Speeches

First Governor's Education Award For Secondary Schools

Jun 30, 2011 - I welcome you all warmly to this very first Governor's Education Award ceremony which is one of our many diversified strategies for improving the quality of education.

We have evolved as a nation from many challenges in our education sector to which I dare say that with political will, we have historically triumphed.

At a time, the problem was access, because many young people were unable to get an opportunity to get an education. In the last few years, the problem of access has been substantially surmounted and our State has a proud literary record of over 84% and the current challenge that we have to deal with is the quality.

This has manifested itself in many forms ranging from the school environment and infrastructure, to the type and sufficiency of learning aids and instructional materials, the quality of human personnel and of course the efficiency of regulation to monitor standard.

I am happy to announce that gradually but very steadily, the challenges are being methodically tacked and surmounted.

One of the commendable strategies, to address quality, improve infrastructure and content was the decision by Government in the previous administration to return schools to the missionary societies in a way that has helped Government reduce its burden, share the responsibility with private sector and forge an enduring partnership to bring greater participation into the education sector.

Another initiative was the establishment of Schools Rehabilitation Committee to aggressively tackle the depreciating school infrastructure, the payment of examination fees, the School Milk Programme and many other initiatives that have inputs into the sector.

As inheritors of those initiatives, we have continued them and done our best to add value to them.

In an attempt to increase private sector participation in education, we have created a programme called "Adopt a School" which allows individuals and corporates organizations, who are not missionary societies, to get involved by taking up whole schools or parts of a school for rehabilitation, reconstruction or maintenance as they deem fit.

We have provided books free procured with tax payers' funds and delivered them to students without charge.

We have resuscitated voluntary societies and clubs in the schools to make them more attractive for our children; and we are aggressively reducing the deficit of school infrastructure by provision of thousands of desks and chairs for students and teachers.

There is an increasing training and re-training of teachers to familiarize them with current trends and teaching methods.

Our recently concluded report of school audit shows that we have exceeded the target of 50 (fifty) students per classroom that we set in 2007 on the average because we are seeing an average of 42 students in our classrooms.

This does not mean that in some places we do not have overcrowded classrooms; just as in some cases we have severely under-populated classrooms.

What the report has done is to provide is useful data which will now inform our policy for the situation and location of new schools as a methodical strategy to finally eliminate overcrowding now that we can identify and isolate the areas where the problem still persist.

We have also through the Eko Education Project, increased funding directly to the Schools, by placing the funds in the hands of principals and teachers, working with the School PTA to directly manage their school needs and eliminate the bureaucracy and delays that sometimes occur in funding recurrent expenditure through the Ministry.

We have recently also conducted a conversion training for graduates in various disciplines who have now been posted to our schools to assist our students in critical core subjects just before this year's final examinations commenced.

We are hopeful that we will see some improvements in their results that will be traceable to this and previous initiatives as we have noticed the annual percentage pass results gradually increasing from 2007 – 2010 from 7%, 10%, 18% and 21% for each consecutive year.

By way of specific summary, let me re-cap some of our intervention and successes as follows:

• Commenced a programme of rehabilitation of classrooms, and till date a total of 2,876 (Two Thousand, Eight Hundred and Seventy Six) classrooms have so far been rehabilitated.

• 216 (Two Hundred and Sixteen) new classrooms were constructed in 2010 alone.

• Minor repairs of 52 (Fifty Two) secondary schools have been carried out so far.

• A total of 308,430 (Three Hundred and Eight Thousand, Four Hundred and Thirty) units of furniture were distributed to our schools, while 11,200 (Eleven Thousand, Two Hundred) units will be delivered before the end of the year.

• Science equipment worth over N390million (Three Hundred and Ninety Million Naira) were supplied to our secondary schools to encourage science teaching and learning.

• The Eko Project introduced the Volunteer Teachers Scheme (VTS) to complement efforts of permanent teachers in English, Mathematics and the Sciences. This widely applauded scheme has injected about 20,520 (Twenty Thousand, Five Hundred and Twenty) hours per month into the school system which is an equivalent of 183 (One Hundred and Eight Three) full time teachers.

• A special intervention programme for 495 (Four Hundred and Ninety Five) trainee teachers to assist WASCE candidates with extra coaching was also introduced and this has also been well commended.

• Teacher welfare has been promoted through increased teachers' salary.

• Direct funding of up to N3million (Three Million Naira) per secondary school has enabled schools to procure necessary equipment and instructional materials for teaching and learning.

I recognize the value of a sound education as the strongest weapon against poverty. I recognize the impact of qualitative education as a useful pillar of nation building and economic prosperity. I accept that it is not a short term undertaking and that it requires a lot of political will.

I am a product of the Nigerian education system and I am convinced that if we have done it before, we can recreate the days of our educational glory.

I accept the freedoms that our constitution guarantees for parents to make choices of schools for their children, but I remain committed for as long as I enjoy your trust and mandate, that with your cooperation we can deliver a public education system that competes favourably with the private sector funded schools in terms of quality of education.

The Governor's Education Award ceremony is therefore an initiative coined as improving the quality of education. It will compel us to more diligent monitoring of performances of our students, our schools and our teachers.

By the rewards that we will give through prizes, we will acknowledge merit and improvements in students, teachers, schools and districts and hopefully encourage others to challenge for honours year after year by improving their efforts and performances.

In this inaugural edition of the Governor's Award, 126 (One Hundred and Twenty Six) Junior and Senior Secondary Schools, out of 628 (Six Hundred and Twenty Eight) schools in the State will receive an award of N2million (Two Million Naira) each, towards the improvement of their schools.

Today's awardees have been selected based on their percentage improvement over a period of time in the standardized assessments administered by Lagos Eko Project. I am particularly impressed by the enterprising disposition of the awardees, because they have shown their commitment and determination to turn the huge investment in education into a much desired improved learning outcomes in public schools within a short space of time.

I realize that we are at an early stage of developing performance measurement of students' performance; however, I am confident that I will have cause, every year over the next four years to stand proud before you to announce further increase in students' performance.

This is not all. I have also decided to award the top 2 (two) secondary school Principals in each of the 6 (Six) Education Districts international training to boost best practices within our education system.

In order to broaden their experience and knowledge beyond formal school education, I have approved a guided tour of our newly constructed Independent Power Plants for 20 (twenty) students from the first 20 (twenty) schools in order to keep them busy during the long holiday and also give them a first-hand experience of what electricity generation is all about.

I will at this stage like to express gratitude to all of our partners and operators who have brought our education story thus far.

I salute our former Governor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu for his vision and courage to start this journey; I acknowledge the roles of Commissioners and Special Advisers, Permanent Secretaries, Directors, past and present who have contributed to this journey.

I must reserve a special place of mention for the immediate past Deputy Governor, Princess Sara Adebisi Sosan for her commitment and dedication to improving the quality of our public education. To borrow the cliché, she was a round peg in a round hole. She rewarded my decision to entrust that Ministry to her with the diligence with which she carried out her responsibility.

Mrs. Omolara Erogbogbo, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education, the Tutors – General in the 6 (six) Education Districts, the Chairman of SUBEB, Mrs. Gbolahan Daodu and board members and of course, Ms. Ronke Azeez and members of the Ministries of Finance and Economic Planning & Budget who have negotiated and implemented the Eko Education Project in collaboration with the World Bank, all deserve our commendation for their selfless dedication and investment in developing the quality of our public education sector.

The World Bank's rating of the project as "highly satisfactory" is one of the highest that has recently been recorded by any World Bank Project.

Let me once again congratulate the award recipients of today and encourage other schools to emulate them and strive to be the best in their various education districts. Your recognition and award have clearly marked you out and I sincerely hope you will keep it up.

Thank you for listening.

Eko o ni baje o!

Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN
Governor of Lagos State