Lagos to Eradicate Out-of-School Syndrome

Segun James

As the issues relating to out-of-school children continues to agitate educational administration, the Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu yesterday said that his government would commit more resources to ensure that all of such pupils are returned  to school immediately.

The governor gave the indication to this at the opening session of the 2022 Lagos State Education Summit, with the theme:’ Creating a sustainable Fit-for-Purpose Education Model’.

Sanwo-Olu emphasised the need to collaborate with stakeholders in the education sector to register more schools that would be monitored by the government in order to check how they are impacting on the students.

He stressed that his government has  made significant investment  in education sector in the last three years, stressing his administration’s commitment to continue to prioritize the development of the sector through an increase in the budget.

“This government has completed over 1,000 education projects in the last  three years, because improved education is one of the legacies we wish to leave behind. And we are also happy because the Summit came at the right time when the state has recorded improvement in the West African Examination Council, WAEC, results from 40 per cent to 80 per cent.

“Education is not just a pillar in one of our THEMES agenda, it’s one of the dividends of democracy and one of the cardinal objectives of our administration. We see it as one of the tools that can end poverty in our system. We are not paying lip service to education, we are taking it seriously. Education has continued to receive an increased budget in our administration,”  the governor said.

The governor,  who joined the event virtually, added that his administration has improved the learning environment and promised to do more in the coming years.

 “We believe we can do more. At the end of the Summit, we can have a real conversation with the private schools and work with them to ensure we get more out of Out-Of-School children,” he said.

In her address of welcome, the Commissioner for Education, Mrs Folasade Adefisayo, said that the need for Nigeria to take cognizance of a fit-for -purpose education model become imperative in order to protect the future of the country.

Adefisayo mentioned that Nigeria has myriad of problems that needed to be resolved in the education sector, stressing that the summit was organised to find solutions to some of the challenges.

She said Lagos is an important player in education in Nigeria being the sixth largest economy in Africa and everything must be done to secure its future.

“This summit is about audacity. Some of the outcomes of this summit will contribute to the process of solving education problems in Nigeria. The focus is not on the problems but now we want to come up with solutions. We want practical ideas that the state can implement. We are ready to listen.”

“The summit is also bringing to the fore a very important conversation to make sure that our educational levels from the Primary, Secondary and Tertiary is fit-for-purpose. That is the main thrust of the conversion that we have been having at the summit. We know that what we are doing is good and we need to do a lot  more and we need more partners and so that we don’t keep talking to ourselves,” she said.