By Joseph Ebi Kanjo

… Says Over 181 Schools Currently Receiving Improvement In Infrastructure

No fewer than 600,000 children have benefitted from EdoBEST since its inception, Mrs Ozavize Salami, Executive Chairman, Edo State Universal Basic Education Board (Edo SUBEB), has disclosed.

She added that, as at today, over 380,000 children are receiving relevant and next-generation aligned learnings made available in 1,289 basic education schools (primary and junior secondary schools) across 18 local government areas in Edo state.

The Chairman who made these revelations on Thursday in Benin while briefing journalists, announced that her agency has embarked on 181 projects in primary and secondary schools in the state to improve on their infrastructure.

The projects which are ongoing, include the construction and renovation of classrooms, perimeter fencing, toilets among others.

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Flanked by the state Commissioner for Communication and Orientation, Christopher Nehikhare and Mr. Crusoe Osagie, Special Adviser to Governor Godwin Obaseki on Media and Project, Salami disclosed that the State Government provides free education for pupils in the state up to JSS 3.

She explained that the school curriculum is enriched with life skills that makes the pupils competitive should they decide to discontinue their education.

She further disclosed that 228 schools under the Edo Basic Education Transformation System (EdoBEST), have 346,757 pupils, with 15,125 digitally trained teachers, adding that governance across SUBEB and the schools has drastically improved.

“Between October 2021 and July 2023, under EdoBEST2.0, this administration distributed over 11,635 digital work tools comprising smartphones, teacher tablets, Samsung tablets and power banks to various stakeholders in the basic education ecosystem. More than 1.5million textbooks, homework books, over 7.5 million exam materials and not less than 1.6 million result sheets were distributed to facilitate teaching, learning and assessment,” she added.

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“With respect to improving school infrastructure, which is also a focus area of this administration, she noted that at least 48,950 metres of school fence have been constructed, another batch of fence construction measuring 14,850 metres will be completed before September 2023; approximately 38,000 furniture sets have been supplied to schools while another of 10,000 furniture sets are in finishing stages soon to be delivered to schools ahead of the new academic session.

“Additionally, over 1,100 toilets have been constructed or renovated with 174 toilets rooms nearing completion. 41 Water projects are also currently ongoing.”

She further explained that while so far 7,511 classrooms have been renovated, and 321 new classrooms constructed since the start of the administration, an additional 400 classrooms will be ready to receive pupils when they resume in the next academic session,” she added.

In this regard, Mrs Salami announced that SUBEB has built a formidable crop of teachers who use proven modern classrooms and pupil management techniques.

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“What we are doing is building systems that can outlast us at the end of our tenure”, the SUBEB Chairman stated, stressing that Board emphasizes values in raising pupils/students to know appreciate things.

Mrs Salami, however, explained that schools in the rural or hard to reach areas cannot have the EdoBEST delivered to them as those in the urban areas hence a special package has been designed to deliver learning to them.