LASUBEBHoldsCapacityBuildingFor OptimisationOfEKOEXCEL’sEfficacy

In line with best practices through EKOEXCEL to assure a top-notch quality of instruction in the Lagos State primary schools, the Lagos State Basic Education Board (LASUBEB) recently conducted multi-faceted training sessions for its Basic Education Quality Assurance (BEQA) officers to strengthen their functions in mentoring and monitoring of the state primary schools. This capacity building represents the kick-off of a new system of bi-weekly capacity buildings for the school management officers

The trainees were taken through the data-driven technology-based model of instruction and school management being implemented in EKOEXCEL and equipped with technical expertise in driving improvements in the key performance indices (KPIs) of a strong school, which include teacher and pupil attendance, lesson completion, data entry into the EKOEXCEL server, pupil enrollment, and learning outcomes

The eighth-day training exercise was conducted between Monday, November 7 and Wednesday, November 16 and involved 180 officials drawn from each Local Government Education Authority (LGEA). The training exercise, which took place in four local government areas across the state, to ensure no BEQA official was disenfranchised due to logistics, covered areas like Epe, Ifako Ijaiye, Maryland and Ojo

According to LASUBEB, the trainees are fully ready to commence their responsibilities as School Management Officers, providing mentoring and monitoring support to head teachers and teachers in the public primary schools, adding that it would not only empower and develop the BEQA field officers in their careers but also bring them up to speed with how knowledge is being impacted across other parts of the world by including technology in the basic education system

Speaking at the closing of the training sessions, LASUBEB Permanent Board Member overseeing the EKOEXCEL programme, Bayo Adefuye, addressed and charged the newly inducted officers to be passionate and driven with their new responsibilities and duties.

He said: “This task ahead is a very very important task I am sure there is no gain in saying much, you already know your roles You are the heart and soul of the EKOEXCEL programme now because you are the field officers and that is where most of EKOEXCEL’s work is done; you are the ones to keep the teachers on their toes, to keep them working, to mentor them

“There is something we are trying to achieve with EKOEXCEL, we are trying to achieve optimum performance, we are trying to achieve efficiency and a higher level of education

"The governor has invested a lot into this programme and we must maintain its success for the benefit of the children,” he said. All trainees across all four centres participated actively and enthusiastically as sessions were delivered, and each trainee had the opportunity to practise and receive feedback during scrimmages and after the micro-teaching assessment

Micro-teaching and quizzes were administered to trainees in the mentoring category through the capacity building programme to check for trainees’ understanding of sessions delivered and remediation was done across the centres based on areas where trainees had lowest scores in the assessment”, he said

The eighth-day training flags off a revamped system of bi-weekly capacity building in all areas of the technology- enabled school management system that has tagged the EKOEXCEL programme as a game-changer in the attainment of the Lagos State government’s agenda to attain SDG4

Lagos State public primary school teachers will benefit from this focus on continuous professional development, which is driven by a dedicated team of School Management Officers who are able to cover over 1,000 Lagos State primary schools weekly, providing training, mentorship and support to ensure that the key performance indices of a storing school are constantly improved upon Launched in 2019, EKOEXCEL has made laudable/noteworthy achievements since then

Over 90% of Lagos State public primary school head-teachers and teachers have been moved from analogue to digital teaching, using tablets and updated curricula The education reform programme has also recorded remarkable gains in enhancing the teacher-pupil interaction experience through technology (eLearning) in Lagos State primary schools.

The transformational intervention has also boosted uniformity and strict adherence to the curriculum. Teachers’ tablets are preloaded with lessons and content that can be effectively monitored for standardisation across Lagos’ 1,012 public primary schools Commendably, all the achievements are not just based on conjectures

They are factual, as the EKOEXCEL 2020-2021 Endline Fluency and Numeracy Evaluation showed EKOEXCEL pupils are making remarkable progress in oral reading fluency and foundational numeracy compared to their last performance before the initiative’s commencement