OSUN State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola, yesteday gave out statistics, which shows that students’ performances in public examinations under his administration have confirmed remarkable improvements in the quality of education in the state.

The governor described as unfounded the allegation that the performance of pupils has gone down during his administration.

Speaking at the World Teachers Day in Osogbo, the governor said a remarkable 61 percent improvement has been recorded.

He said, “In 2007, government put forward 36,171 students for WAEC examination out of which 2,483 representing 6.86 percent had credit pass in five subjects, including English and Mathematics. In 2008, it was 37,715 candidates with 3,813 pass, 10.11 percent, in 2009 it was 39,676 candidates, with 5,545 pass, representing 13.98 percent. In 2010 it was 43,216 candidates, with 6,777 pass, 15.68 percent. These four years gave us an average of 15.68 percent. 

“However, our administration started sponsoring candidates in 2011, we fielded 53,293 candidates, had 11672 pass, representing 21.98 percent. In 2012, we fielded 51,463 out of which 11,431 passed, representing 22.21 percent. In 2013, we also fielded 47,013 candidates, recorded 9,301 pass, representing 19.78 percent. The average performance for our first three years was 21.32 per cent. 

“Compared with the average performance (13.26 per cent) of the three years that preceded us, the percentage improvement in performance during our tenure is a whopping 61 percent. You can’t fight with figures,” Aregbesola emphasised.

The governor assured that his administration will complete all projects it has started in the state including the construction of 170 new state-of-the-art schools.

In his speech titled “Empowering teachers, building sustainable society” at the 2015 World Teachers Day, Aregbesola noted that it is the dream and aspiration of the present administration in the state to turn education around, saying this has been accorded prime importance by his government right from inception.