Lagos set for school feeding programme

THE School Feeding Programme of the Federal Government, which is expected to be domesticated by various state governments, is set to take off in Lagos State.

Dr Idiat Oluranti Adebule, the deputy governor of Lagos State, disclosed this during the ministerial press briefing to render account of stewardship of the Ministry of Education, which she superintendents, saying environmental officers were already screening vendors who applied for catering services.

She said the Federal Government set a minimum price of N70 per pupil per day, but that given the huge population of targeted beneficiaries, high cost of foodstuffs, quality meals, transportation, service charges of caterers, among others, the state had to do her homework well in order to have smooth and sustainable programme.

“We also need to get farmers abreast of our demand, check their ability to match the supplies and also have concrete agreement with those who will supply possible short fall. All these had been responsible for the delay in takeoff of free-feeding project in Lagos,” she explained.

Also disclosing that the state government paid a total of N714,106,800 to the West African Examninations Council (WAEC) as examination and administratiion fees for the 49,554 SS3 students in the public schools who sat the 2018 April/May West African Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination, Mrs Adebule said the gesture was to cushion financial hardship that many parents experience.

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On infrastructure, she revealed that 160 rehabilitated projects in some secondary schools in the last one year also cost up to N4.8 billion, while a total of 505 classrooms and 512 toilet cubicles and potable water were provided in 26 schools at the basic education level during the year in review.

The deputy governor also announced that enrolment into the state’s technical colleges had increased by 120 per cent, and that 141 graduates from the colleges had secured employment into some big companies, including Dangote Group and Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company, also in the last one year.

According to her, a total of 25,000 final year undergraduates in all the tertiary institutions in the state will be trained under the Ready Set Work initiative project, which she said was designed to hone their employability and entrepreneurshp skills ahead of graduation.