Oshiomhole Challenges Leaders To Provide Good Education

The Edo state government has made an appeal to leaders to provide good and sound education for its citizens as it is the bedrock of every development.

Governor Adams Oshiomhole said this during a town hall meeting organized to discuss the state of education in Benin, the state capital.

Oshiomhole said the state government’s target is to have every child of school age in school by providing free, compulsory and quality Basic Education.

He also said that the state has found out that some teachers in public schools are unqualified and that teachers no longer retire due to age falsification. He noted that only 1,287 out of 14,454 primary school teachers have records without discrepancies.

The State Governor further noted that many local government councils in the state cannot afford to pay primary school teachers, which is their basic responsibility, due to unchanging salary figures over the years.

He added that the state has introduced electronic payment of teachers’ salaries to eliminate fraud in the system.

A traditional ruler, HRH Kelvin Danesi Aidenojie of South Ibie Kingdom raised the issue of unqualified and insufficient teachers in the rural areas.

The state Chairman, Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Mr. Patrick Ikosimi said the governor’s figures were not authentic and that those in the civil service should also be reviewed in terms of age and qualification.

Earlier in a welcome address, the state Commissioner for Education, Washington Osifo encouraged teachers to be committed to their job and be good role models for their wards to emulate.