By Douglas Ogbankwa
I have had the privilege of teaching for about two decades and a half, part time. As a matter of fact, on my call to the Nigerian Bar, I was an Assistant Director of Administration of one of the biggest Private Educational Institutions in Edo State. I have also had the benefit of seeing educational policies in Nigeria, but I have never seen one as deceptive and as duplicitous as the EdoBEST.
The EdoBEST is an acronym for Edo Basic Education Sector Transformation, which they say is anchored on five nondescript pillars which are sadly not depicted in the basic education spectrum in Edo State. Beyond the razzmatazz of smartly dressed officials, navigating schools, with smart gadgets, or globetrotting in exotic cities of the world, the educational sector in Edo State is nearly comatose – a victim of perfidious propaganda, that is not in sync with the situation on the ground.
A visit to remote schools in Edo State will see dilapidated buildings, sitting on unfenced compounds of overgrown weeds and faeces, defacing almost every corner of the schools. On a visitation to schools, as part of a Policy think-tank monitoring constituency projects in two local governments in Edo South, I was nearly moved to tears when I saw where pupils in one of the local governments wrote their common entrance examination. There were no windows, the roofs were ripped off and they had mangled chairs with no tables. In our days at the famed “School Garri”, in Benin City, it was far better than this. We understand there are no classroom teachers in some of the classes and when it rains, learning becomes impossible. Poultry farms look like 5-star hotel rooms when you see some of the classrooms. They are not even fit to breed pigs! You now begin to ask yourself where are the so-called pillars and components of EdoBEST?
Some of the schools located in villages, do not have Wi-Fi or browsing networks, so how do they use iPads or computers to conduct school business? There are no broadband connections seen and from enquires, they do not use iPads in those remote schools. Even at that, why is there so much premium on technology, when there is no adequate infrastructure?
It was the first President of Tanzania -Julius Nyerere, that said: When the Americans are going to the moon, we Africans should be going to our villages. Government should go to villages and see the horrendous neglect of the system there and forget the fanfare being spurned in the city by those running this project.
Another issue that is worthy of mention is the rejigging of the curriculum of schools under the EdoBEST reforms, especially in public schools to focus on literacy and numeracy, while sidelining other very important aspects of basic education like social studies, integrated science, and Bible knowledge. This curricula module is strange and unheard of anywhere else in the world. It is capable of breeding half-baked pupils and students, who will be ill-equipped to compete with their peers the world over. The programme is replete with components that are not seen and are only the figment of the imagination of its operators. During the former Governor Adams Oshiomhole’s administration, he had the red roof revolution, and true to its name, we saw the beautifully designed and furnished classrooms and the red roofs adorning schools all over the three Senatorial Districts of Edo State.
What are the things EdoBEST has left behind for us to see? It was Abraham Lincoln, the 12th President of the United States that said: You can deceive some of the people some of the time, you can deceive all the people, some of the time, but you cannot deceive all the people all the time. So, is it EdoBEST or Edo worst?
Douglas Ogbankwa, a Lawyer, Writer and Policy Analyst is the President of Benin Writers’ Society
QUOTES:
“I was an Assistant Director of Administration of one of the biggest Private Educational Institutions in Edo State. I have also had the benefit of seeing educational policies in Nigeria, but I have never seen one as deceptive and as duplicitous as the EdoBEST”.
“Beyond the razzmatazz of smartly dressed officials, navigating schools, with smart gadgets, or globetrotting in exotic cities of the world, the educational sector in Edo State is nearly comatose – a victim of perfidious propaganda…”,
“I was nearly moved to tears when I saw where pupils in one of the local governments wrote their common entrance examination. There were no windows, the roofs were ripped off and they had mangled chairs with no tables. In our days at the famed “School Garri”, in Benin City, it was far better than this”.
“Some of the schools located in villages, do not have Wi-Fi or browsing networks, so how do they use iPads or computers to conduct school business? There are no broadband connections seen, and from enquires, they do not use iPads in those remote schools”.