The education miracle taking place in Edo State

The stories that the world hears coming out of Nigeria about education do not paint a good picture of the country; insurgency, students being kidnapped for attending the classroom; NGOs campaigning for improvement in education standards.

Yet, there is also an education miracle taking place in Edo State. The leadership of Governor Obaskei and his SUBEB Chair, Dr. Joan Oviawe has made Edo’s public school system globally competitive in just three years. This is a miracle.

The three year celebrations will be made with a loud fanfare as other state leaders are encouraged to do for their populations growth and prosperity what Edo’s leaders have done for theirs

It is well known that the route out of poverty, insecurity will be determined by education.

Learning outcomes are highly correlated with wealth. According to a Stanford economist, Professor Hanushek: Low income countries have low learning outcomes remaining in a vicious poverty cycle – as the labour pool remains small, and the burden of the uneducated on the country or the state, large. To break out you need radical learning gains.

Edo state has a generation of youth that are confident, literate and numerate and that have big dreams for themselves and their State.

EdoBEST (Edo Basic Education Sector Transformation) is celebrating three years this month; and its cheerleaders include parents, teachers and the World Bank.

EdoBEST was designed to transform basic education across the state. In the Governor’s own words: “Once you get basic education right everything else falls into place”
Now, three years after the programme began EdoBEST has accelerated student fluency to near global standards in less than 3 years, a feat that took countries recognised for global excellence in learning – South Korea and Singapore – decades to achieve.

This is not in ten schools or a hundred schools. This is across over a thousand schools. According to Okoifoh Samuel, a primary 6 pupil at Akho Primary School in Irrua, Esan Central, “The new way of teaching mathematics, has made me like the subject so much, unlike before, I now enjoy solving complex mathematics problems.” Last year, as a result of the rigorous teaching in mathematics and the support he got from his teacher, Okoifoh emerged as the Best Mathematics Pupil in his school and tied for best in the senatorial district.

The new learning data analysis shows that the state has accelerated reading fluency to 70% of that of High Income Countries, compared to less than 30% for Nigeria nationally and other low income countries globally.

The Asian tigers – Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore – are praised across the world for their education systems and looked to as an exemplar model of success.
Few have heard of Edo before this education transformation changed the fortunes of the state, but now it will take its place alongside the Asian tigers showing what is possible.

EdoBEST is rightly being viewed as an exemplary model for education transformation. African states and nations do not have generations to waste; migration, instability, poverty is the all consuming threat now. As a result, other states are now replicating the model after reviewing the success of the programme, including EKOEXCEL, Lagos’ basic education transformation programme. More will follow.

National leaders from elsewhere in Africa have visited Edo with a view to designing the programme for their populations and getting it up and running quickly.

There is excitement amongst political leaders who have seen how popular EdoBEST is with parents and guardians across the state; a popularity reflected in the ballot box.

Since the launch of EdoBEST, stakeholders have responded positively to the program. According to Omorovie Faith, a Primary 6 Teacher at Akho Primary School in Irrua, Esan Central LGA expressed her appreciation to the Edo State Government for the Teacher Professional Development Initiative. She said that the training program has enabled her to become more technological-savvy. “The EdoBEST program has given me a sense of belonging, and pride as a teacher because before now, teachers were not recognized as a formidable workforce.” she added. “I feel empowered and able to deliver at the same level as teachers from around the world. Asides from enhanced professional growth and development the technological support and other materials that simplify and speed up aspects of the teaching activities enable greater attention for individual pupil needs.”

The success is also seen in the number of children returning to Edo’s public schools – there has been a significant increase of over 26,000 in pupil enrollment. Edo state now has the lowest rate of out-of-school children in Nigeria. A parent, Mr. Ohenhen stated that when he discovered that EdoBEST teachers now use technology to deliver lessons in public primary schools with 21st century teaching methodology, he withdrew his children from private school and registered them in Oba Ewuare Primary School, Ugbowo, in Egor Local Government Area of the state.

This success of the Governor and SUBEB Chair is now visible in clear monetary terms and The World Bank has included EdoBEST in their Accelerator programme – investing $75million in its expansion within the State. As a recognised transformative education leader, Governor Obaseki has been appointed to the World Bank’s Board of Education.

After three years, the federal government can claim credit for such pioneering success in its nation. Teachers are performing well and excited about their profession; pupils are returning to public school classrooms in their thousands and the State is competing with the high income countries for learning outcomes. If this is not a miracle, what is?