By Omotayo Ogunbiyi

The impact of qualitative education as the strongest weapon to fight poverty and a useful pillar for nation building and economic prosperity cannot be over emphasized. Considering the generally acclaimed status of education in the development of the society, the Fashola administration has accorded education the attention it deserves. At a time in the state, the problem was that of access to get an opportunity to get an education. However, in the last few years, the problem has been substantially surmounted with Lagos now having a literacy record of over 84 percent.

Recent improvements recorded in external examinations by pupils in the state are indicative of the fact that the reforms and additional trainings being embarked upon for teachers are yielding results. The rehabilitation and construction of well furnished new blocks of classrooms, distribution of free text books, provision of well equipped laboratories and libraries, provision of buses for teachers and students to ease transportation problems, re-launch of uniformed voluntary organizations in the state’s public schools, implementation of Teachers’ Salary Scale (TSS) for teachers in the state public schools, evolvement of the ‘Adopt a School Initiative’, among others are some of the reforms of the Fashola administration in the education sector. To keep the flag flying, the state government recently hosted the third Lagos State Education Summit with the theme, “Qualitative Education in Lagos State: Raising the Standard” at the Eko Hotels and Towers, Victoria Island.

An integral part of the state’s educational reform is the EKO Education Project which has been a huge success thus far. The way the project has been adapted to suit the Lagos experience has promoted accountability and openness through its approval of discretional grants by schools.  The Eko Education Project enjoyed an unprecedented high rating from the World Bank, which is a partner in the project.

One aspect of the Eko Project which is fascinating is the volunteer teachers’ scheme which has injected about 20,520 hours per month into the schools system, an equivalent of 183 full time teachers. The spirit behind the Eko Education Project was to improve the quality of education, compel the Government as regulator to monitor the performances of the students, the schools and the teachers and encourage others to challenge themselves for greater heights.

Another innovation by the Lagos Eko Project is the provision of a Report Card for every school, with the card giving detailed account of how a school has performed in relation to other schools, Local Government Areas, Education Districts and statewide, a programme which is unique to the Nigerian assessment system. In its characteristic innovative style of governance, the state government, with a view to involving other stakeholders in the funding of education in the state, instituted the now popular ‘adopt a school policy’. Trough this policy, well meaning individuals, corporate organisations, and religious bodies among others are encouraged to pick and develop a school in their choice location.

The state government has since received favourable response from several stakeholders across the states that have been making massive contributions in this respect. Presently, the state government operates free education programme in all public primary and secondary schools across the state.  It should also be stressed that Lagos, unlike other states, does not limit its free education programme to only the indigenes. Consequently, the state spends more money in running its free education programme as it has to make provision for more pupils and students taking into consideration the cosmopolitan nature of the state.

Aside running free education at these levels, the state government has equally invested heavily in the upgrade of infrastructure in public schools in the state through rehabilitation of classrooms, provision of well equipped libraries and laboratories, provision of free text-books, provision of modern teaching devices and other vital school furniture.

Some of the rehabilitated schools include, Ikotun Senior High School, Alimosho, Girls High School, Agege, Okemagba Junior High School, Mojoda, Amuwo Senior Grammar School, Tomia Community Secondary School, Alagbado, Imota Community Grammar School, Imota, Oke-Ira Grammar School, Oke-Ira, Irepodun Primary School 1, Sari Iganmu , Alapere Comprehensive High School, Ketu, Methodist Junior High School, Badagry, Ajumobi Junior Grammar School, Okota, Majidun Senior Grammar School, Majidun, Iloro Junior Grammar School, Agege, Local Authority Nursery/Primary School, Ago-Hausa among others. Till date, the state government has provided  over 2,876 new classrooms in the state. In order to reduce the financial burdens on parents, the Fashola administration has sustained the payment of the West African Examination Council and the National Examination Council (NECO) for all of SS3 students in public secondary schools in the State as part of the support for education of the people. The special intervention programme for 495 trainee- teachers to assist WASCE candidates with extra coaching was also introduced.

Similarly, the State Governor recently presented a cheque of N252 Million to 126 junior and senior secondary schools, who have displayed improved performances over a period of time in the first Governor’s Education Award. With the competitiveness that the award will bring into the educational sector, the result would be for the benefit of all stakeholders in Lagos State. Despite its huge investment in public primary and secondary education, the state government remains committed to creating an enabling environment where indigent students in the tertiary institutions would not in any way be short-changed. This is being done through periodic increase of bursary awards, scholarship and grants. Equally, government is presently working on the overhauling of facilities at all the state owned tertiary institutions in order to guarantee qualitative education. Guests at the 2200 days event of the state government, which took place at LASU few weeks ago, would readily attest to the fact that a new LASU is presently evolving.   True democracy cannot exist in a society incapable of supporting the aspirations of its youth, and indeed its people. A truly representative government must be able to create the enabling environment for its citizenry to freely express itself in positive ways so that the diverse potentials of its people could be easily harnessed for growth and development. Alexis de Tocqueville, in his immortal classic ‘Democracy in America’ (1835), insists that building the people is more necessary than creating wealth, for the value of the latter is tied to the existence of the earlier. As it is often said, great minds think alike. Undoubtedly, Governor Fashola was having Tocqueville in mind when he declared recently at a public function that “if this investment matures (the investment in the education sector), Lagos will be a better place because we believe clearly, without any doubt, that the greatest resource this country has is not oil but its people.”With the kind of reforms that has been started by the state government through its steadfast focus on upgrade of school infrastructure and teachers’ improvement; a significant progress has undoubtedly been made. However, considering the peculiar challenges of the state, all hands must be on deck for the current tempo to be sustained and further ground covered.

•Ogunbiyi wrote from Lagos

——————————————————————————————————————————————-
Posted in Nigeria News. A DisNaija.Com network.

Source: PM News

DisNaija.Com publishes regular posts on Nigeria News, Nigerian Newspapers, Online Nigeria Gist.

Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Nigeria News

Follow @Dis_Naija

Your Opinion Counts. Be sure To Leave A Comment, If You Have Any.

Please Like, Share or Tweet. Your Support Is Appreciated.