Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun state has disclosed that his administration’s decision to source for loans to finance its educational sector is in the best interest of the populace.
Aregbesola, who stated this at Ipetumodu, during the official commissioning of St. Augustine Government Elementary School, lashed out at critics of the decision.
He said his administration consulted widely on how to take the state’s education sector to a vantage position, especially in the area of infrastructural facilities. He stressed, “Obtaining loans to fund some of our capital projects was in the best interest of the people in Osun. Our desire is to place the state at a vantage position ahead its contemporaries, regarding infrastructural development.
“We have chosen to build modern schools’ structures with expectation that our children can be given the hope of a better future and not just any school that lack quality and durability”.
Aregbesola who spoke in Yoruba language said, “Some people had built schools in the past. But our policy was thorough and purposeful, bearing in mind the future of our youth. If we were to build these schools today, borrowing money with current exchange rate of over N360 per dollar, we would have spent double of what we use to build this educational facility.”
Meanwhile, there were encomiums as Aregbesola commissioned Saint Augustine Government Elementary School, Ipetumodu costing N94 million.
The elementary school is a quadrangular block of 12 rooms, 10 of which are used as classrooms; one is a computer centre while the last one is used as the library.
It also has a Headmaster’s office, a store, a power office and a conference room. It is complete with its own borehole, power transformer and a recreation and sporting centre.
Aregbesola at the commissioning held that the school among others were designed to be able to attract the best brains from their catchment areas, especially draw intake from public middle schools, where excellence is also the watchword.
He added that Osun elementary schools are neighbourhood schools where children out of infancy will have schools at their walking distance; within view of familiar neighbours.
The governor said, “Today marks another epoch in the new dawn of education infrastructure in the state of Osun. The last time we gathered for this purpose was on Tuesday, October 24, 2017, when we commissioned Ilesa Government High School, Ilesa.
“In the order of our new elementary schools, the most recent was the commissioning of the AUD Government Elementary School, Sabo Osogbo, on November 29, 2016.
“On March 21 this year, our trains moved around simultaneously, to celebrate the official opening and commencement of learning activities at four newly-built government high schools; namely: Ataoja Government High School, Osogbo; Osogbo Government High School, Osogbo; Wole Soyinka Government High School, Ejigbo; and Adventist Government High School, Ede.
“These schools were the first set of completed high school infrastructure embarked upon by our administration and have since been put to use by end-users, the students and their teachers.”
