The Lagos State government has reaffirmed its commitment to provide all-inclusive quality and quantitative education for the people of the state irrespective of their sexes and backgrounds.
The deputy governor, Dr Idiat Adebule, gave the assurance at the stakeholders’ engagement on Review of Lagos State Policy on Education held in Victoria Island recently.
The former executive secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Professor Peter Okubukola, presented the review of the draft of the new policy with representatives from various stakeholders in the education sector including private school owners, administrators, examination bodies, teachers, media, traditional rulers, workers’ unions, students and civil society groups in attendance.
The deputy governor, in her keynote address, said the primary goal of Lagos State coming up with a new education policy to replace the 1988 policy currently in operation was to produce what she called smart youth that would be creative, resourceful and competitive with their peers globally.
She assured that the new policy as a total overhauling of the education sector from pre-primary to primary, secondary, technical and post-secondary education would reflect views and opinions of all the stakeholders in line with the current global economic reality.
She noted that private schools and other education service providers were all factored in the new policy, especially in terms of provision of a better enabling environment for their operations.
Reviewing the draft of the new policy, Professor Okebukola, who led the draft reviewers’ team, said his major concern was not about the policy statement, but practice.
He said Nigeria is noted for fantastic policies and programmes not only in education but also in other sectors of the economy but implementation has always been the problem.
He noted that if the proposed policy is religiously implemented, Lagos State education would be a model in tangible terms to other states of the federation and Africa.
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