When the Governor Henry Seriake Dickson –led ‘Restoration Government’ assumed office on February 12, 2012 it declared free and compulsory and state of emergency in the sector in Bayelsa after education in the state had been in comatose for years arising from prolonged neglect. Speaking against the backdrop of the importance of education to the overall development of the state, Dickson said he will not play politics with it and that his 1st , 2nd and 3rd priority sectors were – Education –Education- Education.
Today, one can conveniently say that the report card of the administration six years after shows distinctly that it has moved with a momentous force to appreciatively transform the education industry and this is attested to by the generality of the people and several prominent persons from Bayelsa and the world over, who have seen things for themselves while visiting the state. The declaration that Dickson is a visionary and revolutionary leader has become evident and earned him nicknames such as “Mr. Education” or the “first Education Commissioner”
Specifically the Governor’s dream is that every child is given opportunity to access quality education to develop their innate potentials and capacities so as to possess the required skills and competence derived from schooling and excel significantly such that they can confidently complete with their peers and counterparts from any part of Nigeria and the world, and be selected on merit in all spheres of human Endeavour-be in further learning productive employment, and entrepreneurship-having been empowered to be useful to themselves, the Ijaw-nation and society at large as they contribute their quota to meaningfully growth and development towards modernity in global terms .
The agenda is working in consonance with today’s globalised world order which relied on the “knowledge – based and knowledge driven –economy “to develop.
It is exciting that Bayelsa is led by a government that takes functional education in implicit trust to such the extent that its exploits are seen as the bases to actualize the attainment of sufficient quantities of productive human resources with desired knowledge, skills, competences, norms and values to effectively organize, co-ordinate and exploit the capital and natural resources available to fast track the anticipated growth and development envisaged.
The government has done creditably well by initiating reforms, backed by laws to ensure continuity.
Dickson’s position is hinged on the understanding that to succeed, the education system, like any other production industry, requires the injection of enormous resources. This is because schools exist in a complex mix of contextual analyses leading to constant recycling of actions and decisions delineated by continuous and dynamic mechanism of “inputs processes-outputs”. That is, inputs in terms of facilities, materials, equipment, funds, teachers and pupils are injected into the system; which are utilized in processing a given curriculum in the production lines in terms of teaching and learning, character modeling, testing/examinations, measuring performance, and management of the system; to produce desires outputs through well-defined certification outlets based knowledge and skills acquired by the clientele or students that has transited particular level.
In today’s Bayelsa, education has become more refined, systematic and pragmatic both in policy, funding and implementation such that in schools across Bayelsa, the environment has been provided in terms of facilities; subventions to enable head teachers carry out their duties effectively and adequate supply of teachers to schools.
The earnest desire in this era is that, ‘teachers must teach and students must learn’, to bring about desirable outcomes.
The achievements recorded include the successful implementation of the free and compulsory education system at the primary and secondary school levels while government has also been responsible for paying WAEC, NECO, JSS 111 and primary six final examination fees for public school children; massive infrastructural development in schools; sustained provision of classroom chairs and tables for pupils/students and teachers, and adequate provision of equipment and materials for model boarding secondary schools such as water and electricity supply and library equipment.
Against this backdrop, one can conveniently conclude that the ‘free and compulsory education of the Dickson administration and the declaration of a ‘state of emergency’ in the sector is an outstanding success.
Dr Stella Ugolo, is the Director General of the Directorate of Education Inspection and Policy Services, Bayelsa State.
