Children’s Day: Aregbesola Calls for Quality Education, Parental Guidance

Yinka Kolawole in Osogbo

The Osun State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola has called on all stakeholders involved in the upbringing of children not to spare any amount, efforts and steps in security quality education for their children to ensure that they are better equipped for future challenges.

He said his administration is making huge investment to provide and promote functional education for school children in the state, as failure to do so would spell doom for the society.

Aregbesola, who said this during the marchpast and calisthenics display ceremony organised to commemorate this year’s Children’s Day with the theme ‘Creating Safe Spaces for Our Children: Our Collective responsibility’, added that the educated and skilled fellow will survive the future challenges.

Aregbesola, who stressed that children deserve to be celebrated on a daily basis, said basic education is important to them. He said the state government is investing in basic education to create a complete individual that will be useful to the society.

“Our administration has spent so much in the education sector because we know that we are investing in the future of our state, everybody involved with children must begin to take care of them more than ever before because a failure to do this will not be good at all.

“The future we are heading to is one that will require only the educated and highly skilled individual to survive in; it is a future that will be such that if you are not skilled, things may be difficult for you.

“Low skills and menial jobs will be eliminated in the next 50 years, only the educated and skilled individual will be relevant and that is what we are preparing our children for.”

On the significance of the calisthenics exercise, the governor said it brings about unity and team spirit which the students and every individual need to succeed in life, adding that the discipline which the exercise requires can be used to overcome any obstacle.

He added that modern researches have proven that physical exercises are capable of keeping away diseases from the body, saying that the calisthenics programme is a good form of exercise for the children.

“The calisthenics display that our administration has introduced in the state is highly essential for young children because it will imbibe in the young ones the spirit of unity, team spirit and a sense of discipline which every individual needs to succeed in life.”

In her remarks, the Commissioner for Women, Children and Social Affairs, Alhaja Latifat Giwa called on stakeholders involved in children’s upbringing to rise up to the task of nurturing them on the right path because they are the future.

She described the care of the children as one which should not be handled with kid glove, saying that every child deserves the best care that adults around can give at any point in time.