Pioneer Coordinator of the Child Education Cares for Ebira Girls, speaks on the Governor Yahaya Bello plans to convert Okene Secondary school from learning environment to army barracks.
The relevance of education in any given society cannot be overemphasized, thus, the reasons behind the popular aphorisms of the world’s great men like Nelson Mandela who once said that “Education is the most powerful weapon which one can use to change the world.”
Any state that must free herself from backwardness, must get its citizenry lettered to a considerable extent. It is against this backdrop that many governors embark on building ultra modern school but our is different.
Education sector in Ebiraland is nothing to write about, majority of our children are involved in cultism, drugs and alcohol. We need improvement in areas of education, no enough teachers in both primary and secondary school, the few we had were relieved from their jobs.
The Governor knew what his mission was but we knew that the problem of the state was basically education, the state and quality of education was abysmal and we knew that the quality can only improve if the governor take education sector serious.
Education sector in Kogi Central was seriously in bad shape that required serious concern and immediate attention. The problem is enormous and it is no longer a secret that the quality of education in Kogi Central requires greater attention and improvement.
With an estimated 68% children out of school, high illiteracy level, infrastructural deficit and decay, and inadequate instructional materials, to mention some of the challenges, we clearly see the effect of decades of neglect that the education sector has suffered under the previous Administrations led by Igala son. Now that our son is the governor, we expect him to turnaround the sector for the better.
We want Governor Yahaya Bello Adoza to declare a state of emergency on the education sector with prompt payment of salaries of primary and secondary school teachers, by ensuring that education takes its rightful place in his administration. We want the Digital Governor to realize that Kogi East had over 175 Secondary Schools, Kogi West 98 while Kogi Central has only 47. Upon all this you choose to convert one of the oldest secondary school, built in 1944, to an army barrack.
On behalf of Child Education Cares Movement, we want GYB to rebuild Okene Secondary School to standard boarding school as there is no single boarding school in Okene, Ajaokuta, Ogori-Magongo and Adavi local governments of Kogi Central. The school should be equipped with ICT facilities, boarding facilities with standard housing for teachers, modern libraries, science laboratories, football fields, basketball and volleyball pitches and nursery playgrounds instead of temporary army barracks.
As one of the first set of female graduated from Okene Secondary School, Upogo, I urge all old students of the school to call for an emergency meeting to discuss the matter.
– Ipemida Aisha’at Oyarazi
Coordinator, Child Education Cares
