BENIN CITY- Edo state Governor Comrade, Adams Oshiomhole, yesterday inaugurated the reconstructed three blocks of fourteen classrooms, staff offices, borehole and school hall at Ogwa Grammar School, Ogwa in Esan West Local Government Area.
Speaking at the inaugurated ceremony, Oshiomhole said, “I am so delighted to be here and to commission this school. When I visited different localities in 2006 and early 2007 to canvass for vote, I was shocked to note that 90% of our schools were in dilapidated state.
“Our children were sitting sometimes in classrooms with blown off roofs, no windows, even the schools that were done by government, whether local or state government not only use the lowest quality of zinc such that in three months they are already leaking but the kind of windows put there reminds you of a police post that is already built by criminals and donated to the police.
“This is the kind of school you find in Benin, in Esanland and you find in Afemai land. We took the decision that the foundation of our future lies in making the right level of investment in education”
Governor Oshiomhole further said, “Today, Nigeria is detailed by a lot of contradictions in our social policies. A country that is so rich producing very few extremely wealthy people who can afford to send their children to private schools and then you have an array of people who are getting poorer and poorer without school for their children”
He said, “What this meant is that previous governments had laid foundation that was bound to lead Nigeria to a failed state because in the past, it was possible for a child from the village who is gifted to attend a public school and proceed from there to a university to become a doctor, engineer, lawyer, accountant amongst others.
“With the collapse of public schools, only parents who can afford to pay schools fees for their wards in primary and secondary schools can possibly produce a graduate. That means that overtime, we were now having a country` in which the rich give birth to children who will grow up to become rich while the poor give birth to children who will become laborers and who will give birth to another set of laborers and at the end, we have a dynasty of the poor side by side with few people who have the resources to train their children.
Oshiomhole said, “On assumption of office, I decided that, as far as I am concerned, coming from my background, that it couldn’t have been God’s wish that some people are born just to suffer from birth to death and others are born first to enjoy from birth to death and the foundation for fighting and defeating poverty lies in access to quality education.
“With a beautiful school such as this, complete with model furniture, the average child coming from a poor home, to attend a beautiful school with beautiful furniture with white board, that child will look forward to staying in school than remaining with the parents in a house that may not be as attractive as the public school he attends.
The first citizen of the state added, “ That is why from the time we started building these schools, which people now refer to as ‘the red roof’ we have witnessed more than 60% increase in enrolment of the Edo Child in our public schools”
He said, “When I arrived here this afternoon, I asked the Commissioner for Basic Education, Hon Patrick Aguinede if the furniture have been delivered because I do not want to commission a school without furniture and we are improving on the quality of furniture because for us, the Edo child deserves the best because there is no child anywhere in the world that is superior to the Edo child.
He said, “ What goes into the making of a child in Europe is what goes into the child in Edo State and so  people are happy with the quality of furniture we  deliver in our schools from 2014 consistent with our commitment to taking Edo to the next level”.
Governor Oshiomhole, however, disclosed that the set of furniture delivered to Ogwa Grammar School have multi color which has the capacity to attract the school children.