By Isaac Aimurie and Godspower Eguasa
The Edo State Governor, Mr Godwin Obaseki, on Monday hosted officials of the World Bank who were in Benin City to review the progress that has been made with the Edo Basic Education Sector Transformation Program (EdoBEST).
The EdoBEST program which is an initiative of the Obaseki-led administration has been lauded and described by several national and sub-national governments as revolutionary.
Welcoming the World Bank delegation to his office, Obaseki commended the multilateral organization for supporting the series of reforms being executed by his administration.
He maintained: “We have instigated a revolution in education in the continent with EdoBEST and while we are reviewing what we have done, we need to look at sustainability and scalability.
“With EdoBEST, our initial focus was to build a strong foundation for our children, but now the kids are growing and going to the next level of learning. So how do we take EdoBEST to the next level?”
He assured the World Bank delegation that his administration is committed to extending the reforms to higher levels of education.
“For us as Edo people we want to see how we can change the entire spectrum of education, extending the value to 15 and 18-year-olds,” the Governor said, adding that his government would sustain the partnership towards maximizing the support from the World Bank and other development partners.
Earlier, the Executive Chairman of the Edo State Universal Basic Education Board, (SUBEB) Mrs Ozavize Salami, said the visit of the World Bank officials was part of an ongoing mission assessment exercise of EdoBEST.
She added that SUBEB is also doing an independent evaluation of the impact of EdoBEST and declared that “the kids that have gone through the program are doing better.”
Leader of the bank’s delegation, Mr. Martin De Simone, commended Governor Obaseki for his level of commitment to the transformation of education in the State and urged other States in Nigeria to emulate Edo State’s education reforms.
He explained that “the essence of the program is to assess the implementation of the program to ensure that milestones are being met.”
