Edo State Governor, Mr Godwin Obaseki, has said 75 per cent of schools in Edo State now deploy digital teaching tools under the Edo Basic Education Sector Transformation (Edo-BEST) programme, a new pedagogy that prioritises a more pragmatic, 21st century approach to teaching and learning in Edo schools.
He added that despite competing demands for limited resources, his administration will ensure that available funds are used to provide functional basic education to Edo children.
The governor disclosed this while inspecting primary schools under the Edo-BEST programme on the first day of resumption of academic activities in Benin City, the Edo State capital.
“75 per cent of our schools are under Edo-BEST and we have 25 per cent to go. We have ordered 25,000 seats for our pupils which is under production. The school furniture is being constructed at the Benin Technical College now Government Science and Technical College (GSTC) and others will come from the Edo Production Center. All the furniture is being made locally here in the state,” he added.
He said, “All Edo-BEST schools have books and it is not cheap but quite expensive. Each child in the programme costs money. Our schools are now well organised and the level of participation of our pupils is high. I am impressed that the training we have given to our teachers and administrators is yielding results.”
Obaseki said the state has limited resources, but is sourcing for funds from the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), to revamp basic education in the state. He added that as soon as the state gets more funding, more schools in the state will benefit from the ongoing reforms implemented through the Edo State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB).
“When people complain that we are not distributing money, they should know that we don’t have enough to train the children. So, where do we get money to give out? We don’t have all the resources, but we are sourcing for funding from UBEC and as soon as we get more funding, we will spread the Edo-BEST programme across all our schools,” the governor added.
Obaseki said his administration will deploy more resources to ensure the education sector is transformed, noting, “We will strive very hard to ensure the education sector is transformed if I am allowed to use state resources to train our children.”
The governor, who inspected Ivbiotor Primary School and Itohan Primary School, in Benin City, said his administration has trained about 9,000 teachers under the Edo-BEST programme.
