PROTOCOL,
I feel highly excited to be in your midst today to commission St. James’ Caring Heart Mega Primary School, Akure, the first in the series of 50 Mega schools built in 8 years of our administration.
Let me give special thanks to God for how far that He has taken us. Going down the memory lane, you will all recall that when we came on board about eight years ago, the entire education sector, especially, the basic education subsector was almost comatose and beleaguered by the disturbing dichotomy that existed between the instructional qualities of public and private schools.
The sector was characterized by decayed infrastructures, lack of facilities, poor incentives to teachers and hence, a very low morale from teachers. In view of the situation, virtually all the seats in public primary schools in the State were empty and the classrooms became deserted. With dilapidated structures, paucity of teaching facilities and poor incentives for teachers among others, the schools became eye sores where miscreants hibernate to perpetrate crimes.
In pursuance of our Caring Heart Agenda in the education sector, we swung into action based on our vision and mission for a virile education, to make this sector especially, a success story. It was then our determination to make this subsector a viable one so that we create an enabling environment for both learning and recreational activities.
What we are witnessing today is the result of a well-articulated programme that was designed to bring education from the lowest ebb that it was to the topmost rung of the ladder. We had our perception of what a primary school should be in order to achieve the 2nd Goal of the Millennium Development Goals. We had a very clear vision and by extension, a determined mission to ensure a drive that would galvanize the basic education sub-sector into an enviable height. We intended to make our State a benchmark, a standard and a measuring gauge for primary education not only in Nigeria, but in the continent and the globe at large.
Today, we are receiving accolades, commendations and awards of several kinds from national and international bodies of repute for what we are doing in the education sector. The Caring Heart Mega Primary Schools are designed to give room for a level playing ground for all children from various/diverse backgrounds to freely interact and learn together under the same roof. Ordinarily, the standard of the mega schools, in terms of quality, could have created an access-impediment for the poor thus, further creating a wide gulf between the rich and the poor.
This imaginary gap has, however, been bridged by our deliberate efforts to make the schools accessible to the children of both the rich and the poor. Today, the child of the elite, a commissioner, sits side by side with that of the common man. This is a way of bringing hope to the hopeless and our own way of engendering equity.
Ladies and gentlemen, it is my belief that posterity will judge us for whatever we do for our young ones, and the value we add to their welfare and wellbeing. They are our foundation; they are our hope; they are our tomorrow; they are our future. So, we must formulate deliberate policies and make concerted efforts to support them to reach their destined goals and aspiration in life. I am sure that with the Mega Schools, children can have a better guaranteed education for a better tomorrow.
You will recall the host commissioner’s description of this facility as Type A with the capacity of 1050 pupils.
It is the most toured mega school in the State today as many State guests from within and outside the country had visited it at one time or the other. I will like to appreciate the Head Teacher who had always been available as a tour guide to these very important guests.
While congratulating my people in Akure over this, I urge you all to continue to support government, not only by ensuring the maintenance and security of these schools, but in every other way, so as to enable it fully deliver various other projects that will bring smiles unto the faces of our people.
May I also advise the pupils to make the best use of these facilities for their optimal benefits.
Thanks for listening and God bless.
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