywhere” access, digital home schooling models.
Opon-Imo (Tablet of Knowledge), an e-learning device which is to solve educational needs of Senior Secondary School students of Osun State, introduced by Governor Rauf Aregbesola, have become one of the biggest known digital initiative in Osun’s educational history and Nigeria. Opon Imo has solve the educational needs of the state and cut cost in the sector as promised by Aregbesola upon its inauguration, the project has solved the major educational problems of the state, leaving with it huge progress that the state had battled with for a long time.
Former Governor Aregbesola has observed that in line with Osun’s increasing interest in technology for school education, there has been a rush of education-focused tablet computers in the market. It aims to eliminate digital illiteracy by distributing the Opon Imo tablets to students across Osun at free rates. While the project itself has become successful, it has generated a lot of awareness and interest among students around the educational tablet.
Inwalomhe Donald
Writes from Osogbo
