‘New Education Policy will Lead to Prosperity in Osun’

Jamiu Olawumi, the Special Adviser on Education to Osun State Governor speaks on the condition of education in the state, with

WI want to say a big thank you to our amiable governor, Mr. Gboyega Oyetola who has created a conducive atmosphere for us to work. Because, were it not for his belief and the confidence he reposed in us, the Commissioner for Education and myself, the Special Adviser on Education, all these feats wouldn’t have been attained in the education sector. As we speak today, by November 9, 2020 a new academic session would start in Osun and we will start the implementation of the reforms that we have carried out in the education sector. Principally among those reforms, is the issue of single uniform. We have new leadership of schools, primary, junior secondary and senior secondary, coming to the ministry to obtain the uniform they jettisoned when we had the monolithic uniform in Osun. The advantage from this is that we are behind the flags of the countries of the world. When you stand by your flag, among the comity of nations, you have the passion, the patriotism and the zeal to serve your country. So, we are bringing back the era of healthy rivalry among schools. We recall when we were in secondary schools, by the time you are representing your school, you see your school uniform, you get happier and that is what we are reenacting.

Apart from this, what other areas do you think the state would benefit from the review?

Let us talk about the economy of the uniform. The time the last administration of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola introduced the single and monolithic uniform, somebody, in the person of former Commissioner for Education was quick to say that it was an intervention because people of Osun were poverty stricken. Yes, the governor invested a lot of money, N2 billion in the uniform, but what did we get as deliverable from monolithic uniform? One, the uniform was given to a single company not based in Osun; N2 billion was given to a foreign company, the owner came to Osun to invest and build the factory from the money and repatriated the entire money to Lagos. That was capital flight as against the cloth sellers at Idi-Seke in Osogbo, at Atakunmosa market in Ilesa, at Odo-Ogbe market in Ile-Ife who would sell in pieces to students and retain the N2 billion in Osun State. What we witnessed then was capital flight. Even people who were selling clothes, who were creative, who went to a Chinese company to produce the uniform so that they could sell were arrested and locked up at Ilesa prison.

Olawumi

So, it was a uniform monolithic from a jackboot, it was more or less a military dictatorship in “Agbada”. So, what we are bringing back now as economic consequences is that cloth sellers in Osun would have advantage to tap into that N2 billion. Imagine what that N2 billion would revolve within the economy of Osun State as against the capital flight we suffered under the administration of Aregbesola. So, single uniform will go by November 9, 2020 and every school will have its school uniform. We have also restored the names of schools; we don’t have Government High School, Government Junior, Government Middle. What we have now is Oduduwa College, Ile-Ife, not Oduduwa College High School, what we have now is Ilesa Grammar School, not Ilesa Government High School. We have Osogbo Grammar School now, not Osogbo Government High School.

Two days ago, St Johns School old students association in Ile-Ife honoured the governor, Mr Gboyega Oyetola for restoring their name and their uniform. You cannot destroy iconic schools founded before 1960 and so on. Oduduwa College, Ile-ife was the school Baba Lateef Jakande attended, the same school late Richard Akinjide former Attorney General of the Federation attended. You cannot just come and destroy these schools. Because of these developments then, various old students association of these schools abandoned them. Infact, Ilesa Grammar School Old Students Association went to court to challenge the government. Governor Gboyega Oyetola today has restored the names of these schools. And, as I am talking to you St Johns Grammar School, Ile-Ife is investing N50 million into rebuilding their school, St Lawrence Ilesa has invested N47 million, the old girls of Baptist Girls High School, Osogbo are planning to buy uniforms for 1500 students. Because of these policy review and implementation that we have done, you can’t remove the hands of old students from their schools, you can’t run their school better than they have experienced. Whatever you are bringing as a reform must go along with the sentiments attached to those schools. By November 9, 2020 these schools would have access to their uniforms. If you move around Osun State now, you see the tailors busy sewing uniforms, the economy was killed for eight years through the uniform given to an individual to run at N2 billion, which turned out to be capital flight, but is now resurging.

What are the conditions of schools in Osun as of today?

We have a problem that we collectively inherited from Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola’s government and that is the state of schools in Osun, our schools are in dilapidated conditions. There are new schools, and these mega schools are unnecessary, I am saying this with all sense of responsibility. If you get to Ayedaade Grammar School in Ikire, the new school, or the so called Mega School they built there is collapsing while the structure of the old school there is still solid. There was no reason to build a new school in that compound. Even when the water of the new school was not running, they had to tap from the old Ayedaade Grammar School, it was as worse as that. The school, I mean the entire school now is suffering from natural cracking, the roof is sagging. Of a particular interest to us is the Mega School in Ejigbo, called Wole Soyinka because of the name attached to it. It was named after Nobel Laureate, an international figure but if Prof Wole Soyinka were to visit that school today, he will plead with Osun State government to remove his name. In that school, they used floor tiles as wall tiles and the tiles are falling away, they used plywood as roofing sheets and put Kontaa on it, they said it’s an imported technology from USA. I don’t know where they use plywood to roof a house, a building of that magnitude, the roof is gone! When they were constructing it, the school hall collapsed and they had to rebuild and you discover that they gave somebody a consultancy job, and the same person is also a contractor.