The Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU) has conferred an Excellence Award on the Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, in recognition of his strides in the education sector.
The award was presented at the Quadrennial delegate conference of the association, which held at Sheraton Hotel in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The award was presented by the General Secretary of NASU, Prince Peter Adeyemi, who hailed the governor’s stride in the education sector, particularly in repositioning basic and technical education in the state and pioneering an innovative model to tackling learning poverty.
In his response, Governor Obaseki listed basic and technical education, primary healthcare, workers welfare and industrialisation as some of the cardinal pillars of his administration.
According to him, “In Edo State, we have ensured that education and healthcare are key priority. This is because we believe in the power of the human person to drive change and work for the advancement of society.
“With the Edo Basic Education Sector Transformation (Edo-BEST) programme, we are keen on re-enacting the education sector so that we ensure that we move from schooling to learning. Evidence from the programme has already shown that our children learn three times more in a school term than they used to in the old system.”
He added that the people are now taking ownership of school infrastructure through the School-Based Management Committee (SBMC), which has ensured that members of the community band together to work against vandalism of school property and monitoring of school building construction.
“We have ensured that the welfare of teachers is treated specially. They get their salaries and pension as and when due. The process of enrolling for pension is also seamless, so much that the state has been rated as the best to retire.”
