OUTGOING Lagos State Deputy Governor, Princes Adebisi Sarah Sosan, recently gave a scorecard of steps taken by the Governor Babatunde Fashola administration to uplift education in the state, which she supervised in the last four years.Infrastructure and development Following the realisation that quality teaching and learning can only be achieved in conducive atmosphere, the administration confronted the issue of infrastructure with a view to solving problems of classroom congestion, dilapidation, broken down laboratories and equipment, absence of furniture, fixtures and fittings, which hitherto characterised Lagos public schools.Due to the enormity of this problem, the government prioritised areas of needs and this led to commencement of rehabilitation work.A total of 309 classrooms blocks were rehabilitated in 2007; 1,448 classrooms in 2008; 726 classrooms in 2009; and 393 last year.In all, a total of 2,876 classrooms have been created till date.Similarly, 20 blocks of classrooms, leading to additional 216 classrooms, were constructed. About 73 schools spread across the six education districts were provided with toilet facilities for improved sanitation and healthy living in the schools.Our intervention in the area of provision of furniture is unprecedented. The state government has supplied about 300 furniture for students/pupils, teaching, non-teaching and administrative staff, aside from the Repair-a-desk initiative, through which 28,200 students furniture was repaired.In spite of all these, the state declared an emergency in the school furniture situation in 2009, with the objective of ensuring that no student in state public school sits on the floor to receive teaching.Educational resource centres Under this scheme was the establishment of the first purpose-built Educational Resource Centre located at the premises of Babs Fafunwa Millennium Grammar School in Ojodu.The Centre, a lifelong learning place, is equipped with the state of the art facilities, including equipment for printing and production of audio-visual.It also comprises mini audio-visual recording and editing studios, 24-person capacity ICT laboratory, standard lecture hall, modern conference centre, reference library and language laboratory.The Centre commenced operation as Audio-Visual Division of the Ministry at the states inception in 1967 and became an Educational Technological Centre during the Alhaji Lateef Jakande administration in 1980.It was upgraded to a Centre and eventually commissioned on September 23, last year.Multilingual centreTo meet the challenges around the globe, the state government has upgraded its erstwhile French Language Centre to a Multi-Lingual Centre to promote the study of foreign languages other than French, including Chinese and in the nearest future, Arabic.As at now, 10 pilot schools have been selected to commence teaching of Mandarin (Chinese Language)State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB)In line with its responsibilities, SUBEB also handles construction, rehabilitation and renovation of primary and junior secondary schools.During the period under review, the Board executed 217 new projects and renovated 50 schools, while 38,418 primary school pupils, 9,249 ECCDE and 360 Teachers furniture were provided in different schools.About 38 primary schools, with a combined population of 28,557, also got a borehole each.It is pertinent to mention that these items were executed with funds from the state government, ETF and UBEC.A total of 135,464 pupils were enrolled into our primary schools during the period, with 419,174 pupils placed into the 320 Junior Secondary schools in the same period.A series of workshops and seminars were organised, from which 8,159 Teachers, Assistant and Head Teachers at all levels benefited to further upscale their knowledge in various disciplines.Similarly, the Board absorbed 510 participants in the Federal Teachers Scheme (FTS) into its employ.Technical and Vocational Education The bill on Technical Education was signed into law on July 7, 2009 and the board has been constituted and formally inaugurated on May 3, last year.It comprises experienced individuals with requisite knowledge to give technical education the desired place in national development.Our focus was to change the wrong perception that technical education is for dropouts or not too intelligent students.Our repositioning of TVE follows our desire to produce critical mass of skilled individuals to meet our mega city plan and also create a pool of self-reliant individuals who will re-position the state economy.We have intensified our advocacy in changing the wrong notion, aside from other steps, to improve the quality of technical education. The government has continued to pay the examinations fees for all final year students of the Technical Colleges, as being done for Senior Secondary students.The government has gone a step further by assisting graduands of Technical Colleges to access loans from LASMI, in addition to the provision of working tools upon graduation.As at today, 49 trades are being taught in the state technical colleges, out of which the National Board has accredited 44 for Technical Education (NABTEB), in addition to the general academic subjects.With staff strength of 365 personnel and an enrolment figure of 4,929 students, each of the five technical colleges has five Communities Vocational Centres (CVC) attached to them.The TVE Board has entered into partnership with foreign institutions, such as Hackney Community College in North London for training of its staff.It is instructive to mention that most of the staff of our Technical Colleges are been exposed to foreign training to enhance subject content delivery.Similarly, some corporate organisations are partnering with us in the training of students of the colleges.A heartening outfall of our advocacy programme is the support of the Ikeja branch of the Nigeria Society of Engineers (NSE), MTN Foundation and Automedics Limited, all of who are collaborating with us on different trades on offer in two of the colleges.Let me seize this opportunity to thank these organisations for their support, as well as invite others to join us in this area of education.Science Education Following the realisation of its importance in the states development, government is leaving no stone unturned to encourage the study of science and position its students for greater participation in science programmes.To this end, the state supplies the necessary science materials/chemicals/reagents required in the annual WAEC terminal examinations.Similarly, 56 of our senior secondary schools were fitted with standard science laboratory, 125 supplied with science equipment and chemicals, while 110 junior/senior secondary schools have so far been provided with (ICT) facilities, in collaboration with the Ministry of Science and Technology.We have commenced the installation of e-tutor software that teaches 11 school subjects, including all the science subjects and 35 schools have so far benefited in this on-going initiative.Private EducationWe have continued to enjoy very warm relationship with the various associations of proprietors of private schools in the state.About 1,403 school sites, comprising 670 Nursery/Primary, 270 secondary and 63 Vocational/Remedial institutions were inspected, out of which 305 have so far been given provisional approval.During the same period, 3,096 applications for name search from those desirous of establishing private schools were received and conducted.Lagos State Educational Management SystemsThe management of information on students has brought management of schools data into public domain. The system has data of all students in both public and private schools and can be accessed on-line. Each student is assigned a personal identification number and issued an ID card.The system has assisted in uploading students registration process for WAEC examinations. This year alone, it has assisted greatly in uploading about 43,379 candidates for the current examinations.Private schools in the state are also participating in the system, in view of its immense benefits.Teachers Establishment and Pensions Office (TEPO)TEPO was created by the Lagos State Education Law 2005, which restructured the administration of schools and personnel, as well as created the office of Tutors-General to head the Education Districts.TEPO is also saddled with the responsibility of training and manpower development, Establishment and Pensions matters, welfare of staff the Education Districts, relations with industrial unions and the registration of professional teachers in the states employ. Spelling BeeThe Spelling Bee initiated by the former First Lady and now a senator-elect, Mrs. Oluremi Tinubu, is now jointly organised by the New Era Foundation and the state government.Our administration resolved to sponsor the programme because it has created greater awareness among students of primary and secondary schools, most of who now compete vigorously to serve as One-Day Governor.The Spelling Bee has continued to showcase our students/pupils academic excellence and leadership potential.This years competition, the 11th edition, was held on March 31 and April 1 respectively and produced Akpakpan Jones Iniodu of Baptist Senior High School, Obanikoro, as winner.We also have the Babatunde Raji Fashola (BRF) competition, which debuted last year, as another measure to encourage healthy rivalry among students in secondary schools and engender academic excellence, as well as quick analytical thinking and tolerance. Lagos Eko Secondary Education ProjectEducation in Lagos State received a boost last year with the intervention of the World Bank, which released a sum of $90 million to address governments priority for human capital development in the education sector through grants, performance-based incentives, teachers training and testing of students.Tagged Lagos Eko Secondary Education Project, the project is a partnership between the state government and the Bank.The emphasis of this four-year project is to enhance the educational performance of public school students, using Total Quality Management (TQM) parameters in the management of public schools to complement governments efforts at improving the overall quality of education.Through this project, the government is re-energising secondary schools by providing extra funds of between N2billion to N3.5 million directly to each of the 634 junior and senior secondary schools, as well as the five Technical Colleges.These funds are to augment what the schools currently receive from the government.Through the project, which was launched in November 2009, the government hopes to improve students performance.It is expected that the project will put an end to illegal levies in schools, as it would provide funds for school administrators to meet their immediate needs and improve performance of students and teachers.Some of its major achievements are disbursement of grants to all participating schools, training of 7,910 teachers, using school grants so disbursed, and attracting partnership of three international and two local organisations in the area of technical education.It has also helped in the recruitment of 750 volunteer teachers to support the regular ones, develop 90 zone project administrators to improve linkage and supervision of schools and others.Special Intervention Programme in Education This programme is a personal initiative of the governor aimed at involving non-education graduates or professionally qualified teachers to prepare final year students in core subjects of Biology, Chemistry, English, Mathematics and Physics for the current WAEC terminal examinations.This initiative is based on the belief that single honour graduates would have better content knowledge of their respective subjects.A total of 1,407 graduates of various fields applied, out of which 507 were chosen after weeks of rigorous training on teaching methodology.The intervention is meant to boost the performance of students and improve quality of future graduates of tertiary institutions.An intervention of similar nature is the special training organised for over 1,910 mathematics teachers to upscale their knowledge and improve service delivery.
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