By Omoruyi Patricia Osayomore
As part of activities to mark the ongoing 2023 Edo State Education Week, Governor Godwin Obaseki has urged parents across the State to cooperate in the sustenance of reforms in education sector of the State.
The event which was tagged “1st Edo Parents’ Summit: the Role of Parents and Community in sustaining progress in Education Reforms”, was held on Saturday April 29th, at the Sir Victor Uwaifo Creative Hub in Benin City.
The Governor while appreciating stakeholders’ support in the education sector, guided that the critical stage of the reforms is sustenance, maintaining that through their collective effort, the EdoBEST reforms will remain the standard for education in Edo State. According him, “the summit is meant to highlight the reforms, progresses made and to inform parents what still needed to be done. Because parents amongst other stakeholders have played an important role since the reforms started.”
Governor Obaseki said that the focus on the Learning Standards during the Education Week is aimed at making sure that the teachers are teaching and students are in school learning as well.
Highlighting the targeted outcomes, he added that the focus necessitated the launch of the Edo Learning Agenda to make Edo children reading champions by age 10; measuring how they learn, and grooming their abilities to acquire skills; as well as ensuring sustainability through collective effort of all stakeholders particularly parents.
The Governor reiterated his desire to be remembered for reenacting education in Edo State, pointing to reforms that have been made to include leadership responsibility delegated to school teachers, introduction of technology into the State education sector, introduction of school based management committees where the communities are involved in managing education activities in their domains, as game changers in the education sector reforms.
On her part, the State Commissioner for Education, Dr. Joan Oviawe, acknowledged the efforts of all the staff of the Ministry of Education for working tirelessly for the success of the event.
She assured that the events of the maiden education week were geared towards re-enacting co-curricular activities that would result in quality and functional education which will enable the pupils to favourably survive and compete with their counterparts, globally.
Dr. Oviawe solicited the support of parents to assist in getting sportswear/kits for all the children, which according to her, the government alone cannot make provisions for all sport wears needed by the learners.
She also solicited the active involvement of parents in their children’s education as a large number of parents do not show up during open days in their children’s schools.
In his keynote address, the Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, Bishop Matthew Kukah commended the giant strides of the State Governor and the Commissioner for Education for repositioning the State and changing the perspective of how the people of the world perceive Edo State in the past. According to him, “about 20 years ago, the outsiders perceived Edo as notorious, but now the Governor has repositioned the State to be able to effectively compete in the 21st Century.”
Bishop Kukah encouraged a collective front for sustaining education reforms in Edo and Nigeria even though some States in the country are being threatened by some forces of darkness, especially those that have said no to education. In his words, “As a country, we must fight collectively with every drop of our blood to physically ensure that those forces are put back. And there is no distance that is too big to cover as far as education is concerned.
