A former Governor of Osun State, Mr Rauf Aregbesola has called on governments at all levels to be committed to the basic education of children.
Aregbesola, who is also the immediate past Minister for Interior, noted that during his tenure as the governor of Osun, he carried out various foundation education programmes which had been bearing fruits for the state but regretted that those programmes were stopped by his successor, Mr. Gboyega Oyetola.
The All Progressives Congress chieftain stated this on Saturday, in Akure, during a ‘welcome home’ reception organised for him by members of the old students of the Akoko Anglican Grammar School, Arigidi Akoko, Ondo State, of which he is a member.
The former governor also said the commitment of his administration then, was from the grounds that there was no alternative to a sound public foundation education.
He said, “All governments must know that no matter how attractive private schools may be, they will never be able to displace government-funded public foundation education schools if we want to provide education to all the children and stimulate development from the bottom up. It is a dream we must never give up on.
“When I became governor in Osun, I sought to replicate this idea. Our administration built 11 state-of-the-art 3,000-capacity model secondary schools, in addition to rehabilitating and upgrading the existing ones. Each school has 72 classrooms which can comfortably accommodate 49 students and six rooms for study groups. It is equipped with six laboratories, 36 toilets separated equally for boys and girls, two libraries for science and arts each, a facility manager’s office, a bookshop, and a sick bay.
“We introduced ‘Opon Imo’ (the tablet of knowledge), a digital education tool, ethics and discipline in public schools, and even established a state-wide agency on public school discipline. We introduced calisthenics and school feeding and health programme.
