This is the case as Lagos’ Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu said his administration has increased education budgets in line with its deliberate efforts to build capital through quality education from eight to 12 percent in the fiscal year in question. He spoke during the visit of the former Committee Leaders to the Governor at the State House, Alausa, Ikeja. He commended the state government for curriculum reforms and rehabilitation in Lagos.
This is to achieve its statutory mandate and make basic education attractive for children in the state. The House Committee commended Mr Sanwo-Olu for providing executive finesse in support of the SUBEB, Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board.
Ihonvbere also praised the State Government for creating the Special Committee on Public School Rehabilitation (SCRPS) for the specific mandate of rehabilitating schools and providing education-enhancing materials in order to improve standards in basic schools. He called on other states to replicate the gesture.
“UBEC has paid 36 States more than N37 billion to maintain infrastructure and teacher training in schools, according to Ihonvbere.” He expressed concern about the lack of a playground for children in certain schools, but commended Lagos for providing children with a conducive learning environment.
He said: “We saw in Lagos encouraging progress in providing the necessary public schools infrastructure. In several areas the State has set the pace and it’s not for nothing called Centre of Excellence.” In this effort, we don’t want the state government to relax.
Lagos approach to attracting education certainly means that the State remains one of the leaders in the world where the education enrollment has greatly improved.”
Sanwo-Olu replied that, by heavily investing in primary schools outside of the competence of the state government, the State considered it to be a policy direction to provide a proper basis for children.
He said: “We have been striving for a firm foundation for education in Lagos over the last two years. In the current year, we have been increasing our budget from 8 to 12 percent, with a focus on improving it even more and therefore better quality and quantity of education.
This is the field in which we can provide children and young people with a better future. By providing assistance, we equip you with the capacity to prepare you physically and mentally.” We have made significant investments to develop curricula through an EKO EXCEL scheme. This is another intervention in primary schools, when we realized that we need a better learning environment for pupils and teachers.
The teacher’s tablets with a centralized server have uploaded lesson notes. This gives all pupils the same learning ability regardless of where the school is located.
We believe that we have to build a foundation for children from elementary schools.” The state used three government agencies to renovate the schools. Sanwo-Olu said the state. SUBEB, the Governor, has been used to drive the development of curricula while LASIAMA was responsible for school maintenance, planning standards and repair of installations including windows, ceilings and doors.
Sanwo-Olu said, ‘We went to the primary school level deliberately because we do not want to leave the local government alone with education and school reform.
In 2020 alone, we provided over 100,000 furniture in primary and secondary schools all over the state in the intervention we are doing.”
Sanwo-Olu said the state had established the benchmark for the school fence, calling for local government authorities to use the template to safeguard the pupils and keep hoodlums and undesirable elements out of the school.