THE State Government, on Saturday, held an interactive session with stakeholders across the world on its reforms in the education sector.
Organised by the Edo Media Connect Forum (EMCF) in collaborative with the State Ministry of Communication and Orientation the event was tagged, “Talk to the People Webinar”.
Speaking on behalf of the government, the Executive Chairman of the State Universal Basic Education, Board (SUBEB), Ozavize Salami, on the title – ‘Basic Education Reform: A Panacea for Social Welfare Enhancement in Edo State’, called on all Edo indigenes, both at home and abroad, to support the educational advancement in the primary and secondary schools.
The SUBEB chairman encapsulated the fundamental principles of curriculum excellence which include depth, challenge and enjoyment, coherence, relevance, personalization and choice, breadth and progression.
She captured these principles through her deep insights into the government’s flagship programmes for education: EdoBest, Edo STAR and EdoBEST @home.
She also highlighted problems inherited by the Governor Obaseki-led government in education to include poor academic performance of children/students, poor infrastructure, poorly resourced teaching staff and inadequate staffing provisions, improperly managed schools and lack of stakeholder participation.
According to an executive summary of the event by the chairman, Planning Committee, Dr. Ikpenmosa Uhumuavbi, the SUBEB Executive Chairman disclosed that to address these problems, the current administration initiated and implemented reforms such as inventory of schools to assess the overall state of primary and secondary schools.
“The government initiated a framework for collating data to rank all schools as well as identify areas of investments by the state government, which also included a framework for the continuous review of infrastructure and human resource needs every three years.
“The Obaseki led government increased the budget for education year on year with over N24billion allocated to education in this year’s budget. This demonstrated government’s seriousness in the reform process.
“The Obaseki led government went ahead to conceptualise EdoBEST , EdoSTAR, and EdoBEST@home and these programs have advanced curriculum excellence , value re-orientation, child protection, skills development, staff welfare, digital training, infrastructural development, local and foreign collaborations through a public-private partnership framework for educational development.
“The Obaseki-led government has moved to sustain these programmed through effective consensus building across stakeholder categories, improve teacher training, fellowship programme and a system of mentorship.
“To ensuring educational access to hard to reach areas within our rural communities, the Obaseki-led government has strengthened its relationship with schools management. This has been achieved through the introduction of school managers, recruitments of new school head teacher and effective management process that guarantees checks and balances’. In addition, teachers are recruited and trained to teach in these hard to reach communities where they live and schools are situated. This idea seeks to inspire deeper engagement in teaching and learning.
“The Obaseki-led government is big on skills and value development; as a result the TIvert Program for skills development has been embedded within World bank supported EdoBESTs frame work to leverage all the creative hubs in Edo state. This is to advance skills development at all levels and empower Edo citizens to contribute meaningfully to the economic and social life of the state,” the Executive Chairman of SUBEB added.
On his part, the Commissioner for Communication and Orientation, Hon Andrew Adaze Emwanta, thanked Governor Obaseki for allowing this open government partnership, which he said, was one of his promises.
The Commissioner also thanked the Special Adviser to the Governor on Strategy, Project Performance and Monitoring, Sarah Esangbedo Ajose – Adeogun and the Executive Chairman of SUBEB.
The event was moderated by NaijaTimes’ Publisher/Editor-in-Chief, Ehi Braimah alongside ace broadcaster and presenter of AIT’s ‘Democracy Today’, Ijeoma Osamor.
