Lagos to recruit 15,000 teachers, deploy technology in classrooms | EduCeleb
Abdussalam Amoo
6th September 2019
Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu has declared plans by his government to recruit up to 15,000 teachers into the workforce in the state.
He also noted plans to institutionalise technologically driven learning in schools while complementing the Home-grown School Feeding Programme of the Nigerian Federal Government beyond its initially envisaged coverage.
Mr Sanwo-Olu was speaking at Agidingbi, Lagos during the commemorative ceremony of his 100 days in office on Friday, 6th September, 2019.
Giving reasons for the proposed recruitment exercise, he said that his government realised that “there is a huge shortage our teachers both in the primary and secondary schools.”
He revealed that teacher shortage matter in Lagos public schools would be addressed by the state cabinet office.
Without specifying a date for its implementation, he stated that “that recruitment would start in earnest.”
Mr Sanwo-Olu also promised to ensure the “extensive” renovation of schools “in the coming weeks”.
Meanwhile, schools in Lagos State are billed to resume on Monday, 9th September, following the announcement by the education ministry.
EduCeleb.com reports that the date is effective on both public and private primary and secondary schools in the state as the government had promised to sanction defiance to its directive in that regard.
Sanwo-Olu equally expressed commitment to improving the state of basic education in Lagos public schools.
“We need to ensure that our early education is the best in the country. That is where we need to put a lot more efforts from our primary schools to our junior secondary schools.”
“These are stages where the children truly form and develop initiative into whatever they are going to become in life.”
“Those first nine years of their education is important to us and we would be putting a lot of resources into it.”
He appears to be reiterating the pledge by the state commissioner for education, Folashade Adefisayo who, upon inauguration recently declared interest in making Lagos best in all public examinations across Nigeria.
EduCeleb.com recalls that the Federal Government had recently announced that it would be extending the Home-grown school feeding programme to Lagos.
The programme provides one meal a day for pupils between primary one and three.
But Sanwo-Olu said his government would complement the national government by making food available to children between primary four and six.
“The feeding programme has come to stay in Lagos State,” he added.
The governor hinted on the prospects of technologically-driven classes in Lagos public schools subject to the state cabinet approval.
He said the government plans to implement what it called the Lagos Metropolitan Fibre optics, which is a 3000km fibre lane for the projection of its smart city initiative.
The smart city project is said to be public-private partnership driven.
He believes that this would help the government build on e-education via internet connectivity.By extension, internet penetration would support healthcare, small and medium scale enterprises and the internal security solutions the government is trying to build.
“Once the fibre optics are deployed right around the city, then, the deployment of what we call e-health, ẹ-education, ẹ-security, e-commerce will begin to flourish.”
He called on individuals and organisations to partner with his government in ensuring that the education and technology sectors receive all the necessary attention for global competitiveness.