Edo committed to quality education, unveils digital certificate platform – Commissioner
The Edo State Commissioner for Education, Dr. Paddy Iyamu, has said that the Governor Monday Okpebholo-led administration in the state is committed to bettering the lives of students with quality education in a conducive environment.
He said that the governor, in his determination to improve the education standard and well-being of students, recently unveiled Edo Cert 2.0, a digital platform that would enable students in the state to have seamless access to their certificates online.
Iyamu, who stated this while interacting with journalists in Benin, the state capital on Wednesday, said that the current administration has recorded tremendous achievements despite assuming office over three months ago.
He said, “For our 100 days in office, we have achieved quite a lot. We have just launched a technological platform, where all Edo State students can go online and assess their certificates.
“Before, you usually have to go and start checking for your certificates manually, and we had cases of students misplacing their certificates, and they would start all over, going to their different schools to look for copies of their manual certificates,
“But all that will now be a thing of the past, with the unveiling of Edo Cert 2.0, to ensure that our students have access to technology. All you need to do is just to put the students’ numbers on the platform, and you can print your certificates. So, these are one of the things that we launched.”
Iyamu stated that when the governor came on board, he alongside other Ministry of Education officials went to the three senatorial districts of the state, to identify some of the infrastructure decay in schools.
He added, “The governor immediately gave an order that the decayed and dilapidated schools be renovated and reconstructed. In some cases, we have demolished many schools and reconstructed them because the governor is someone who matches words with actions. So, immediately after that directive was given, we swung into action, and today, the story is different.
“I am sure you must have seen some videos of Eweka Primary School, Oruma Primary School, Irrua Girls, Ekhile Primary School, New Era Girls Secondary School, and the list is endless. We are working day and night tirelessly to ensure that the average Edo child has access to education, in a conducive environment.”
The commissioner further revealed that while the administration of Okpebholo has approved the employment of 500 teachers in the first tranche into the workforce, the subvention of Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma was also increased from a paltry N41 million to N500 million.
“One of the major areas again we looked at was the area of the workforce. The governor hasn’t started the revamp of schools, we needed teachers to teach our students in those schools.
“Hence, he approved the employment of over 500 teachers to help strengthen the workforce”, Iyamu added.
He said the current administration in Edo has prioritised skill acquisition through technical education, adding that the current reality is that paper certificates can no longer guarantee 100 per cent employment for the youths.
“The place of skill acquisition cannot be over emphasized. We have gotten to a point in history where just the certificates can no longer guarantee employment for the teeming youth we have.
“So we looked at the Technical Colleges across the three senatorial zones in Edo. We are presently overhauling the syllabus of our Technical Colleges to meet the present-day challenges so that they can proffer solutions to the present-day realities and problems in society”, Iyamu stated
While disclosing that part of the achievements of the governor is the recent induction of 128 medical doctors from AAU who were hitherto denied induction during the last administration, the commissioner said that the governor has also facilitated the accreditation of eight courses across the tertiary institutions in the state.
