The Edo Government said it has distributed 3.3 million books to 848 primary and 306 junior secondary schools in the state.
The state chairman of the Universal Basic Education Board, Mrs Ozavize Salami, disclosed this during the unveiling of the books as part of activities to mark the Edo Education Week in Benin.
She stated that out of the 3.3 million, 1.8 were distributed between 2018 and 2022 to public primary schools in the state.
She said, “Today, you are surrounded by 1.5 million books which will be distributed to schools across the state.
One million of these books will go to primary schools while over 500,000 would go to junior secondary schools.
“This will bring to 3.3 million books that have been distributed to 848 primary and 306 junior secondary schools between 2018 and 2023 in the state.”
She said instructional materials are critical to improving education and learning, hence the state government is doing its best to improve the education sector in the state.
Also speaking, Governor Godwin Obaseki said there had been a lot of criticisms directed at him and his government on social media despite making efforts to make the state progressive.
He said, “I am sure if you go on most of the blogs, the critical blogs, you will not see any story about the improvements we have made in our schools, about how we have transformed our school system into learning systems.
“They are asking, Why is he wasting all money to buy books for the children? Are we going to eat books?
“They are not interested in the future but the experience of the last one or two years has taught us that they will not succeed due to the political evolution in our country.
“With the parents of the 370,000 children in our school system, with the over 20,000 teachers and education managers, we will go into the streets to let them know that EDOBEST must be sustained.”
