Wahab Olawale Alawiye-King was appointed the Executive Chairman, Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board (LASUBEB) in September 2019. He was a Lecturer at the Lagos State University School of Part-Time Studies between 2001 and 2006. He was a Member of the Lagos State House of Assembly between 2007-2015, where he served in various capacities, including the Chairman House Committee on Education and Chairman House Committee on Science and Technology.
In this exclusive interview with MARK MAYAH, he said the board’s under his leadership had performed well in the past one year. He assured of laying a formidable education foundation in tune with UNESCO standard and other salient issues. Excerpt:
How do you meet LASUBEB when you take charge as the Executive chairman?
Thank you much. My appointment as LASUBEB executive chairman was a homecoming in a family of a union I am familiar with. We met on the ground very highly dedicated and devoted professionals. With the professionals we met, the board hit the ground running immediately by implementing the board’s mandate, providing relevance to all-inclusive free education in the state.
What are the challenges you met on ground?
We all see challenges, and if there is any challenge, we definitely going to turn that into an opportunity. Lagos has been a metropolitan state and as such, there is a daily influx of people from another part of the country that has overstretched the state facilities. The fact that we are operating a federation, we have no power to regulate people that come into our state. We had continued to manage the influx at that level by turning the challenge into an opportunity.
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A year down the line, what would you say are the achievements of the board under your leadership?
There have been major achievements by Mr Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu led administration this past year in the area of Education Transformation Plan, Infrastructures, Basic Education, Teacher’s Recruitment, Home Grown School Feeding Programme, School Curriculum, Teacher’s Capacity Training, E-learning and Teaching in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
We met three major projects on ground, firstly the Eko Excel Initiative, a transformation initiative of the incumbent administration. Eko-excel; an acronym for Excellence in Child Education and Learning which was rolled out in phases is planned to help 14,000 Head Teachers and students embrace digital teaching, using tablets and updated curriculum in line with the Sustainable Development Goal 4, the National Policy on Education, Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) Act 2004 and SUBEB Law 2006, to aid in achieving an all-inclusive, Quality Universal Basic Education.
As we speak, over 4,000 primary school teachers from 300 public primary schools have been captured under the Pilot Scheme with each of them given a tablet to work with. The programme equipped teachers with skills to deliver value, empower pupils with the requisite knowledge to improve education and help in sustaining the growth of Lagos State as a leading knowledge-driven city and economy in the world.
Apart from the technological advantage of EkoExcel, the initiative provides a multidimensional approach to learning, which includes character moulding of pupils from their formative stage. To do this, Character Boards were placed in all public schools.
The Board is used to display the names of well-behaved and outstanding pupils in order to celebrate them with the intention of making other pupils aspire to have their names written for good conduct and subsequently get celebrated in a healthy competitive atmosphere. The Covid-19 pandemic became a stark reality such that the earlier paradigm shift to integrate technology into the Schools’ curriculum was apt, as the Pandemic was not envisaged.
These current realities further heightened the State government resolve and commitment to innovatively use media technology to push the quality of education to a world-class standard while making learning outcomes accessible with the background knowledge that Education remains a critical success factor for the socio-economic development of an economic hub.
The second project is the homegrown school feeding programme that was designed to alleviate the effect of the lockdown by COVID- 19 pandemic. Pleased to say that across the 976 Public Primary Schools in the state, the state government through the Home Grown School Feeding Programme fed 135,445 pupils daily.
Equally, Mr Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu directed me to hire 2000 teachers to complement the existing team and the newly engaged were given adequate training before joining the workforce. We had concluded plan and processes as well, on the verge of issuing employment letters to the successful teachers. Those are the three major projects we met and to the glory of God, we were able to execute the projects successfully. As part of being transparent, we at all times enlightening the public on our activities.
Which would you consider the most challenging decision you ever made as the executive chairman, LASUBEB?
I do not see any most challenging decision. Leadership and management are all about positive service delivery. As a manager, you must improvise and prioritise. By so doing, you consider many options; such as indigenous factor that you do not have control over. Factor within your reach to control; you can do things within your means and reach, which has been the trick for us at LASUBEB.
On the exponent rise in cases of abuse against children, the perpetuating culture of silence and the impunity enjoyed by the doers of these evils. Do we expect proper and appropriate legislation at curtailing the menace?
There is legislation in place. We need to strengthen these laws and implement well the way it should be. At LASUBEB, we have a special unit, guidance and counselling, saddled with the responsibility at ensuring that adequate enlightenment and sensitization are made at curtailing the menace. Very recently we had a sensitization programme at equipping our people on the danger that are involved in this menace. We also urge parents to get more involved because responsive parenting required a lot of determination, dedication and most importantly, sacrifice.
As the pandemic crisis gradually eroding off and subsequent phase’s resumption of academic programmes, do we foresee a shift or interval education system in the state?
In Lagos state, what is paramount to the people and government is the safety of our school pupils, teachers and parents. We are not in a rush to open academic programmes for our primary schools, be it in an interval system or shift mode. We met severally to look at all these scenario analysis of our decisions, at the end of the day we agreed to adopt the alternative approach by resuming using the phase approach rather than allowing every pupil to come to school daily. We did it in an alternative manner, so we can be able to maintain the social and physical aspect of the safety protocol, and ensuring that the pupils are getting this education in a safe and secured environment.
What qualifies you to be appointed LASUBEB boss by the governor?
Very interesting question, it was like a homecoming. I was the chairman House Committee on Education, Science and Technology in the Lagos state House of Assembly. You can see the coloration between what I have done there and what am doing at LASUBEB. I was part of the policies initiated and passed into laws by the House, and exactly what is being implemented by me. LASUBEB is a familiar terrain and that has been the greatest strength for me when I was appointed.
What will you want to be remembered for after your tenure?
Thank you much. We just have one goal. I have put in a passion and determination to ensure that the sector is improved. This is the foundation and once we have the foundational stage well planned, other structures would be sure in the right place. Our determination is to build a formidable foundation we can, towards opening up the potentials of the teeming population of our pupils in the state as part of our resolve.
