By contrast to those who left Osun state in ruins, Aregbesola is thefirst Governor to have launched a RESCUE AGENDA for a state that was moribundwhen he came to the helm of affairs six years ago. There is hardly any familyin Osun State today that has not been directly affected by the Aregbesolaadministration’s projects, RESCUE AGENDA such as O’YES, O’REAP, O’CLEAN,O’SCHOOL and attempts to turn the state into the economic hub of the Southwest.It is almost 6 years that Osun state governor,Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola has been steering the affairs of the state. He wasreturned to office in November 27, 2014 for a second term. So many things canbe said to have be achieved by Ogbeni’s 6 year old administration in the state.In order to address the falling standard of education in Osun State, GovernorAregbesola set up educational programme charged with the responsibility ofresuscitating the sector and rescuing it from total collapse. Osun State underAregbesola has been on a steady pedestral towards all-round economic growth andinfrastructural renewal in the last 6 years. Virtually every sector is feelingthe impact of the strategic planning of the administration, a development thatis fast attracting foreign direct investments into Osun State.Only a few aspects of the RESCUE AGENDA can be touched upon here, but,the government of Osun State had taken this as the guiding principles of theadministration. In other words, this is not a government flying blind, it has acompass. Two components of the agenda are worthy of mention and notice: Thepurpose of Rescue Agenda is to restore Osun State to a peaceful and secured state;to speedily unite the diverse people of Osun State; and to urgently transformthe state in order to guarantee its sovereignty and sustainability, and ensurethe wellbeing of its citizens.
Governor Aregbesolathinks globally and acts globally. There are two global education concepts thatGovernor Aregbesola has introduced in developing Nigerian educational system:the concepts of OSUN SUKUK FUND FOREDUCATION AND OSUN SCHOOL FEEDING PROGRAMME that every Nigerian must studyand cherish. The Osun State HGSFHP, now known asOsun Elementary School Feeding and Health Programme (O-MEALS), commenced as apilot programme of the Home Grown School Feeding and Health Programme (HGSFHP)introduced through the Universal Basic Education (UBE) 2004 Act. The programmewas designed to provide a minimum of one meal a day to each primary schoolpupil in all 1,378 public primary schools in Osun State and providing a Direct Employment: Food Vendors; women who cook and serve students are3,007 workers. Indirect Employment: farmers, food commodity suppliers,transporters, sundry handlers: 500,000 workers. The programme costs the stateN3.6billion annually. The Federal Government enacted the school-feeding programme asone of the rights of every Nigerian school-child under the UBE Act of 2004. The section ofthe Act that deals with meals, Section 3 (1), reads, “The services provided inpublic primary and junior secondary schools shall be free of charge.” Section15 (1), titled “Interpretation”, states that “‘Services’ that should beprovided free of charge are books, instructional materials, classrooms,furniture and free lunch.” This has not been implemented in many places. In2005, the Home Grown School Feeding (HGSF) programme of the federal governmentwas piloted in 14 states, including Osun State. By 2016, the programme hadcollapsed in other states leaving onlyOsun State as the only state in Nigeria today that is implementing theprogragramme.Osun schoolfeeding programme has increased enrolment and retention of pupils; improvenutritional and health status of pupils; address specific micronutrientdeficiencies in school-age children for better school performance; alleviatehunger and malnutrition; stimulate job creation, local food production andboost income of local farmers; reduce poverty and stimulate development ofsmall and medium scale anterprises.The Aregbesola administration came into office on November 27, 2010. Thegovernment inherited almost collapsed education system characterized bydilapidated school buildings and filthy environment , roughly dressed andmalnourished pupils, shortage of instructional materials , high regime ofschool fees in the state tertiary institutions , poorly motivated teachers withlow morales all resulting in abysmally poor performances in both internal andexternal examinations.To revamp the sector the government immediately convened an EducationSummit chaired by Nobel Laurete, Prof. Wole Soyinka in February, 2011. Allstakeholders in education were in attendance . The summit came up withrecommendations which formed the basis of the policies and reforms that wereput in place as follows:Decentralization of education sector administration and managementthrough Creation of three (3) Education Districts and appointment of Principalsas Permanent Secretary/ Tutor General – Creation of Teachers’ Establishment andPensions Office (TEPO) and appointment of Permanent Secretary for the office. Reclassificationof the school structure and system …
