- Vows To Bring Back Glorious Days.
By DADA AYOKHAI
An All Progressive Congress APC governorship aspirant, Dr. Ernest Afolabi Umakhihe has expressed deep shock and dismay at the rate of educational decay and degeneration in Edo State.
Previously regarded as one of the pacesetters in the educational sector in Nigeria, the sector has since been relegated to the background in recent times occasioned mainly by policy flip-flops .
However, Dr. Umakhihe believes the good old days of Edo State in education, sports and entertainment can be re-invented if the state government re-orders its priorities and also place a greater premium on the above sectors.
Umakhihe, a recently retired Federal Permanent Secretary is one of the leading gubernatorial aspirants at pole position to breast tape the Edo APC 2024 Guber challenge.
The former Permanent Secretary’s concerns are contained in an action handbook, titled HOPE 24, which details the educational policies and programmes to be aggressively executed under his administration if elected.
Delving into history, Umakhihe recollected how Edo students enjoyed the best of education under the late Prof. Ambrose Alli, saying the plight of the sector has since progressively nosedived because successive administrations refused to invest heavily in the sector as well as paid lip service to the increased yearnings for a more robust and vibrant educational sector.
According to the erstwhile Federal Permanent Secretary, unarguably the front runner in clinching the coveted Edo APC Guber ticket due to his satisfactory performance in service, the era of the late Prof Ambrose Alli as Governor of the old Bendel State was indeed, the glorious days and golden era of Edo education.
In particular, he said the period witnessed a rapid explosion in educational enrollment with parents and guardians queuing into the ‘open access to education’ policy of the state government to improve the future of their wards
He added that the audacious execution of the free and compulsory education policy of the era also witnessed a huge leap in educational infrastructure spending as new school buildings, complete with libraries and science equipment sprang up everywhere in the state. In addition, bursaries and scholarships were given to deserving students.
Ironically, Umakhihe is among the beneficiaries of the free and compulsory education policy of that era.
At every opportunity, he never ceases to tell the grass-to-grace story of how that educational policy impacted his life and made him who he is today.
Umakhihe however believes there is light at the end of the tunnel. He is optimistic that the huge burden imposed on parents by the rot and decay in the educational sector can be eased.
According to Dr Umakhihe there is an urgent need to carry out a comprehensive reform of the sector, including the training and retraining of teachers, rejuvenation of vocational and technical education, and the re-introduction of the maintenance culture.
It is the contention of Umakhihe, a PHD degree holder, that for any society to develop and find adequate solutions to her teething problems and challenges, there must be a deliberate design to ensure that investment in education is placed on the front burner of Government policies and programmes.
This, he noted would form the basis of his administration as Governor in order to ensure that decency returns to the educational sector in Edo State.
