A visit to some of the schools in the state was revealing. Testimonies abound.
“We are given textbooks free of charge and no school fees. The government has given people like me hope. I am happy,” she said with a smile Osaro who also noted that the Edo state digital learning tagged: “EdoBest” has revolutionalised both learning and teaching in the state, said delivering lessons has become much easier and simpler.
The Executive Chairman, of EdoSUBEB, Mrs Eyitayo Salami, said the tremendous increase in the enrollment of children into ECCDE, which has culminated in the overall enrollment of children into Junior and Senior Primary schools has reduced the number of out-of-school children. “For the last six years, we have focused on quality education, literacy and numeracy under our EdoBest education reform programme. This is why in 2013, Edo state was selected as one of the accelerator countries. We are the only state in Nigeria, that was selected among other African countries, because of the progress we have made in the eradication of learning poverty,” she said.
In the views of Yetunde Oluwatosin, Education Specialist, with UNICEF Nigeria, Foundational learning skills which include; basic literacy, numeracy & transferable skills are the building blocks for all other learning, knowledge & higher-order skills and are imperative for continued learning & sustainable development.