Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola’s government in Osun State, Tuesday, added another feather in its cap with the commissioning of another state-of-the-art High School, Ilesa Government High School, in Ilesha.
In a similar vein, government officially unveiled the Citizens Identification Initiative Cards called “Omoluabi Cards” to be distributed to citizens in the state.
The commissioning of Ilesha Government High School was in continuation of the policy of government to construct brand new state-of-the-art 100 Elementary Schools, 50 Middle Schools and 20 High Schools. Out of these, 20 Elementary Schools, 22 Middle Schools and 11 High Schools have been completed.
It will be recalled that four high schools had been previously commissioned, starting with Wole Soyinka Government High School, in Ejigbo; Osogbo Government High School, Osogbo (formally Osogbo Grammar School); Adventist Government High School, Ede (formerly Seventh Day Adventist Grammar School) and Ataoja Government High School, Osogbo (formerly Ataoja School of Science).
As befitting a modern architecture, the school complex has 72 Classrooms of 49 square-meters each capable of sitting 49 students, 6 offices for study groups, 6 laboratories, 18 toilets for young ladies, 18 toilets for young men, 1 Science library, 1 Art Library, 1 Facility manager’s office, 1 Bookshop, 1 Sick Bay, 1 Bursar’s office, 3 Principals’ offices, 3 General Staff office, 1 Senior principal’s office, 1 Record store and 1 Security shed/Reception.
Besides, there is a total of 1000 square-metres of floor space Hall capable of sitting 1000 students for external examinations. This hall has storage for equipment, utility storage, a stage, office space, storage for documents, 4 female toilets and 4 male toilets.
Sports is not left behind as the school can boast of an Olympic-sized football field, 7-lane sprinting tracks for 100 meters and 400 meters events, a pavilion and an outdoor basketball court that doubles as tennis court.
Also equipped with stand-alone transformer for electricity and a borehole, the school cost N1.3 billion, including the cost of furnishing, landscape and electronic boards.
In his speech titled: “The Making of the Educated Person,” the Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, said the state now has public schools that can compete favourably with the best in the world and are the ones to beat in the country.
Aregbesola said the provision of these new school buildings is in fulfillment of his administration’s promise to provide functional education to the children in the state.
He said: “All these are in fulfilment of our promise to provide functional basic education. This stems from our conviction that every child is owed basic education. It is a fundamental and inalienable right of every child. We have gone to this length and committed such huge amount on education because we are preparing for the future.
“A good basic education fulfils the definition of literacy as the ability to read and write and is a solid foundation on which other superstructure of vocational training or higher education can be built.
“Having the ability to read means that one can receive information and systematised knowledge stored in various retrieval forms like books, digital electronic devices and by direct observation of events and phenomena.
“This includes the capacity to observe, understand and make sense out of nature, creation and one’s environment in the most basic form. To write means also that one can graphically reproduce one’s thought, observations, ideas and received knowledge in clear, free flowing prose, in at least one language.
“We are therefore developing the new literate man, a man not just for himself but for the collective, who sees his own existence and value in light of other members of the society.
“We have seen the future. Before our very eyes, advances in science and technology are changing our world and in the foreseeable future, we will see that those who are not well educated will be onlookers and will have no place in it.
“Generally, the world is increasingly being defined and controlled by those who can think and bear their intellect on matter and any situation. The possibilities therefore look infinite for them.”
According to the Governor, the new schools are capable of training the new minds for the new world driven by technology, saying any society without this vision is going to be backward and dependent when this future arrives.
He noted that the 11 high schools, will each graduate 11,000 students every year and in the spare of 10 years, they would have turned out 110,000 first rate students and in the next 50 years, it would be 550,000 world beaters, occupying strategic positions nationally and globally. This is our vision.
He continued: “As a government, we have played our own part very well and we will do more if the need should arise. It is now left for parents and teachers to do their own part. Parents should provide the right examples to their children at home.
“They should let them realise the importance of education and that there is no reliable future outside of it.
“They should therefore prepare their children for school at the right time, help them dress properly and acceptably and prevent them from truancy.”
Meanwhile, the Commissioner for Commerce, Cooperative, Investment and Empowerment, Mr Ismail Jayeoba Alagbada disclosed that the residency smart card initiative popularly known as “Omoluabi Card”, is an initiative that will further move government closer to the people.
He said that the introduction and distribution of “Omoluabi Card” would go a long way to assist the government in the collation of data of the residents for appropriate allocation of resources and implementation of pro-masses policies.
According to him, the Omoluabi Card will serve as a remarkable socio-economic drive as it will in no doubt provide government accurate information on the population of the people residing in the state as well as their needs.
He said about 230,322 from public elementary schools have been captured in the first phase which was completed in 2014 and the registration of students in middle and high school have commenced. He added that more than 409,664 adults had been enrolled, with their validation in progress.
He said: “This card will help to determine the population strength, population density within and outside a demographic composition with the aim of providing the required needs of the populace.
“I have confidence in the fact that the card initiative would further add values to the economy of the state as the socio-economic landscape of the state will be greatly impacted.”
Earlier in his welcome address, the Commissioner for Education, Mr. Wasiu Kolawole Omotunde-Young, described the commissioning of high school as another milestone in the efforts of the government to lay solid and enduring foundation for ‘Functional Education’ in the State.
He said government is proud to commission this newly built world class school, comparable to any of its peers from the best parts of the world.
“Promoting functional education is one of the six–Point Integral Action plans of Aregbesola’s pact with the people of the state of Osun. Government inherited an appalling Education System, which led to the conveyance of a state Education Summit in February 2011, which provided the Blueprint for repositioning the education sector in Osun.
“This school is the second of its specific types built with most modern prefabricated steel and cladding – after Osogbo Government High School – and the fifth of the world class schools to be commissioned,” Omotunde-Young said.
Packaged by Bunmi Oladejo
