Adibe Emenyonu in Benin City
The Edo State chapter of All Progressives Congress (APC), has blamed “inaction” of the Governor Godwin Obaseki-led administration for the “collapse of the educational system” in the state, which according to the party, is evident in the acute shortage of public school teachers.
The APC’s reaction followed lamentation by the state Chairman of the Nigeria Union Teachers (NUT), Bernard Gbenga Ajobiewe, during recent World Teachers Day that the shortage of teachers across Edo State public schools have become an embarrassment.
Ajobiewe, while welcoming Governor Obaseki to the event was reported to have said: “Our schools are grossly under-staffed especially primary and secondary schools in our rural communities…we need permanent teachers that would take the job more seriously. No matter the beauty of the schools, with all the infrastructure without teachers, whatsoever that is put in place in the system is cosmetic at best. So, there is urgent need to step up the staffing requirements in our schools.”
The APC in a statement signed by its State Assistant Publicity Secretary, Victor Ofure Osehobo, which was made available to journalists in Benin City yesterday said if the government had listened when it repeatedly raised the alarm few years ago, by employing qualified teachers, the present bad situation would have been avoided.
“As a party, we condemn the inaction of Obaseki’s government – it is inexcusable, because such nonchalance and indifference has only served, since 2016 to paralyse the once vibrant education sector in our State.
“The lukwarm attitude of the governor became glaring over the years when repeatedly he claimed to have transformed Education with the fictitious EdoBest 1.0 and very recently with EdoBest 2.0. Obviously, the two programmes are hallmarks of his Make Edo Grounded Again (MEGA) policy.”
“Edo people know that the so called EdoBest 1.0 as it turned out, was the governor’s purchase, in billions of Naira, of fairly used handheld devices for non-existent teachers. Because it was a hoax, the governor recently renamed it EdoBest 2.0 with the announcement of a change in the designation of heads of schools as executive headmasters or Principals,” the statement added.
The party therefore, called on the Edo state government to do some “soul-searching over its failure as it has left children without quality education which is the key to their being leadership of tomorrow.”
The party said: “Only a careless and inept leadership like the PDP government would ignore the danger signals a decline in education standards pose to the future of our state. This is why we align with the NUT and insist that, for the future of our State to be reassured, the Governor Obaseki government must immediately begin the recruitment of trained teachers and deploy them to schools across the state.
“Edo state belongs to all of us, just as every Edo child has a right to quality education; no government should mortgage education, which is the lifeblood of any society for any reason or under any guise, whatsoever.”
