Children’s Day: Obaseki pledges more funding as EdoBEST pupils celebrate

Governor Godwin Obaseki has promised to continually fund education and children related issues to ensure that Edo pupils are equipped for the future. He made the remark during the National Children Day Celebration which was held simultaneously in 18 local government areas of Edo State.

In his statement which was read by heads of local government councils across the state, the governor noted that “The children of Edo state represent our future, and we owe it to ourselves and to posterity to invest wisely and build the right institutions, systems, and processes that put our children first.

“The theme for this year’s celebration aptly captioned “Strengthening Supportive Systems for the Protection of the Nigerian Child” serves as a clarion call for us to increase our investments in human capacity building, basic education funding, legislation, and policies that all together form the bedrock for child protection and support system.

The governor further acknowledgment the importance of investing in technology in an era of artificial intelligence and machine learning, hence the investment under the auspices of EdoBest 2.0. “The goal is premised upon our overarching objective to achieve global standard literacy and numeracy skills in all Edo Children, our children must be equipped to compete globally and emerge employable,” he noted.

Governor Obaseki launched EdoBEST in 2018 in a bid to reform the basic education sector in Edo state, three and half years later, the reform was extended to junior secondary schools and primary schools in hard-to-reach areas, also referred to as progressive schools.

National Children Day Celebration 2022 was an opportunity for EdoBEST pupils from over 2,000 schools to demonstrate the improvement in learning outcomes which has taken place in the past few years through activities including presentations, display of art, recitation of poems and anthems, games, among other activities.

The even was also used to encourage adults to uphold the rights of children across the state.