Lagos to undertake rehabilitation of public primary schools

Governor of Lagos State Akinwunmi Ambode has requested that his office be furnished with the list of public primary schools that are in bad shape.

Ganiyu Sopehin, chairman, Lagos State Universal Basic Education (SUBEB), who confirmed this to BusinessDay, said the governor’s request was to enable the state undertake the rehabilitation of the schools in order to create a conducive teaching and learning atmosphere.

The sum of N86 billion is earmarked in the state’s 2016 budget for the educational sector, which has Idiat Adebule, the deputy governor, as the supervising commissioner.

Sopehin, who was at the commissioning of two blocks of “13 + 1” classroom, head teacher’s office and toilet facilities in two public primary schools in Badagry recently, affirmed the commitment of the government to address the challenges confronting education in the state, including upgrade in quality of teaching.

The SUBEB chairman noted that with or without intervention fund from the Federal Government, the Ambode-led government was determined to provide qualitative education.

Sopehin, who however commended the efforts of the Badagry Local Education Authority, wants the authority to do more with regard to teachers and head teachers’ motivations.

According to Sopehin, “some of our teachers and head teachers need to change their attitudes to work and toward our children, while some are extremely good and deliver the job with passion and diligent.”

He directed that primary schools in the state should maintain government facilities in their domain and do more than what they were presently doing in the area of agriculture and security in order to secure their wards.

Abiodun Adebayo, executive secretary of Badagry Local Government Education Authority, on his part, urged teachers to assist in maintaining facilities within their schools.

The two benefitting schools are the Ansar-Ud-Deen Primary School, Araromi Ale, and Magboro Primary School, Magboro, Bagagry.