By Idowu Adebayo
Nigeria’s Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola has said that the State of Osun is the first to establish a community-based education system in Africa.
Aregbesola disclosed this while commissioning some projects donated by HUAWEI Nigeria to Ogedengbe School of Science, Ilesa, last Friday.
The minister, while delivering his speech at the event said his administration was able to embark on ambitious education infrastructure development programmes by building 100 Elementary Schools, 50 middle Schools and 20 High Schools before the completion of his tenure as governor of the state.
Aregbesola described the achievement as unprecedented anywhere in the country and Africa at large during and after two terms of his tenure.
Commending the support of HUAWEI for undertaken such projects in the school as a Corporate Social Responsibility, Aregbesola said the gesture would enable the students to learn in a more conducive environment.
The projects include the provision of Borehole; Stanchion; two 250Ltrs storage tanks; a 5KVA generator to guarantee constancy of power for unhindered water supplies.
Also, a 16-room toilet for staff and students with modern facilities; stools and modern laboratory tables complete with gas, water and electrical supplies to each student’s experimentation point; demonstration platforms and white screen teaching boards for the instructor; basic chemical apparatuses; one laptop and one desktop computer with printer, AVR, UPS and accessories were also provided.
Two giant gas cans were housed behind the laboratories and fire extinguishers and sand buckets located around the interior.
HUAWEI is a global tech-giant which has been operating in Nigeria for over two decades.
According to Aregbesola, the company has been very supportive to the development of Nigeria through Technology innovation, knowledge transfer, talents training and CRS activities.
The former governor of the State of Osun also commended the effort of the Citizenship Civic Awareness Center (CCAC) for its responsive and fruitful advocacy in working with HUAWEI to undertake the project at the school.
He charged HUAWEI company to do more by making the school a China model secondary school and promised to always commit 10% assistance to any project the company will be embarking on in the future.
Also speaking at the event is the Speaker State of Osun House of Assembly, Rt. Hon Timothy Owoeye, who charged various stakeholders in the education sector in the state to contribute immensely towards the development of the sector.
Owoeye said the government cannot do it all alone. He urged parents to visit their children in school at all times; checking how well they are doing.
He added that parents must always pay the token mandated by government in public schools to assist education in the state.
In an interview with the National Coordinator of Citizenship Civic Awareness Centre (CCAC) Adeola Soetan, he said findings of researches recently conducted by the centre revealed that 50 percent of Nigeria Schools do not have toilets.
He said when the project was coming up, the centre made its research and found out that Ogedengbe School of Science did not have toilet and that’s what governed the decision to execute the project at the college.
