By Usman Aliyu
Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo, on Friday, announced the conversion of the Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, to a multi-campus institution, alongside two other state-owned tertiary institutions.
Obaseki announced the conversion while speaking at the education policy town hall meeting convened by the state Ministry of Education.
The governor said that while the main campus would be in Ekpoma, the two new campuses would be located in Oredo local government and Owan federal constituency.
For Oredo, the Edo chief executive said the campus would focus on technology and engineering, while the sister campus in Owan would be for agriculture and natural resources.
Obaseki also announced an upgrade of the state College of Agriculture, Iguoriakhi, into a degree awarding institution with two other campuses in Agenebode and Uromi.
“We are, as a priority, upgrading our College of Agriculture into three campuses and that the college would be degree-awarding.
“We have the main campus in Iguoriakhi, we have another campus in Uromi and the third one in Agenebode.
“The one in Iguoriakhi is almost completed, while the ones in Agenebode and Uromi would be captured in our next budget.
“The same philosophy would apply to our College of Education, which has been converted into three campuses.
“Abudu campus will focus on basic and early childhood education, the main campus in Igueben will focus on secondary education, while Afuze on special, physical and health education,” he said.
This new policy, the governor said, was to ensure people in each of the three senatorial districts in the state had access to quality tertiary education.
He promised to ensure that the restructuring was institutionalised before the end of the year, so that the state would become used to it before the end of his administration in 2024.
Obaseki also announced the disarticulation of junior secondary school from senior secondary school, beginning from the next academic session.
According to him, the new system of education in the state would be basic education, which is a merger of primary and junior secondary education; and senior secondary school.
Obaseki asserted that the bulk of the resources ploughed into education in the state would henceforth go into basic and technical education.
He, noted, however, that his government would improve infrastructure and facilities at the tertiary institutions in the state.
Earlier, in her presentation, Dr Joan Osa-Oviawe, the state Commissioner for Education, said the meeting was meant to generate a revised education policy, that would be organic and have the the input of the people.
Osa-Oviawe said that the state government was committed to the reform of the education sector, under its Edo Basic Education Sector Transformation (EdoBEST).
Under the reform, she said, over 2000 teachers had been recruited and trained on technology-based innovative teaching and learning techniques at primary and junior secondary schools.
She added that another 12,000 had applied for placement in secondary schools in the state.
The commissioner also explained that the library system in all the 18 local government areas of the state would be revived to ensure a reading culture among Edo students.
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