Osun State education policy reversal is a poor radical policy shift in its education sector, creating a fuss in some quarters. Amidst insinuations that it is an intentional act to rubbish his predecessor’s legacies, Governor Oyetola has destroyed Rauf Aregbesola educational legacies with policy reversal in Osun. Osun State Government under Governor Oyetola effected a reversal of its education policies and brought disaster to the performance of students. Among them were the reversal of 4-5-3-4 system to the 6-3-3-4 national system of education, a reversal of middle and high school to the old grammar school nomenclature. The policies were reversed not necessarily because they failed to achieve the desired result as claimed by Oyetola’s government. I believe the incumbent governor only used his cabinet to push through part of his plans to gradually erode Aregbesola’s legacies in a bid to cement his hold on to power. Before announcing the decision to stop reclassification, merger and single uniform for all public schools, among others, it was not hidden that some of the policies might not survive for many more days, after a Prof Olu Aina-led committee of experts put in place by Oyetola to review education policies of Aregbesola’s administration passed a death verdict on them.
The lowest performance of Osun State under Rauf Aregbesola administration was in the 2016 senior secondary school WAEC examinations and people can now appreciate his polices in the education sector. Osun State was ranked 29th among the 36 states and the FCT in that year’s results released by WAEC. With Governor Oyetola educational policy reversal the people of Osun State have condemned the outgoing governor Adegboyega Oyetola for its destructive handling of education system which culminated into the very shameful last position placement of the state in the recently released performance ranking by the West African Examination Council, WAEC in 2022.
In 2007, the state government put forward 36,171 candidates for WAEC examination out of which 2,483 representing 6.86 per cent had credit pass in five subjects, including English and Mathematics. “In 2008, it was 37,715 candidates with 3,813 pass, representing 10.11 per cent. In 2009 it was 39,676 candidates, with 5,545 pass, representing 13.98 per cent. In 2010 it was 43,216 candidates, with 6,777 pass, representing 15.68 per cent. If you put these four years together, you will get an average of 15.68 per cent.
“Put side by side when Aregbesola’s administration started sponsoring candidates for WAEC in 2011. That year, it fielded 53,293 candidates, had 11672 pass, representing 21.98 per cent. In 2012, it fielded 51,463 out of which 11,431 passed, representing 22.21 per cent. In 2013, it also fielded 47,013 candidates, recorded 9,301 pass, representing 19.78 per cent.
In 2014, government sponsored 47,672 candidates, 9,316 of them passed, representing 19.54 per cent. The average performance for Aregbesola’s first four years was 20.88 per cent. Compared with the average performance (13.26 per cent) of the three years that preceded it, the percentage improvement in performance during Aregbesola’s tenure is a huge 57.46 per cent.
To ensure the truth is told and records are straightened under Rauf Aregbesola for all to know, so that the public will no longer be misled by the shameless, who have no inhibitions in deliberately spreading falsehood, the Ministry of Education applied to West African Examinations Council to officially furnish Osun State with performance results from 2006 to 2017 in the West African Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE). The results, official from WAEC, show that the best performance by students in Osun,for those with five credits including English and Mathematics,in the West African Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE), in the five years before Aregbesola was 15.68 %. With the focussed, deliberate and purposeful intervention of the Government led by Aregbesola in the Education Sector, the State has achieved 284% improvement in the performance of students in same examinations from 15.68% in 2010 to 44.47% in 2017 examinations.
Not good enough yet, but it is a pointer to a better future based on the foundation laid by Aregbesola which should be allowed to germinate to fruition with continuity, by those who share his vision. It is a deep understanding of the flaw in the philosophy and foundation of our education that differentiates the government of Aregbesola from many of its predecessors.
For Aregbesola, an educated man must be a true Omoluabi – ‘’Honest, Courageous, Rational. A cultural icon with Character, truly Yoruba (truly African,fluent in his/her mother tongue), International ( comfortable in one or more international languages), Critical and Creative thinking, Knowledge – seeking, Productive, Problem- solving, Respects laws, rules and rights of others, Thrifty and Investing, Collaborative, Time Conscious, Responsible.
The vision of Aregbeola’s government was to make Osun schools, ‘’world class schools’’ that produce confident, matriculate-able students who are first class scholars, cultural icons and models of good character, innovation and competence – the true Omoluabi. They will compete well with their counterparts anywhere in the world, excel and transform the African society positively. Aregbesola‘s vision of functional Education that will help every child to find his/her purpose in life as an Omoluabi, irrespective of circumstances of birth is the path from darkness to light for our society.
I am worried over the latest state-by-state performance record in the Senior School Certificate Examination for the 2022 calendar year. The Public Schools based performance data made available by the West African regional examination body, Osun State came a miserable 36th out of 37 ranked entities, involving the 36 states of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
For long, the state government had rebuffed all wise counsels to employ competent professionals to fill existing vacancies in key subjects in almost all Public Secondary Schools in the state, in a bid to avert the present disaster. The State government had also over time, under our Mr “silent achiever”, appeared more comfortable rigmaroling with unprofitable cosmetics in the system instead of developmental initiatives, capable of assisting school principals and the teaching staff to aide students’ learning. The result we witness today can therefore not be a magic of the devil.
The reversal of the policy was an indication that the government does not have a direction or focus. Those educational policies that were reversed are products of research and critical thinking. All the policies that were reversed have fundamental reasons that brought them into being.
The performance data as released by WAEC is as follows:
(Public Schools)
1. Enugu: 93.9%
2. Edo: 93.5%
3. Benue: 91.7%
4. Ebonyi: 91.3%
5. Anambra: 91.2%
6. Cross River: 90.6%
7. Rivers: 88.1%
8. Delta: 87.7%
9. Bayelsa: 86.4%
10.Abia: 86.1%
11. Imo: 85.9%
12. Nassarawa: 85.5%
13. Akwa Ibom: 84.1%
14. Taraba: 84%
15. Kogi: 82.34%
16. Kano: 80.6%
17. Plateau: 79.5%
18. Abuja: 77.7%
19. Kaduna: 77.2%
20. Kebbi: 77.1%
21. Sokoto: 76.5%
22. Lagos: 75.8%
23. Ondo: 75.4%
24. Gombe: 73.1%
25. Ekiti: 72.7%
26. Jigawa: 71.6%
27. Niger: 70.1%
28. Bauchi: 67.8%
39. Adamawa: 67.6%
30. Borno: 67.3%
31. Yobe: 55.6%
32. Ogun: 55.2%
33. Oyo: 54.8%
34. Kwara: 53.8%
35. Katsina: 49.2%
*36. Osun: 32.6%*
37. Zamfara: 9.2%
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Inwalomhe Donald writes via [email protected]
