Aregbesola Commissions N750m School, Names It After Soyinka

The first in the series of mega-schools built by the Rauf Aregbesola administration in Osun state has been formally opened in Ejigbo and fittingly christened in honour of Nigeria’s Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka.

The school, which cost N750million, is a 3,000-capacity complex with 72 classrooms of 49 square-metre, each capable of sitting 49 pupils. It has six offices for study groups. It will be known as Wole Soyinka Government High School, Ejigbo.

It is equipped with six laboratories, 18 toilets for girls and 18 for boys, one science library, one arts library, facility manager’s office, a bookshop and a sick bay.

Soyinka praised Aregbesola, saying he was elated that such honour was bestowed on him. He pledged to visit the school often to see how it was faring.

He also said the school was an an “emphatic rejection of what Boko Haram insurgents preach”.

He described the Federal Government’s failure to rescue the missing Chibok girls as shameful.

“It is a shame that the nation cannot account for over 200 girls in Chibok. I sympathise with the religious policy of governments in school; children must not be brought up feeling that religion inhibits knowledge.

“In schools, we need not distinguish our children, the fatalistic religious holiness and the holier-than-thou attitude must be reduced among our pupils.”

Aregbesola said although the cost of the school was huge, he noted that it was a worthy investment.

The governor promised that more of the schools would be inaugurated next year.

“We can build a good road that will last for 50 years and we are doing that, but this can never compare to the enlightenment an educated person receives, in terms of its value to the society and humanity.

“The state of education prior to our coming was appalling and frighteningly so. Zoos were better than the places where pupils were receiving knowledge. Many of them were dilapidated and falling down.’