Abiodun Awolaja, who was on a tour of Ondo State recently, writes on the intervention of the Olusegun Mimiko-led administration in the educational sector in the state.AS soon as the Government Secretariat, Alagbaka, came in sight, the white and orange painting everywhere struck a delightful chord. Things had changed since the last time the writer was in Government House in 2008, investigating a deadly story. The Honourable Commissioner for Information, Kayode Akinmade, himself a media chief, had already briefed his colleague in the education ministry, Honourable Aderemi Olatubora, a workaholic colleague who was in fact holding a public forum when the Nigerian Tribune arrived, on the writer's mission. The forum was held every Monday and it was a means for airing your views about the ministry's work, a kind of ''meet the commissioner'' framework where everyone spoke their mind unencumbered by bureaucratese. The commissioner, a working machine like his other colleagues, preferred that our interview be conducted in the open field and in motion, since the point had been made that the Tribune was in the state to assess what the commissioner himself would later tag the ''rhapsody of realities in the educational sector,'' with apologies to popular televangelist, Chris Oyakhilome.'Let us go to the fields and speak with the schools in the background so that you can see things for yourself and make an independent and impartial assessment,'' he suggested and off we went in a coaster bus. The commissioner spoke with sublime eloquence, forthrightness and infectious confidence, a study in systemic praxis. Not surprising, since he is a polished legal icon and author of a compulsory reading, actually number seventh compulsory book, at the Nigerian Law School, a material on civil procedure. So then, off to the schools.But not before the writer had been told the vision that informs the work of the education ministry in the state: education as a social service, a leveraging tool for fostering social harmony and forestalling pending implosion. Education the Obafemi Awolowo way, and-wait for this-much more.Alagbaka primary school, Akure. A rhapsody of reality. As the hausa say: 'Gani yafi ji.'' (Literally 'Seeing is better than mere hearing''): the school behind the new school, the ramshackle edifice where thousands (millions') of primary school pupils had kicked off their academic sojourn in the past, posed a startling contrast to the new school, and the Nigerian Tribune was delighted to discover, for the first time, a primary school which adhered to the UNESCO dictate of 25 pupils per class, as we went into a class and actually counted the number of pupils. Though not a mega school, it is one of the countless public schools the state government is giving what Olatubora terms '100 per cent intervention.'As explained by the commissioner, the other pupils of the school were distributed to the neighbouring schools while work continued on the new facility. The massive field, the alluring painting and sheer orderliness and serenity of the atmosphere lent credence to the head teacher, Josiah Ojo Ajisola's claim that the pupils had become much more addicted to studies. Over to the head teacher: 'When we got to this environment, we found that everything was so pleasant. The pupils were so happy that they described the school as 'a home after home.' Studies are going on smoothly because of the serene environment: the young children were so happy to leave the former building and come here. We have had good records here within the short time we have been here; few weeks ago we went for a debate at St Peter's Unity school where about five or six schools participated. I think we came second in that debate. Last term, we went for a reading competition among 13 schools, of which only three are public schools. We got the information very late in the day but we came third. So, academically, this place is very sound; we have teachers that are very, very dedicated to duties and we want to use this opportunity to thank the government very sincerely for this laudable gesture.'' And some of the pupils spoke, expressing their delight in their new school.Hitting the roads again-the roads, almost embarrassing in their sparkling cleanliness---the visitor might not wander at the street lights, but at night the Akure skyline would give, as Olatubora pointed out, an illusion of being in Las Vegas. There are streetlights everywhere to complement the neat roads.But how does anyone capture the next port of call, the Caring Heart Mega Primary School, Oke-Ijebu, Akure' That it is a wonderful piece of architectural grandeur, with the visiting team as mere human additions to the splendour, the sheer expanse of tastefully-hewn classrooms, school hall (with a capacity for at least a thousand persons), sick bay, sparkling clean state-of-the-art toilets, regal head teacher's office with seductive furniture, and much more' The school recalled the Golden Tulips hotel in Festac town, Lagos, and would give even the Obafemi Awolowo University, Africa's most beautiful university campus, a run for its money, this writer, a product of the university at different levels, was forced to admit.The off-white/orange painting adorning all government establishments and facilities (including even bus stops) is masterfully done here, and so are the interlocking tracks and the v-shaped green area between one sidewalk and the other. But before amazement gives way to sheer stupefaction we were already in the computer laboratory, equipped with 25 internet-ready computers, computers boasting the latest software and powered by V-sat. Each teacher has an exclusive room as an administrative facility and even school uniforms to be distributed freely to the incoming pupils were ready.The school, a type two mega school, boasts only 21 classrooms, but no first time visitor to the place would realise that he/she is not on a university campus until given that benumbing piece of information. And to think that only 525 (25 learners in 21 classrooms) pupils would school here at a time... Each classroom is in a class of its own. The chalkboard, an electro-magnetic set up, is currently part of the facility which teachers are being trained to handle. But how would the facilities be maintained' Olatubora said the government had contracted the management of the school's facilities out to private firms. 'The facilities manager ensures that the lawns, the football pitch and classrooms are in top condition, together with the electrical appliances, the computer room , the roofing---in short, every facility that has to do with this school. 'So government pays and then the facility manager takes up the responsibility for the management of the school. In the conception of this project, we factored in the need for sustainability and maintenance. That was the philosophy behind our creating a special management unit for this,'' he said. According to the commissioner, one other advantage derived from contracting the facility out to indigenous facility management companies is that they would have the opportunity of recruiting some of the state's unemployed youth. Also, on the question whether there was a way the system would generate revenue for itself, he said the mega schools were not conceived as a revenue-generating enterprise.His words: ' Education in Ondo State is taken as part of the social responsibilities that government must make available to the citizens of the state. It is an area where Ondo State has comparative advantage over so many other states in the country. We realised this early enough and put a large chunk of our monthly revenue in it and the investment has been yielding fruit in the last three years that Dr Olusegun Mimiko has been at the helm of affairs in Ondo State.'The level of commitment and investment in education is unprecedented. I think all of us the good citizens of Ondo State and even people from neighbouring states in the South-Western part of Nigeria should be proud that we have a governor who has been able to maintain and even improve on the standard put in place by the sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo. This is the first time that any governor will be coming to review the free education that Baba Awolowo put in place in the 50s and bringing into it a fundamental shift in facilities level, which is now consistent with what is obtainable in civilised parts of the world in the 21st century.''According to Olatubora, the government was not just building physical structures but also investing in personnel, as it wanted teachers in the state to feel that teaching is the best profession in the world and had, consequently, designed the school work environment to be comparable to what obtained in the banking and other sectors. One corollary of this, he pointed out, was that the office of the assistant teacher (at Caring Heart Primary School, Oke Ijebu, Akure and all the other mega schools) was comparable to that of the permanent secretary in any ministry in the state.However, even though this has the tendency to draw people from neighbouring states, the commissioner admitted that the state government had not conceived of boarding facilities for now. Rather, he said, the strategy was to take care of people resident in Ondo State before the government would consider whether, within the limit of the available resources, it could begin to absorb people from the neighbouring states. However, the government had this goal in mind in conceptualising the project. 'Definitely,'' said Olatubora, ' the tendency is for people to gravitate to areas where they can get the best education. We are prepared to be our brother's keeper. That is even our ultimate aim.''Asked if the state government was trying to match the level of academic excellence in Ekiti State since the state seemed to have supplanted Ondo as the seat of the country's intellectualism when it was formed out of the old Ondo State, the commissioner said : 'Well, let me also refer you to the mega list of Nigerian Merit Award winners. Out of about 50 or thereabouts, 10 are from this present Ondo State.These awards are based mostly on academic achievements. There hasn't been any statistical date giving the advantage of higher educational attainment to Ekiti State than Ondo State. We operated under the same system and I can tell you that the proportion is even in favour of the present Ondo State.''At St Peter's Unity Secondary, Akure, a very expansive secondary school intimidating in its sheer size, the Nigerian Tribune discovered ongoing massive renovation work. There was the school hall, painted in a baby pink, orange and milk colours, having the capacity to seat 2000 persons at one go, together with similar facilities that obtained in the mega schools. There were one-storey buildings lined up the university faculty style, separated by the green area and interlocking sidewalks, and the classrooms were quite in a class of their own. The Nigerian Tribune turned a tap in the open field to see if there was water. The water flowed. And yet massive buildings are coming up. The secondary school was working, lucid symbol of Governor Mimiko's ise takun takun (hard work) slogan. And, no, the students were not studying under trees, as this writer found when he visited Ikorodu kingdom in Lagos, the Centre of Excellence.Enter the school principal, brimming with excitement : 'Ha, the environment is now very, very conducive for learning and teaching. I'm Ogundolie Fredrick Akinde. The staf are now doing their work conscientiously because they are happy to do it because the environment is so superb. Students too, if you interview them, are all very happy and this has affected teaching and learning in this school. In fact, the amount of money expended by government in this school has gingered everybody to work. We know that to whom much is given, much is required. We have put in more efforts into making sure that there are results for all these things that government has done."Asked how the school intended to protect the new facilities in school since students could damage them, Ogundolie said the school had been inculcating the protective culture in the students."We have changed the orientation of the students. They now know that those who live in glass houses don't throw stones. They are better students than what they used to be; the destructive tendency in them has actually reduced and if anyone breaks anything, we have mechanisms in place to detect and to deal with such erring students.''His projection about the immediate future of the school given the ongoing facelift: 'People have been coming en masse for admission because of the facilities that we have on the ground here. We cannot even cope; we have even been sending people back. During the next entrance exam, we are expecting an explosion in the population of students.'And when the commissioner revealed that there was more to come, the man was almost jumping with boyish delight. He was genuinely excited.From here the train headed straight to the Caring Heart Mega Primary School, Okitipupa, an intimidating edifice. A type 1 mega school, the school has 42 classrooms, together with all the appurtenances of learning witnessed in the type 1 schools. If the Type 1 schools were imposing, this was simply out of the world; elsewhere in the country, this would have been a university.However, the computer laboratory has 50 internet-ready computers, unlike the 25 seen in the Type 2 schools. The administrative block of the school, an imposing Senate building, also has a self-regulating internal mechanism, as each of the main organs in the school was conceptualised to be self-sustaining. Here too, the school uniforms were ready.The commissioner explained that certain variables such as population density were considered in citing the mega schools. But was the government plotting a social coup against the rich' Was this a kind of class war' Was this taking the rich, with their elite private schools, out of business'Olatubora again: 'No, no, no, we are not taking the rich out of business. What the governor of Ondo State, Dr Olusegun Mimiko, has done with the establishment of the mega schools is to provide succour for the poor masses of our population, those that cannot afford to take their kids to elite private schools. 'The facilities that we have on ground here (Caring Heart Mega Primary School, Okitipupa) are much better than what you have in the best private school. Those elite who have taken their children to private schools over the years would have no option but to bring them back to the public primary schools because there is nowhere in this country that you can have better facilities than the ones Dr Mimiko has put in place.''Asked if the pay going to be commensurate with the level of investment, the commissioner enthused: ' Yes, of course, we are looking at all of this holistically. But there will be no dichotomy between the pay in any of the schools. Don't forget that ultimately we are bringing all our primary schools in Ondo State to the level that we have here.''The train then headed back to Ore, where work was ongoing on a Type 2 school. The contractors were given only six months with which to complete the project, and success was written all over the place. The contractors had delivered. The team was also at the Caring Heart Mega Primary School, Olorunsola, Ondo, a school made the more interesting because it was built on the spot where Governor Mimiko himself began his educational Odyssey. Here, too, work continued in earnest, although nightfall had crept in. It was past 9:00p.m when the commissioner and Nigerian Tribune drew a curtain on the day's work.Tuesday morning found the Nigerian Tribune at Ile- Oluji, near Ondo town, where a type 2 school was awaiting inauguration. Speaking on what the project meant for the community and the state at large, Akinrelere Cornelius Akinmusanmi, the Education Secretary, Ile-Oluji Oke-Igbo Local Government, said: 'It is to promote quality education in Nigeria. The concept of ''mega'' and the vision of the governor is to allow our pupils to be able to compete with others in the world today. The environment is very conducive and the facilities on the ground in the classrooms, the computers, the laboratory and the recreational facilities are superb. 'Students will be able to learn better . The teachers have been trained at the National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA) office in Ondo and they are the best among the teachers in the state.''The Nigerian Tribune was also at Ikare, a Type 1 mega school which is nearing completion. But then the projects are better seen than heard of. When are you making your own trip' There is much to enjoy in Mimiko's tourist-building Ondo State.
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