Edo State Governor Godwin Obaseki performed the ground-breaking ceremony for the construction of an education hub to house a world-class library with 50 million titles with state-of-the-art facilities in Edo on Friday
The ground-breaking ceremony took place at the premises of the Ministry of Education, Iyaro in Benin.
While performing the ceremony, Obaseki revealed that the hub would also house several buildings.
The buildings include the Library Board building, Board for Technical Education and Vocational Training (BTVET), Board for Quality Assurance, and State Universal Education Board(SUBEB).
The Governor added the Secondary Education Board, Primary Health Care Centre, and Conference Centre which would accommodate 500 people at a sitting, and a cafe among others would so be in the building.
“For those of them that have been criticizing, by May this year, we will open the branch of the library at Edo Mall.
“We are here today for the groundbreaking ceremony of the education hub, but coming here reminds us that education broke down in Edo State just like all these buildings.
“Deterioration in education in Edo State equates to the type of deterioration that you see in this building in this premises.
“As a government, we would not have completed our work, having transformed the education system, leaving this infrastructure that would govern and regulate the sector.
“In the education hub, we would have a library board building. By May this year, we would open a branch of the library at Edo Mall. You cannot open a branch without head office.
“We are rebuilding our library system with a minimum of 50 million titles. We are rebuilding our library system into a digital system spread across the state.
“This will enable our children across the state to log into the Edo library to check and read books for their use. It will be a world-class library system.
“It will also have Ministry of Education offices, SUBEB offices, and Secondary School Education Board. We are focusing on the disarticulation of the junior from senior secondary school.
“Offices for technical education which are now a priority in the state will be in the hub
“We want many children as possible to have skills to enable them to have handwork to feed themselves even if they cannot further their education.
“We would make sure that this hub is supported by world-class amenities,” Obaseki explained.
