The Osun State Commissioner for Education, Mr. Wasiu Omotunde-Young, yesterday said the state government recorded 284 per cent improvement in the performance of students in the West African Examination Council (WAEC) from 2010 to 2017.
Addressing reporters at the Exco Chamber of the Governor’s Office in Osogbo, the state capital, Omotunde-Young said the Rauf Aregbesola administration had brought the state’s education from darkness to light in the last seven and a half years.
According to him, students’ performance in public schools in the state improved from 15.68 per cent in 2010 to 44.59 per cent in 2017, saying this was a significant improvement of 284 per cent.
The commissioner recalled that in 2010, a total of 43,216 public secondary school students sat for WAEC while only 6,77 passed with Credit in Mathematics and English language, representing 15.68 per cent.
In 2017, he said 32,488 public secondary school students sat for WAEC, while 14,487 passed with Credit in Mathematics and English language, representing 44.49 per cent.
The commissioner said the improvement in students’ performance was the result of focused, deliberate and purposeful intervention Aregbesola put into the Education sector.
He added: “As at November 2010, when Aregbesola retrieved his mandate to govern the state, the situation in the Education sector was marked with poor, dysfunctional, appalling learning and teaching infrastructure across the state. All of these exulted in very poor performance of students in internal and external examinations.”
According to him, a blueprint developed from education summit organised in 2011 resulted in a radical and comprehensive policies, which he noted transformed the sector.
The commissioner said the state government’s intervention in infrastructure development, training and capacity development of teachers, supply of science laboratory materials, among others, led to the improvement of the students’ performance.