Edo’s re-enactment of Obaseki’s education reforms

By CRUSOE OSAGIE

One twelvemonth aft taking office, the Edo State Government nether Governor Monday Okpebholo appears to beryllium rediscovering itself. The authorities has softly begun retracing its steps and restoring the precise initiatives it erstwhile dismantled. In what present seems similar a reluctant awakening, it has started to re-enact cardinal reforms initiated nether the Godwin Obaseki-led administration, astir notably successful the acquisition sector. 

Towards the extremity of November 2024, the Okpebholo medication took a sledgehammer to the transformational structures it inherited. Systems that had repositioned Edo State arsenic a exemplary for innovation and ratio were hastily torn down. The acquisition sector, 1 of Edo’s astir celebrated occurrence stories, suffered the heaviest blow. 

Before 2016 erstwhile Godwin Obaseki became the authorities governor, Edo’s acquisition strategy was successful crisis. Learning outcomes were poor, and the morale of teachers was abysmally low. Through data-driven policies and technology-enabled instruction, the Obaseki-led medication changed that narrative. Edo became 1 of Africa’s starring states for nationalist acquisition reform, a translation built connected evidence, operation and governmental courage. 

Central to this occurrence was the Edo Supporting Teachers to Achieve Results, EdoSTAR, Teaching Fellowship Programme. It was not a governmental gimmick but a deliberate strategy to professionalise teaching and adjacent the capableness spread successful nationalist schools. Between 2021 and 2022, 5,000 fellows were recruited, trained, and deployed statewide, alongside 300 method and vocational teachers. 

The programme combined exertion with rigorous teacher development. Even non-education graduates were enrolled successful Postgraduate Diploma successful Education, PGDE, programmes to conscionable planetary standards. EdoSTAR fellows received continuous mentorship and show evaluations, ensuring classrooms were manned by competent and motivated educators. The EdoSTAR fellows were not hired to capable vacancies but to alteration classrooms. They underwent a rigorous three-year nonrecreational improvement and mentorship programme. The effect was a caller procreation of motivated, skilled and technology-driven teachers delivering prime acquisition crossed Edo’s schools. 

By the clip Governor Obaseki’s tenure ended, the absorption of these fellows into the teaching work had been completed. Appointment letters were issued to those who successfully completed the programme, signaling a creaseless modulation from fellowship to afloat employment. It was a strategy built to prolong itself, until authorities got successful the way. 

Soon enough, the advancement gained was abruptly disrupted. One of the existent administration’s earliest actions was to cancel the appointments of these trained fellows. The determination enactment thousands of teachers successful limbo, crippled schoolhouse staffing, and reversed the gains painstakingly achieved nether the EdoBEST and EdoSTAR frameworks. Classrooms that erstwhile thrived connected integer learning tools, were near successful disarray. 

A twelvemonth later, the aforesaid authorities has present begun to softly retrace its steps. The dismissed EdoSTAR fellows person present been reinstated, though the determination has been shrouded successful governmental opportunism. Instead of acknowledging the root of the policy, the medication has attempted to repackage a pre-existing betterment arsenic a caller one. This reversal, portion welcome, exposes a disturbing deficiency of direction. 

EdoSTAR was ne'er conscionable astir recruitment; it was a structural betterment anchored connected teacher professionalism and measurable learning outcomes. Over 16,000 teachers crossed the authorities were trained to usage integer tools, negociate schoolroom data, and way pupil progress. More than 500,000 learners benefited from these methods, grounds that Edo’s acquisition renaissance was real, not rhetorical. 

Current reports that the authorities plans to enlistee teachers with lone National Certificate successful Education, NCE, qualifications into secondary schools item a nonaccomplishment to grasp the reform’s intent. While NCE holders person their spot successful basal education, secondary schools necessitate deeper pedagogical grounding. Diluting standards undermines the strategy that erstwhile made Edo a nationalist benchmark. 

The broader occupation is 1 of governance culture. Successive administrations successful Nigeria often similar to erase their predecessors’ legacies alternatively than consolidate connected them. In Edo’s case, this wont has been costly. Political rivalry has displaced continuity, wasting time, resources, and the spot of stakeholders who simply privation sta...