Lagos State working to tackle the issue of congestion in state’s public schools

The government of Lagos State has said that it is actively working to tackle the issue of congestion in the state’s public schools.

Mrs. Abiola Seriki-Ayeni, Director General of the Office of Education Quality Assurance, stated  that the state government’s biggest objective is to ensure that students in the state’s schools receive a quality education.

Speaking on the teacher-student ratio that is recommended by the National Education Policy, which is 1:40 for secondary schools, 1:35 for primary schools, and 1:25 for preschoolers, the Director of OEQA stated that the government was building more schools in areas where existing schools are overpopulated and employing more qualified teachers while training existing ones in effective class management. Additionally, the OEQA DG stated that the government was training existing teachers in effective classroom management.

“There is a significant amount of interest from students throughout the state in attending public schools. The government is fully aware of the difficulties presented by such a demand.

“The population of Lagos State alone is enough to make Nigeria the most populated black nation in the world… However, this does not imply that we do not have any criteria when it comes to the delivery of educational services to students.

“There is a never-ending debate about which should come first: access to the resource, or the quality of the resource? And the state of Lagos is succeeding in both areas. We are not going to stop accepting students, but at the same time, we are aware that if we create an environment with private schools that are more controlled and more standardized, there will be education available for all students. Despite this, we are not going to stop accepting students.

“As a matter of government policy, we will never put quantity over quality. Our governor has placed a high priority, just during this administration, on the construction of additional schools in regions where the existing schools are already at or near capacity. This is being done so that we can depopulate the existing schools, which hasn’t been done in a very long time, and rehabilitate the existing schools so that students can learn in an environment that is more conducive to comfort.

According to Seriki-Ayeni’s statement, “The government of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu is also employing more qualified teachers into the system in order to ensure that the quality of delivery in schools is not compromised.”