Govt to Spend N5b on Schools Rehabilitation
By Shaka Momodu
About N5 billion would be spent over the next five years at the rate of N1 billion per year by the Lagos State government to put its schools infrastructure back into proper shape to ensure a better environment for quality education.
Disclosing this yesterday at the first Lagos State Education Summit, Lagos State Governor, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, said the rehabilitation of the first batch of 40 schools would begin before the end of July.
He noted that such rehabilitation programme undertaken by the federal agencies like Education Tax Fund (ETF) has limited impact, adding that a better option is the direct provision of such to either the local government or the schools to meet the various needs.
Promising that his administration would never scrap its free education policy, the governor said scrapping the over 25 years policy, which has improved the lot of the South-west is immoral and criminal.
According to him, free education was the "bastion of the philosophy of the founding fathers of modern Yoruba politics, a tradition that believes that the welfare of the majority and the comfort of every citizen regardless of ethnic, religious or tribal origin should be the essence of governance."
"When Chief Obafemi Awolowo introduced free primary education in the old Western region he never expected that any of his husman will scrap it less them 25 years after his death. We do not intend to scrap free education in Lagos State as long as we are in charge" he added.
While also explaining that the state will soon launch a new campaign to sanitise she state's public school system under kick Against Trucancy (KAT) the Government said any student found on the road by members of the "KAT" will not our be decult with, the principal and teacher will also be dealt with.
he promised that the quality of the state's schools will be improve through the provisions of "Resource Centre" in all the public secondary schools in the state.
Gov. Tinubu in stating that the banis of the education sector has been a lack of policy consistency on the past of the central Government and dearth of innovation in the sector urged that new thinkings and approaches be adopted in the quest for a sound education for the country.
Explaining that the private sector has a critical rotes to play in the development of the sector since it provides the future within which personnel will be sourced the Governor said the state plans to establish a "School Adoption Policy" under which coporate organisations adopt schools and also introduce School Management Committees comprising stakeholders in the locality.
In a keynote address on the theme "shaping a new vision and action for a more functional Education in Lagos State former Vice Chancellor, University of Benin Prof (Mrs) Grace Alele-Williams, the state government for cention sits has given to qualitative education and the "Jigi Bola" which has enhanced the opportunities available to the citizens.
While stating that functional education is a some qua non for development, prof. Alele-Williams said a comprehensive review of the education curriculum to harness technical experiences is important.
According to her with a non relevant curriculum, that fail to take into consideration the peculiar circumstances of the community, and a bad monitoring system there is always the tendency for the policies to fail.
The former Vice Chancellor, said rather that promote senior teachers out of the school system to become administrator they must be given the opportunity to stay within the school system and impart their experience to the younger generation of teachers being groomed.
She said the teachers have responsibility to apply new strategies and development within their profession so as to be able to stimulate the requirted interest in their students while earning their respect.
She also explained that the challenge of keeping student in school require that they must be kept busing learning highly useful skills such as typing, capentary and even mechanic Alele williams was also of the opinior that any cult member caught should be shown the way out of school as they constitute an immense drain on the state's resources.
In his opening remarks, Education Commissioner, Dr. Olakunle Lawal note that the summit is to highlight the challenges to the education sector in the state and "offers an opportunity for all stakeholders to have a deserved imput in the preparation of policies that will guide educational developments and management in the year to come."
The Commissioner while disclosing that both the faculty of Law and the college of Medicine of the State Owned University (LASU) had been accredited, noted that the establishment of a Department of Higher Education was to meet and anticipates the challenges of tertiary education in the 21st Century.
Present at the ceremony were the former Commisioner Education, Prof. Ajato Ganudonu, Dr Idowu Sobowale, Mr. Nammed Onipede, Prof. Abisogun Leigh, other top educationists in the state and Commissioners for Education from the South Western States.
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