Aregbesola: Osun Records Progressive Performance in Education Between 2011-2017

The Governor of the state of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola has ascribed the improvement in the academic performance of public school students in external examinations to series of innovative and systematic interventions in the education sector by his administration.

According to Aregbesola, the current performance of the secondary school students in the Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) was markedly different from what was obtainable in the past, saying that there is progressive improvement in the standard of public education in the state.

Aregbesola who spoke at a dinner organized by a socio-political group, ‘The E-Progressives’ at the weekend, Osun is one of the first three states with highest number of students that get admission into tertiary institutions in Nigeria annually, according to the rating of the National Bureau of Statistics.

Compare to 2006-2010, Aregbesola said Osun has been recording progressive and improved performance in education from 2011-2017, stating that the percentage of students performance has been increased steadily since the inception of his administration.

The governor said: “The total number of student that passed WASCE including Mathematics and English was 22, 703 between 2006 and 2010 while 83,661 passed between 2011 and 2017.

“In 2006, that passed WASCE was 4,085, 2,483 in 2007, 3,813 in 2008, 5,545 in 2009, 6,777 in 2010, 11, 672 in 2011, 11,431 in 2012, 9,654 in 2013, 8,844 in 2014, 10, 590 in 2015, 16,983 in 2016 and 14, 487 in 2017.”

Aregbesola recalled that his administration inherited almost collapsed education system characterized by dilapidated school buildings, filthy environment, roughly dressed and malnourished pupils, boasting that he has revamped the education sector and make it attractive to the pupils.

He said: “Whatever the opposition might try to say, our education system has improved and our students are having a progressive performance in the external examination.

“On the NBS website, Osun is always in first to fourth position in the state with highest number of matriculable students in the tertiary institutions in Nigeria. Osun has never gone beyond the fourth position.

“The opposition want to undermine our success and good performance in the education sector, but they such a shameless set of people who do not appreciate good things.

“Our performance in the education sector does not come like that; it is as a result of effort at promoting functional education. We have put in place best education infrastructure. Our administration has completed the construction of six Model High Schools, 20 Elementary Schools and 22 Middle Schools.

“Our teachers are being retrained regularly and we provide incentive for them. We provided free tablet of knowledge (Opon Imo) to our secondary school students and we feed our school children with the O MEAL programme. These and many other interventions give us the leverage.