22nd May, 2017
By Kazeem Ugbodaga
The Lagos State Government on Monday disclosed that it has spent over N11.5 billion to upgrade infrastructure in public schools across the state in the last one year.
Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Dr Oluranti Adebule, who disclosed this at a ministerial press conference in Alausa, Lagos, Southwest Nigeria, said part of the money was expended in renovating 79 public schools, fence 16 school, construct six new classroom blocks, while 707 double-bunk beds and 469 mattresses were supplied to boarding schools, among other projects executed.
“The revolution in the education sector, especially our goal of providing conducive teaching and learning environment by making available adequate educational facilities in our schools is being pursued with renewed vigour.”
She said it was in line with that the state government had commenced the construction of three new world class model block of classrooms in public secondary schools to improve learning and teaching.
The deputy governor also said that before the end of the year, the state would start the construction of two new technical colleges, adding that over 2,000 teachers were employed to cater for some vacancies in primary and secondary education.
To instill discipline in the dducation sector of the State, Adebule she said four disciplinary cases were decided against erring members of staff who were sanctioned according to the public service rule in the last one year.
She disclosed that 85 students had their names in the black book which had been recently re-introduced as disciplinary measure to whip them into line and serve as deterrence to others.
Adebule explained that the implication of having a student’s name in the black book was that any other wrong doing by such student could lead to his or her expulsion.
She appealed to parents and guardians to monitor the activities and progress of their children and wards as no stone would be left unturned in the efforts of government to achieve set goals.
“I want to emphasize that without any prejudice to the outcome of the ongoing trial, any child found wanting like those Ireti Senior Grammar School and Falomo Senior High School will not be spared the consequence of his or her indiscretion,” she said.
The deputy governor recall that five students, George Abiodun, Braimoh Lateef, Yussuf Fawaz, Saka Wahab and Justine Harrison who were alleged to have participated in the ignoble harassment and molestation of their female colleagues had been arraigned and were facing the law for their lawless attitude.
Adebule added that the state government in its bid to stamp out examination malpractices from its schools and encourage hard work, introduced a Digital Innovation Question Paper (DIQP) for Screening Test.
The DIQP which she revealed would be deployed to the 2017 screening test is a process of randomization of questions and answers options to thousands of types that had no similarities or resemblance.
According to Adebule, the 100 questions for the screening test were randomized to 38,000 types and 38,000 keys for marking.
“The innovation is expected to make cheating impossible as each question paper has security features; embossment of candidates photograph, barcode, bio-data of candidates and each question paper has its own key(answer).
Also speaking , the Special Adviser on Education, Mr Obafela Bank-Olemoh, said that N76 million was paid to award 19 students foreign scholarship.
He also said that in all the state owned institutions, all courses had been accredited by the relevant boards while some others got official endorsement for affiliations.
According to him, the state tertiary institutions had effectively leveraged technology to enhance teaching and education delivery as well as improve administration and provision of educational services.
Bank-Olemoh said infrastructural facilities in all tertiary institutions had received attention in the last one year.