The Lagos State government has said the ratio of public to private schools at both primary and secondary school levels in the state is one to 22.
The state’s Commissioner for Education, Mrs Folasade Adefisayo, gave the revelation in her remark at the 2022 edition of the Total School Support Seminar Exhibition (TOSSE) held at Oregun in Ikeja between Thursday and Friday.
She said the huge ratio between the two is linked to many factors chief of which is the lack of land space, particularly within the metropolitan areas of the state to build as many new schools as the government would have loved to do.
She declared that the state government acknowledged the roles of private educators, particularly at these two levels and allied education service providers in the state, saying the roles are crucial to the development of the sector and commendable.
The commissioner noted that apart from the increasing population of school-going-age children in the state, no fewer than 86 people also migrate every hour from other parts of the country to the state.
She said both situations have called for the need for more schools to be built and more teachers to be engaged but that the government cannot do so all alone, hence the need for private sector involvement.
While speaking on the theme of the event “Building a sustainable education ecosystem in Africa,” Adefisayo said the theme is not only apt and timely but also related to the theme of the just concluded state-organised education summit given as “creating a sustainable fit- for- purpose education model.”
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She, however, commended Edumark Consulting for the annual event and assured the school owners and allied education service providers that the state government would continue to support them and make the environment enabled for them to thrive.
While cautioning them on the other hand to always comply with government laid down rules and regulations guiding their operations, she said the state government on its part would continue to improve schools’ infrastructure, curriculum, teachers’ welfare, online teaching and learning in all public schools and also ensure to get out-of-school children off the streets into classrooms.
In her earlier address, the convener of the annual exhibition and CEO of Edumark Consulting, Mrs Yinka Ogunde, said TOSSE is a platform to interface between the private sector participants and government and that the programme, which is in its 14th edition this year, is yielding tremendous results.
She said she is particularly impressed by the huge number of participants recorded this year after Covid-19 from across Nigeria and also from abroad including Finland, Cameroon, Tanzania, the UK and so forth.
She said evidence has shown that participants not only doing better but also growing bigger in their businesses each year.
In her own remark, the Finland Ambassador for Education, Marjaana Sall said for any country to progress appreciably, it must give quality education deserved attention.
She said for example, in Finland, education is not only a fundamental right (and not a privilege) but is also obtained free of charge from primary to university level.
She said quality education that will lead to the appreciable socio-economic development of a country required curriculum development and delivery by professionals using information and communication technology.
She, however, is optimistic that programmes like TOSSE where critical stakeholders in education come together to showcase their products and services and also network and learn new things would greatly help Nigeria’s education to move forward substantially.
Some of the exhibitors told Nigerian Tribune that they are always looking forward to the event as they use it to showcase their products and services to the public.
One of them, uLesson, an ICT learning support provider, for example, said the deployment of technology in education from primary to tertiary schools is greatly helping the sector to practice in line with the 21st Century demand.
The Senior Vice President, Academic and Curriculum Development of the company, Mr. Akwitti Iheanyichukwu, said Nigeria cannot afford to lag behind in the deployment of ICT tools and apps to teach and learn, otherwise, there will be serious problems not only in the education sector but also the economy in general.
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