Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State has said the government was deliberately focusing its interventions on primary schools as a way of laying solid foundation for its pupils to excel.
Sanwo-Olu said this on Monday when the House of Representatives’ Committee on Basic Education and Services, led by the Chairman, Prof. Julius Ihovnbere, paid him a courtesy visit at the Lagos House, Ikeja.
He said the government was building on human capital index through its interventions in education, hence it allocated 12 per cent of its 2021 budget to the sector.
According to him, the state government is putting in place models that will create a good future for the young ones and give them the capacity to become sound, mentally and physically.
Sanwo-Olu said: “To date, if my numbers are not missing, we have done over 100,000 benches and tables for the schools.
“We deliberately went down to the primary schools and said that we needed to put funding on physical infrastructure.
“On curriculum and content development, we are spending billions of naira and there is a scheme that is called EKOEXCEL, which is our own intervention project in the primary schools, and we are taking them from the root.
“We realised that one of the things that you can give is to ensure that the teachers are well equipped and the learning environment is second to none.
“Each of the lesson notes of the teachers, irrespective of where they are, has been downloaded on the tablets.
“They have the same content in terms of learning capabilities of the teachers.
“So issues around writing lesson notes are all documented on the tablets and every teacher has the same standard that is expected in terms of learning and lesson outcomes.”
Sanwo-Olu called on local government chairmen to collaborate with the state government on education so that the pupils would come out better and stronger.
Earlier, Ihovnbere commended Sanwo-Olu for showing the kind of leadership that Nigeria had been yearning for, particularly for believing in continuity.
He said the visit was part of the constitutional responsibilities to look into what was being done by states with the matching grant and funds they receive from the Universal Basic Education Commission.
According to him, UBEC has paid over N37 billion to states for infrastructure maintenance and the training of teachers in schools.
He said: “As instructed, we are starting with Lagos State.
“With Lagos, we set the standard high and it may influence what we are going to look out for in other states.
“Lagos has done fairly well in terms of paying the matching grant.”
Ihovnbere commended the Lagos State Government for creating SCREPS with a special mandate to rehabilitate schools and provide materials that would encourage education.
He urged other states to replicate the idea in order to improve the standards of basic education in schools.
The chairman expressed concerns over the non-provision of playing grounds for children in some schools, but gave pass mark to the state for providing conducive environment for children to learn.
He added: “In Lagos, we have seen some encouraging levels of progress in the provision of necessary infrastructure in the public school system.
“The state has set the pace in several areas, and it is not called the Centre of Excellence for nothing.
“We don’t want the state government to relax in this effort.
“With the way Lagos is working to make education attractive, there is no doubt that the state will continue to be among the leading states where enrollment in education has improved significantly.”
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