Obaseki to unveil 50m volume capacity digital library

The Edo State Government on Friday said that it is building a world class library system that would house a minimum of 50 million volumes of academic works.

Godwin Obaseki, governor of Edo State, made the disclosure at the groundbreaking ceremony of the education hub, which is located at the Edo State Ministry of Education at Iyaro in Benin City.

The governor who said a world class library board will be one of the facilities to be constructed at the education hub noted that the state is building its library system into a digital library system.

He disclosed that by May, 2023, a new library will be opened at the Edo Mall located on Sapele Road, Benin City, that will accommodate a minimum of 50 million volumes of academic works.

“We are rebuilding our library system into a digital library system, which will spread across the entire state. This will enable our children across the state to log into Edo library to check and read books for their educational development. It will be a world class library board and a library system.

“By May this year, we will be opening the branch of a library at the Edo Mall. From what we are doing today, we are rebuilding our library system with a minimum of 50 million volumes of academic books”, he said.

Read also: Fuel scarcity, Naira swap: Abiodun suspends re-election campaigns

The governor, who said his administration would continue to invest in education, called for collective responsibility among stakeholders to sustain the investment.

While lamenting the decay in the education sector in the state, he opined that never will the people of the state allow those without capacity and not prepared to govern be elected into political offices.

“We allowed those without capacity to govern and that is why we have found ourselves in this situation as a nation”, he added.

He listed some of the facilities to be constructed at the education hub to include; Ministry of Education offices, new State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) offices and Secondary School Education Board.

Others are; offices for Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET), quality assurance office, three schools, which are primary, junior secondary school and senior secondary schools, play ground, healthcare centre, a 500-capacity conference centre and restaurants for workers.

He opined that to invest properly in education, the government must create the needed infrastructure that would help to achieve the desired results.

Earlier, in her welcome address, Joan Osa Oviawe, the State Commissioner for Education, urged parents and other stakeholders in the education sector to ensure that all special children are given the needed education to help them through in life.

Oviawe, who said the education hub was a brainchild of the state governor, assured that the project will be completed before the end of the tenure of the administration in 2024.