By Adeleke Okunola
The State of Osun has recorded an amazing feat yet to be seen in the state’s history. Figures released by the West African Examination Council, (WAEC) indicated that the state saw a 113 percent jump in the WAEC performance of her students, arguably the best in the 36 states of the federation.
State officials attribute the result to the commitment of the State Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola to human capital development, choosing to develop human beings above material considerations.
“He has put human beings at the centre of his development. This is the height of sustainable development in Osun and in Nigeria at large. We are sure that the free food, Opon Imon and the rebuilding of public schools are at the heart of this sudden upsurge”, an official told Irohinoodua in a telephone chat today.
He said nothing can equal education, saying that the strength of great countries like Germany and Singapore was informed by quality investment in human capital development with education as the pillar.
Though recent percent is not an A, but the geo-metric increase appears to be what interests many local and international observers. The new WAEC result indicated shown a 113% improvement in the performance of students who wrote the May/June West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) in Osun state indicating increased dividends from the massive investments in education by the state’s political leaders.
International communities continue to reference the State of Osun following the return of public schools as an amazing centre of learning. A former head teacher in Osun State, Chief Adelua Ojo told Irohinoodua that the idea of public schools is to create a meeting point for poor and rich children to learn about the fears and aspirations of each other. He regretted that in the past two decades, Nigerians have seen a drastic decline in public schools meaning that children of the rich who will lead their country tomorrow may never have the opportunity of interacting with children from poor backgrounds.
“This creates a generation gap, it is partly responsible for the violence and the culture of hate in the country today” he said adding that the State of Osun has broken the gory cord by bringing back the culture of public schools which he believes will stabilize the society and refuel communal spirit.
An excited Chief Press Secretary to the State of Osun, Mr Semiu OKanlawon said the “results seen in the analysis of Osun students who passed with 5+ credits including English and Mathematics, shows a poor record of 6.86% of the total number of candidates who sat for the exams in 2007, long before the advent of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola in the state. Most critics failed to analyse Osun’s historical performance when comparing the performance of students across states in Nigeria.
He said “specifically, the 2016 WASSCE result (46.3%% pass rate) shows an improvement of 113.56% over a space of one year when compared with the 2015 result (21.68% pass rate). We can go on and on calculating how year in, year out, the Aregbesola administration has embarked on painstaking steps to not only address the relative decline and stagnation in students’ educational performance but recorded considerable improvement accordingly.”
He said further that the laid-back analysis of comparing state by state performance by many is faulty, in that, if a state presents only 10,000 candidates for the WASSCE, and 7,500 students are able to secure 5 credits including mathematics and English, then such state with a pass percentage of 75%, would be placed above a state who presents 100,000 candidates with a 50% pass percentage.


He said “While this achievement may appear insignificant at face value, however, compared to the year 2007 when a woeful 6.86% pass performance was recorded, it attests to the considerable interventions the state government has made to tackle education head-on.”

He said the Opon-Imo tablet continues to work wonders amongst students. Opon-Imo, an indigenous Technology Enhanced Learning Platform (TELP) with locally produced content is designed for the Nigerian secondary education system. It is preloaded with lesson notes on seventeen (17) subjects offered by students writing the West African Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE) and NECO SSCE.