A total of 3,000 primary and secondary school teachers have been absorbed into the Lagos State teaching workforce, the Commissioner for Education, Mrs. Folasade Adefisayo has said.
Adefisayo, who disclosed this recently, while addressing journalists at the annual Ministerial Press Briefing, said the move was aimed at boosting the capacity of the existing workforce to provide quality education in the state.
She said the sector, which represents the third pillar of the present administration’s ‘THEMES’ agenda, has witnessed tremendous improvements, placing high premium on quality of teaching and learning in all schools in the state.
“Workshops and trainings were organised for teachers drawn from the various education districts, including the Special Needs Education Division, as improving capacity and welfare of schools’ personnel remains paramount to the present dispensation.”
The commissioner, who presented the activities and achievements of her ministry, pointed out that it remains a critical success factor for the socio-economic development of an emerging economy that encourages responsible citizenship, development of human capacity and the crucial support for a transition into a knowledge based economy.
Adefisayo said the state government’s plans for education are being executed along key strategic areas under the Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu (BOS) Education Transformation Plan 2020 with initiatives and intervention projects.
Some of the projects she said included: construction and upgrading of public schools’ infrastructure across the state with the completion of six blocks of 92 classrooms in primary schools and three blocks of 54 classrooms in secondary schools at different parts of the state to ease classroom congestion while ensuring capacity development and welfare of students.
“In addition, the state government under the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) and State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) intervention projects also commenced the delivery of 10,164 furniture and 60,000 chair table units to public schools state wide.”
Adefisayo added that Governor Sanwo-Olu had approved the establishment of well-equipped standard science laboratories in 11 state senior secondary schools and five government technical colleges, including the repair and rehabilitation of 60 selected schools that the administration has invested so much in technology as a learning aid while setting up a support team of technology professionals to support its teaching workforce and that her ministry has reviewed the Nigerian curriculum and integrated it with the 21st century skills while the Year 2020 major book review is ongoing.
She expressed the state government’s readiness to ensure the revitalisation of the sector by making it more effective and efficient for the attainment of self-reliance and socio-economic development.