Speeches

Launching Of The Lagos State Government ‘Support Our School’ Initiative

Aug 5, 2008 - As I reflected on what to say at this event today, I reminded myself of the critical role that the school plays in the development of any society. Most of us in this room today are successful professionals. We have achieved success in different areas of endeavour and are adding value to our society in diverse ways. But think about it. How many of us came into the world fully formed intellectually, professionally and morally from our mother’s womb? Each of us owes who and w hat we are today to the grace of our creator who gave us life, our parents and relatives who nurtured and cared for us and of course the schools we attended. The primary school laid the rudimentary foundation of our knowledge, intellect and moral character. The secondary school built on that and prepared us for the specialized training received in the tertiary institutions we attended. To summarise it succinctly, most of us are today what our primary and secondary schools prepared us to become. Our stories cannot be complete without the input of those key institutions into our lives.

This is why it gives me great pleasure to welcome every one of us here to this very important event, the launching of the Lagos State Government’s “Support Our School Initiative”. As we all know, education is a vital component of our administration’s Ten-Point Agenda. It is critical to the attainment of the central policy thrust of our administration, which is wealth creation, and sustainable economic growth. Without qualitative and affordable education for our youths, we can neither achieve the Millennium Development Goals nor our target of ranking among the top 20 economies in the world by Y2020. In our highly competitive contemporary world, no society can afford to treat education with levity. Lagos in particular, which is currently the sixth largest city in the world and is projected to be the third largest by Y2015, must continue to invest heavily in education at all levels in order to develop and sustain the capacity to cope with her onerous Mega-City challenges.

More than ever before, we need the skilled manpower to design, build and maintain the roads, bridges, power and water supply stations, waste compaction facilities, crude oil processing facilities, drainage channels, five star hotels, shopping malls and other infrastructure critical for rapid development in this technological age. It is through qualitative education at all levels that we can produce the future teachers, medical doctors, lawyers, pharmacists, engineers, scientists, inventors, managers, administrators, thinkers, writers, artistes and other professionals necessary for the continuous development and sustenance of a modern society.

Over the last nine and a half years, the Lagos State Government has pumped huge resources into the massive rehabilitation, upgrading and expansion of facilities in our public schools. it will be recalled that for nearly two decades before 1999, the public school system in Lagos State had suffered terrible neglect. Most of the public-primary and secondary schools were in abysmal stages of decay. There were instances of school walls and roofs collapsing and injuring school children. It was a common sight to see school children all over Lagos carrying their desks and benches to and from school on a daily basis. Partly as a result of the deplorable condition of public schools, all sorts of sus-standard private schools flourished, endangering the future of thousands of our youths.

As I earlier noted, significant strides have been taken since 1999 to improve the quality of education in our public schools in Lagos State. Over this period, we have added over 6000 new classrooms to the public school system in addition to rehabilitating hundreds of dilapidated classrooms, providing desks, in great quantities including benches and teachers’ furniture; equipping laboratories, building school fences to enhance safety as well as improving existing toilets and building new ones. The current administration has accelerated the tempo of rehabilitation and re-equipping of public schools in order to meet our target of constructing 15, 000 new classrooms in both primary and secondary schools in Lagos public Schools by Y2011. At the same time, we are aggressively re-equipping our science laboratories, procuring intro-technology equipment and beautifying the environment of our schools.

However, it is not only on the provision of physical infrastructure that we are expending tremendous resources in the education sector of Lagos State. Even as we are comprehensively rehabilitating and re-equipping our schools, we are ensuring that all children in Lagos State, no matter how poor their parents or guardians, have access to education to guarantee their future. We are providing free education in our 1030 public primary schools, 311 junior secondary schools and 303 Senior Secondary Schools in this State. Our administration is paying all internal and external examination fees for all categories of children in our public primary and secondary schools so that no child is forced to drop out of school due to inability to pay these fees. We are providing free text books in key subjects to children in our public primary and secondary schools.

In addition, we are expending huge resources on training and re-training teachers in our public schools for more effective performance. We are sustaining the provision of free nutritious milk to primary one pupil in our public schools to aid their physical and mental development at that tender age. Let me say that a key sign of the decay of our education system is that today hardly any child wants to become a primary or secondary school teacher. This otherwise noble profession is looked down upon with derision. Teachers nationwide recently went on strike to press the case for better welfare conditions. Surely, something urgent must be done to address this problem and boost the image, status and morale of the professionals who man the most crucial stages of the education process.

In spite of all that government has done to restore the glory of public schools in Lagos State, however, there is still so much more to be done to permanently reverse the neglect and decay of the past. It is obvious that government alone does not have sufficient resources to shoulder this responsibility. This is particularly so as there are several other equally critical sectors such as health, security, the environment, shelter, roads, flood control, agriculture, rural development, market development, fire services as well as water and electricity supply competing for the scarce resources available. As an administration, therefore, we have emulated the example of other successful global Mega Cities that have adopted Public-Private Partnership as a strategy in delivering qualitative public infrastructure and social services for the benefit of the people.

Close collaboration between the public and private sectors is particularly crucial for the re-vitalisation of our public school system, through which thousands of indigent children will be able to obtain sound education. And this is the crux of our gathering here today. We are appealing to individuals whom God has blessed as well as corporate citizens to please support one of our 1030 public primary schools, 311 public junior secondary schools and 303 public senior secondary schools in Lagos State. I can assure you that our widow’s mite can make a world of difference in these schools. For example, we can contribute to providing school facilities like libraries, classrooms, furniture, toilets, laboratories, ICT rooms, sports equipment, school buses and other such facilities in these schools.

We can enhance learning experiences by sponsoring field trips and education tours in our public schools. We can also promote Human Capacity Development through training of teachers and school administrators. We can support awards for and recognition of teachers through special remuneration while providing scholarships and grants to students. This is only a tip of the iceberg of those things we can do to add value to our public schools and enable thousands of our children, the leaders of tomorrow, learn in a healthy and fulfilling environment.

On our part as government, we promise that those individuals and organisations that chose to embrace the “Support Our School Initiative” will face no cumbersome bureaucratic procedures. Apart from setting standards, the Ministry will have minimal control over the partner’s project. All we will have is a help desk manned by knowledgeable and friendly staff to serve as a liaison between the Ministry and our respective partners. Of course, the benefits which will accrue to participating individuals and corporate bodies are quite substantial. They include opportunities for tax rebates, branding opportunities (naming projects after individuals and corporate bodies), special recognition at State functions and Corporate Social Responsibility awards by the State. But the truth is that no benefit can be more fulfilling than the satisfaction of contributing our quota to building the leaders who will be the builders and sustainers of our tomorrow.

In a recent article titled “Have You Visited Your Alma mater Lately?” one of our prominent newspaper columnists, Yusuph Olaniyonu, urged us all, especially graduates of our public schools, to visit our Alma Maters, observe the rot that has set in and take practical steps to help redeem the situation. Yusuph urges us all to help in rehabilitating even one classroom, build or equip libraries and laboratories or simply offer guidance and counseling in our Alma Maters. He even wonders why we cannot celebrate our birthdays in our old schools to inspire the students and challenge them to attain greater heights. The only point on which I disagree with Yusuph is when he attributes the rot in public schools to the incompetence and incapability of government. This is certainly not the case with us in Lagos State, as I noted earlier, we have taken giant strides over the last nine and a half years to reverse the drift. It is just that government alone cannot bear the burden, which is why we seek the complementary support of all and sunder.

Let me conclude with a very good example of a private donor who, in the spirit of patriotism and selflessness, has contributed his widow’s mite to his Alma Mater. I speak of none other than the great educationist and elder statesman, Professor Aliu Babatunde Fafunwa, who donated three laboratories including fixture and furniture to his Alma Mater. That is a worthy role model for all of us to emulate; it is the way to go if we are to build an educational system that can help us actualize the immense potentials of the Nigerian project. I urge us all to heed our clarion call and do something today. For us all, this is the moment of reckoning.

Thank you for listening and God bless you all.

Eko O ni Baje O!

BABATUNDE RAJI FASHOLA (SAN)
GOVERNOR OF LAGOS STATE