Edo State Commissioner for Education, Dr. Paddy Iyamu has faulted the EdoBEST initiative launched by immediate past governor of the state, Godwin Obaseki saying the scheme failed to achieve the promise for which it was created.
In 2018,Obaseki launched EdoBEST as a response to the poor state of basic education in Edo state while EdoBEST 2.0 was launched in 2021.
Speaking in an interview with TheNation, Iyamu said the Monday Okpebholo administration met an appaling situation in the education sector.
According to him, Obaseki spent billions buying tablets for teachers while most classes in the state have no doors, windows and furniture for the students.
The Commissioner who said the students in Edo were sitting on bare floors said he wept when he visited one of the public schools in the state for inspection.
His words “The EdoBEST initiative, if you want to look at it holistically, one of the major problems with the initiative is that you cannot be teaching students where the teachers are using tablets that cost Obaseki’s administration billions of Naira, but the students are sitting on the floor, without windows or doors in the classrooms. Then, what is the essence of such education?”
“In view of the decay, I wept during the inspection of one of the public schools in Edo State”.
“In Obaseki’s EdoBEST programme, one teacher was teaching primary one, two, three and four. The primary one, two, and three would be in one class. When the teacher wanted to teach primary one and two, primary three and four students would wait inside the same class? Is that what is EdoBEST?”
“So, the reviews that we are doing are not to witch-hunt anybody and they are not politically-motivated, but the right things must be done. We are solving the problems created by Obaseki’s administration”.
Iyamu however said Governor Monday Okpebholo has achieved a lot in the education sector within his first 100 days in office.
For our 100 days in office, we have achieved quite a lot. Let me start with this morning, we have just launched a technological platform, where all Edo State students can go online and assess their certificates
“Governor Okpebholo has seen it all. There is even a report that you will see in the coming days. Looking at a holistic view, the EdoBEST programme got over N200 billion. By this time, we are not supposed to be talking about classrooms. The N200 billion from the World Bank is a lot of money. That is $70 million. We met an appalling situation”.
“So, we are taking it one at a time. By the grace of God, we will succeed. Online, you would have been seeing some of the reports, particularly assets’ recovery reports. In the coming days, more things will be revealed about Obaseki’s administration. We are interested and committed to better the lives of our students with the available resources we have”.
