*Re; Misinformed WAEC Ratings Of Osun Pupils’ Performance In 2022 WASSCE.*
Since the loss of our party to the opposition
PDP in the last Osun gubernatorial election, Mr. Kola Olabisi has engaged himself in self imposed duty of assymetrical defence of any matter that arise thereafter however irrelevant it is to the predicament of our party. This is purposely done to portray his principal, Prince Famodun as a born- again and repentant party stalwart and to cover up his failures of the past.
In the words of Plato ” Wise men speak because they have something to say, while fools speak because they have to say something” . An individual will be placed in his/ her right position according to his character and approach to issues with reference to the above words of Plato.
Few days ago, Egbon Kola Olabisi came up with a statement on the purported rating by the West African Examination Council which placed Osun at 36th position in terms of students performance making the state to slug out the worst performing state medal with Zamfara state. The information went viral with different reactions from the public on various social media platforms. The story, to Egbon Kola Olabisi, is another opportunity to “say something” as his self imposed role dictates.
In the statement, Egbon Kola Olabisi rolled out certain factors that led to poor rating of the state by WAEC. In his words ” there exist in the Osun State education sector, some challenges which the origin is traceable to the immediate- past administration in the state “. It was thesame administration where Gov. Gboyega Oyetola served as the Chief of Staff.
However, of all what he highlighted as major causes of the poor rating, two key issues deserves to be properly put in correct perspective.
To start with, WAEC ratings or not, every lover of progress in Osun and beyond acknowledged that the education sector during Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola’s tenure received so much attention which was appreciated by many in Osun and beyond due to several unprecedented improvement and achievements in the sector compare to the situation prior to the coming of the administration.
From school infrastructure development with modern 3,685 classrooms built in different schools in the state which created a conducive learning atmosphere for the students to provision of modern teaching and learning aids for students, upscale improvement in students’ enrollments, modern sporting facilities and students’ welfare among others. Apart from these, most of the governments’ social intervention programs such as O- meal, O-YES and the school feeding program e.t.c provided a laudable back up support to the improvement drives of the state government in the sector.
Available statistics and records by WAEC rating revealed that students performance was 15.68 % in 2010 when Ogbeni assumed office as the Governor and improved to 44.59% in 2017 with number of students that got 5 credits including maths and English increasing on yearly basis within the period.
The human development angle of the educational improvement policy of Aregbesola’s administration cannot be overlooked. It is on record that 30,145 teachers were trained in modern teaching and learning skills while 6,000 OYES cadets were deployed to the classrooms as teachers.
The result of these remarkable improvements started to yield positively within a short period. A student of Osun government owned school, the Ataoja government high school, Master Kamorudeen Ridwan got the highest score in UTME/ JAMB in 2018 while another student from Osogbo government high school, Master Abdullahi Akintade emerged as the best science student in the whole country in 2020, a feat that got him presidential recognition with scholarship award. Ironically, Gov. Oyetola with his commissioner for Education and other government functionaries graced the occasion.
It is however very surprising and tragic, when Egbon Kola Olabisi threw his conscience to the dustbin by ascribing the glaring failures and needless setback in the education development of the present administration of Gov. Oyetola (after causing a severe damage to the sector through some policy reversals in the sector) to the immediate-past administration of Ogbeni Aregbesola. This is not only ungodly but a re-affirmation of the fact that the deep rooted animosity of Gov. Oyetola against the monumental achievements of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola’s administration in Osun is still in place.
It is necessary here to remind Egbon Kola Olabisi that one of the first priorities of Gov. Oyetola’s on assumption of office as the governor of Osun was the reversal of most of those laudable things put in place in the education sector which he pursued with all necessary instruments to achieve. In order to sustain and make it firm- rooted, he later appointed Hon. Folorunsho Oladoyin Bamisayemi pka Bambam as the commissioner for Education and Jamiu Olawumi as the Special adviser to the governor on Education. Their appointments were a means to achieve a target as none of them had a background in Education.
For those who may not know, Hon. Folorunsho Oladoyin Bamisayemi (Bambam) was the chairman of the Osun house of assembly committee on Education for Eight years when Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola was the governor of the state. Constitutionally, Bambam is empowered to carry out oversight function in any ministry, agency and parastatal of government that has anything to do with Education without fear or favour. He had every legislative power at his disposal to right any perceived wrong of any officer or official of government in anything that had to do with the Education sector in Osun and report his findings back to the parliament.
Without any form of bias, it is on record that there was never a time within the period that Hon. Folorunsho Oladoyin Bambam came back to the house to report anything contrary to what the executive was doing then. His opinions were always expression of satisfaction in assessment and performance of all education program and policies of the government in the education sector then especially those that had to do with the newly introduced policies of the government.
It therefore called to question, Hon. Folorunsho Oladoyin’s real sense of patriotism and service to the state if he had to come back after few months of leaving the state assembly as a lawmaker to champion reversals (not amendments) to policies that he had once certified to be in the interest of the state. This is blatant hypocrisy!!!
Also, it is very sad to note that apart from policy reversals, the government of Gov. Oyetola has not introduced anything distinctive in the education sector of the state since Hon. Folorunsho Oladoyin took over in the ministry as the commissioner in charge. Therefore, those ” landmines” highlighted by Egbon Kola Olabisi were testimonials which brought Hon. Bamisayemi’ s failure to the public glare.
The other issue which required clarification is the ” reconstruction and rehabilitation of schools with structural defects” mentioned by Egbon Kola Olabisi. While it is needless to join issues with him on this, it is necessary to inform him and others in same thoughts with him that the dirty intention behind the so called issues with the mega schools was bursted and exposed by good – spirited citizens before the satanic mission could be executed by Remi Omowaiye, the commissioner for Works. It is no longer a secret that he told some persons then that they were compiling some things on the Mega schools and by the time they finished, Rauf Aregbesola will not be able to enter Osun again. Thank God, the plan got leaked and it became a public knowledge.
The questions that are still begging for answers on these are; Why were the facilities managers of the schools sacked ? Why were the students removed from the schools and relocated to the old dilapidated structures? Why were the facilities left to deteriorate? For further facts on this, Egbon can extend his investigative dragnet to what Remi Omowaiye discussed with some selected building professionals in a meeting he held with them and the in – house committee he set up before the issue got leaked.
In submission, it is obvious that the failure of the government of Gov. Oyetola in the education sector was caused by lack of developmental blue prints, bad politics and visionless self serving individuals he engaged to serve his own wish against the interest of the innocent people of the state.
If there’s anything at all to thank Egbon Kola Olabisi for in the statement, it is the fact that he has comfortably brought to the knowledge of the general public, the successful failure of Hon. Bamisayemi both as a legislator and a commissioner in charge of Education in Osun among other factors that took Osun education back on reverse gear.
It is a pity!!!
