Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, on Saturday vowed to increase government’s funding in the education sector.
Over 3,000 teachers from various schools and education districts across the state converged at De Blue Roof of the Lagos Television, Ikeja where the governor formally launched the EKOEXCEL, a teachers’ professional development and training programme.
Earlier, primary school teachers went through a two-week training process, organised by the State Universal Basic Education Board (LSUBEB) to increase capacity and develop manpower of teachers in the State.
Mr Sanwo-olu noted that at the end, over 14,000 primary school teachers would have benefited from the initiative while over 500,000 pupils would have been positively impacted.
He said: “I am particularly happy that this programme is holding at a time when all hands are on deck to ensure that the quality of teaching and learning is improved across all our schools in the State.
“As a responsible government, we will continue the massive investment in this sector, with the training and retraining of our teachers, making the sector more ICT compliant, exposing our teachers to international best practices as well as ensuring that our schools become a destination for work and learning.
“We resolved to address these problems through combining innovative technological approach that is scientifically based, with effective training and empowering our teachers in every Local Government to strengthen their capacity and deliver quality education to our children.”
The governor, in a bid to encourage teachers and make good examples from outstanding ones, said the state government would identify the best headteachers in all the 20 LGs and 37 LCDAs and reward them with a car each.
He noted that his administration is not paying lip service to the repositioning of the education sector, noting that it is the reason the education ministry got a significantly higher envelope in the 2020 budget.
The governor also promised that teachers would undergo free sight assessment and reading glasses will be provided for every teacher that requires it to be able to discharge their duties effectively.
EKOEXCEL stands for Excellence in Child Learning and Education.
With the EKOEXCEL Programme, over 14,000 headteachers and teachers will be moved from analogue to digital teaching, using tablets and updated curriculum. Over 3,000 primary school teachers from 300 public primary schools have been captured under the Pilot Scheme.
