* Governor Obaseki of Edo State
The Edo Commissioner for Education, Mr Jimoh Ijegbai, has stated that the state had not recruited teachers for its public schools in the last 10 years.
Ijegbai, who disclosed this today while speaking to journalists in Benin, added that the state government was aware that there is shortage of teachers in public schools in the state.
According to him, “In this state, for over 10 years, teachers were not recruited into our schools. It did not start with this administration; Godwin Obaseki’s administration. We have taken the statistics of the gap and I know we will fill the gap in 2020. Our reform will not be complete without having teachers in critical areas.”
He continued, “We are aware that there is dearth of teachers but we are going to recruit teachers.’’
The Obaseki-led administration, the Commissioner stated would do everything possible to change the narrative, adding that already the governor has not only initiated and implemented the best education policy;“EdoBest’’ but he had done a lot to resuscitate vocational and technical education in the state.
EdoBest, the Commissioner explained was to lay a solid foundation for children up to primary school level, while vocational and technical schools would provide employment opportunities for young school leavers.
On the construction of schools, Ijegbai stated that no fewer than 250 public schools had either been constructed or reconstructed across the state in the last one year and that the state government was making efforts in two other crucial areas; agriculture and boosting the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).
He disclosed that the state IGR from a little above N30 million monthly at the inception of the current administration, has risen to over N300 million in December 2019.
In his words, “To those in and outside the state, they can see that Gov. Obaseki has done excellently well. He (Governor) said we must devise technology to use in collecting revenue so that we can plug all the loopholes.”
“The entire 18 Local Government Areas of the state could only raise N33 million monthly but when technology was introduced, their IGR shot up to about N300 million in December 2019. If you compare N30 million and N300 million you should decide whether we should go back to the old ways or continue with what we already started. The populace will be the greatest beneficiary of good governance,’’ he added.
