The Minister of State for Education, Goodluck Opiah has appealed to South West governors to emulate and sustain the legacies of Chief Obafemi Awolowo in the field of education in order to rid the region of out-of-school children and bring development to the country.
This is contained in a statement made available to newsmen in Abuja on Thursday by the Director of Press, Federal Ministry of Education, Mr. Ben Goong after a flag- off ceremony of the National campaign on out-of-school children in Ogun State.
The statement quoted Opiah to have appealed to southwest governors to prioritise education through increased budgetary allocations, infrastructural development and sustained public reorientation as ways of tackling the menace of out-of-school children.
The Minister emphasised the need for political will and total commitment, calling for all hands to be on deck in the fight to get every child on board the ship of school.
Opiah pointed out that system strengthening and increased enrollment were the key goals of the campaign, adding that the involvement of traditional, religious and community leaders was key to the attainment of the overall goal of eradicating out-of-school children.
In his keynote address, the Ogun state Governor, Dapo Abiodun said the South West made a head start in education in Nigeria, courtesy of Chief Obafemi Awolowo.
He added that the Awolowo legacy would not be allowed to die, rather it would be sustained in order to bring glory to Ogun state and the nation at large.
Abiodun, while saying that it would continue to roll out the fruits of the Awolowo legacy in education across the South west adding that as at date, Ogun state is ahead of other states in terms of the number of educational institutions at all levels.
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