Lagos State Government yesterday said it had started massive infrastructural projects and diverse programmes aimed at uplifting the standard of 1,663 public schools and making more than one million students in the schools access quality and sound education.

The State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, disclosed this at the appreciation meeting of the Support Our Schools Initiative  in Victoria Island, Lagos.

He added that the impact of economic underdevelopment “is felt in our schools while there is much work to be done to save the sector that produced us”.

The meeting had in attendance captains of industries, political leaders and seasoned educationists,  including the State Deputy Governor  Princess Sarah Sosan, Chairman of Elizade Nigeria Limited, Chief Ade Ojo, Chief Executive Officer  of Oando Plc., Mr. Wale Tinubu,  among others.

Speaking at the meeting, Fashola, who commended all the partners, added that the need to restore the quality and purpose of education in the State and even in Nigeria is urgent and fundamental, which “requires political will and support from the private sector.”

He explained that the challenge of revamping the sector was enormous. “With the increasing population of Lagos State and attraction of free education policy to migrants from other states, the responsibility for 1,030 primary schools and 605 secondary schools is enormous for our government.

This requires every patriot to play a role,” Fashola said. But he said the state government   had chosen “to develop education and make it accessible for all our children in the state.”

He added that  “contrary to what cynics will have people believe, this is a journey with a clear roadmap to achieve human, institutional and infrastructural reform, including reversal of three decade setback.”

Also speaking Ojo, who chaired the meeting, said education was key to both economic and social development in Nigeria.
According to him, without sound education, “we are simply condemning our future and that of our children.”

 

Source: Web

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