From Tony Osauzo,  Benin
The Edo State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), yesterday, blamed the “inaction and insensitivity” of the Governor Godwin Obaseki-led administration for the “collapse of the educational system” which the party says is evident in the acute shortage of public school teachers in the state.
The APC’s reaction was triggered by lamentation of Comrade Bernard Gbenga Ajobiewe, the chairman of the state chapter of the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) during recent World Teachers Day that the shortage of teachers across Edo State public schools have become an embarrassment.
Comrade Ajobiewe, while welcoming Governor Obaseki to the event was reported to have said: “Our schools are grossly under-staffed especially primary and secondary schools in our rural communities…we need permanent teachers that would take the job more seriously. No matter the beauty of the schools, with all the infrastructure without teachers, whatsoever that is put in place in the system is cosmetic at best. So, there is urgent need to step up the staffing requirements in our schools”.
The APC in a statement signed by the State Assistant Publicity Secretary, Victor Ofure Osehobo, said if the government had listened when it repeatedly raised the alarm few years ago, by employing qualified teachers, the present decadent scenario would have been avoided.
“As a party, we condemn the inaction of Obaseki’s government – it is inexcusable, because such nonchalance and indifference has only served, since 2016 to paralyze the once vibrant education sector in our State.
“The insensitivity of the  Governor became glaring over the years when repeatedly he claimed to have transformed Education with the fictitious EdoBest 1.0 and very recently with EdoBest 2.0. Obviously, the two programs are hallmarks of his Make Edo Grounded Again, MEGA policy.
“Edo people know that the so called EdoBest 1.0 as it turned out, was the governor’s purchase, in billions of Naira, of fairly used handheld devices for nonexistent teachers. Because it was a hoax, the governor recently renamed it EdoBest 2.0 with the announcement of a change in the designation of heads of  schools as Executive headmasters or Principals”, the statement said.
The party, therefore, called on the Edo state government to do some “soul-searching over its failure as it has left children without quality education which is the key to their leadership of “tomorrow”.
“Only a careless and inept leadership like the PDP government would ignore the danger signals a decline in education standards pose to the future of our state. This is why we align with the NUT and insist that, for the future of our State to be reassured, the Governor Obaseki government must immediately begin the recruitment of trained teachers and deploy them to schools across the state.
“Edo state belongs to all of us, just as every Edo child has a right to quality education; no government should mortgage education, which is the lifeblood of any society for any reason or under any guise, whatsoever”, the APC stressed.