The past six years of the Governor Babatunde Fashola- led
administration in Lagos state, has marked a turn around breakthrough in the
educational sector of the state as various developmental and people-oriented
projects have been put in place to ensure the delivery of quality education in
the state's public schools at all levels, from primary to tertiary level.
Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Lateef Ibirogba, who listed the outstanding achievements of the current administration, in education in the past six years, while speaking to journalists, said the school environment, general infrastructure, type and sufficiency of learning equipment and the quality of the teaching personnel are some of the areas government has focused on over the years with visible and positive outcome as shown in the steadily improving West African School Certificate results.
He disclosed that over the last six years, the state has
built 5,204 new classrooms to cater for the growing student population, which
has increased over the years to 1,198,624 (578,504 in primary and 620,120 in
secondary schools) in the 664 schools spread across the state.
According to him, the state also rehabilitated 6,666
classrooms within the period, provided 197 schools with science laboratory,
built ICT laboratory in 120 schools, supplied 212 schools with science
materials and installed intro-tech laboratories in 73 schools. He added that
free 1,409,476 textbooks were distributed to students ,while 387,133 furniture
were provided to create a conducive environment.
Ibirogba said seven multi-lingual laboratories, proper
toilets, five Government Technical Colleges and 21 vocational centres were
provided for the use of the public during the period, while 10, 000 teachers
were recruited recently.
A novel, Lagos Eko project, an intervention programme, which
was introduced to schools to fast-track their development and training of
teachers in order to improve the learning culture in all junior and senior
secondary schools, was recently rated by the World Bank as being "highly
satisfactory", helping to reduce the usual bureaucracies in government and
improve the process and time of intervention in education through direct grants
to schools.
These projects have over the years, had drastic impact on
the academic results of students in public schools, as there has been a rapid
rise from a dismal 10 per cent in the West African School Certificate exam to
an encouraging 41 per cent pass at credit level in 2013, while 85 per cent
passed English, 84 per cent passed Mathematics and 84 per cent scaled through
in Biology to make the students’ performance exceed World Bank’s benchmark.
The commissioner admitted that there could be areas to do
more, as most of the facilities provided would require constant replacement. He
assured that the government would continue to
maintain them and replace the damaged ones.
Ensuring that all round development has been the priority of
the Fashola administration and in the determination to sustain the tempo of
infrastructural development in Lagos, Governor Fashola recently led some
members of the State Executive Council to meetings with major Public Private
Partnership (PPP) financial institutions and construction firms in Beijing,
China during a three-day visit.
The issue, which topped discussions at the various meetings
and inspections by the governor and members of his delegation, was the financing
of infrastructure in Lagos through the Public Private Partnerships, especially
in the areas of housing, roads and bridges as well as the Lekki Free Zone.
At each of the meetings with major Chinese institutions,
such as the China Railway Construction Corporation Limited (CRCC), the
Export-Import Bank of China and the Industrial and the Commercial Bank of China
(ICBC), Governor Fashola underscored the investment opportunities inherent in
the highlighted areas of infrastructure and the roles direct financing through
such institutions could play in bringing identified projects to reality.
During a meeting with the management of the China Railway
Construction Corporation Limited led by its President, Mr. Zhan Zongyan,
Governor Fashola hailed diligence and commitment of successive leadership of
the affiliate company, China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation
(CCECC), which has led to significant progress being made in Lagos on landmark
projects, such as the Lekki Free Zone and the Blue line of the Lagos Mass
Transit Rail.
He identified the Lekki Free Zone where progress is being
made, noting that and industrialists have begun making commitments to start
building factories as one of the immediate priority areas.
Fashola also identified real estate development as another
area of priority, describing the opportunity and the problem as those of 21
million people in Lagos needing about four million homes.
He said: "What we are doing now as a government is
building apartment blocks. They have one bedroom, two bedrooms and three
bedroom flats. The one bedroom flat is about 60 square metres, two bedrooms is
about 75 square metres, while three bedroom is 120 square metres. What we are
planning to do is sell those houses on a 10-year repayment mortgage".
The governor said his administration is utilising the
benefit of its investment made along the Badagry corridor where it is
undertaking the expansion of the road and
building a rail system.
"We can move people there because there is a lot of
virgin land. It is on both sides of the LASU- IBA Road. We are planning a new
town there and it's behind the University, so there is an existing anchor
community there. We can plan residence, a shopping mall and so on", he
said.
Governor Fashola and his delegates, which included the
Commissioners for Commerce and Industry, Mrs. Olusola Oworu; Finance, Mr. Ayo
Gbeleyi; Works and Infrastructure, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat; Economic Planning and
Budget, Mr. Ben Akabueze; Establishment and Training, Mrs. Florence Oguntuase;
and the Managing Director of the Lagos Metropolitan Area Authority (LAMATA),
Dr. Dayo Mobereola among others, also toured the factories of the Dalian
Locomotive and Rolling Rail Stock Company Limited, where they inspected the
coaches under construction and the completed ones.
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