LASUBEBdrivesenrolmentinLagospublic schoolsfor2022/23academicsession

LAGOS Ahead of the new school session commencing September 5, the Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board’s (LASUBEB)

EKOEXCEL has asked parents and guardians to enrol their children in public primary schools for maximum learning gains.

EKOEXCEL is an educational intervention launched in 2019 by Governor BabajideSanwo-Olu to transform Lagos public primary schools through technology deployment It has since recorded tangible gains among teachers and pupils, leading to improved learning outcomes for pupils and more professional teachers

To ensure more Lagosians benefit from the intervention whilst reducing the number of out-of-school children in alignment with the government’s ‘Leave No Child Behind Policy’, EKOEXCEL has reiterated that its doors are wide open to receive fresh students.

We are ready to receive our returning and fresh pupils to public primary schools across the state. Parents and guardians should know they have nothing to fear by sending their wards to us. Empirical findings show the dramatic improvements in our schools, and we are not going to compromise on our standard,”

“Lagosians, please enrol your children into public primary schools. We have enough facilities for them as they learn in fun environments and engage in extracurricular activities, all overseen by well-motivated teachers Our innovative technology has vastly improved pupils-teachers interaction and ensured that learning extends well beyond the classrooms,” he said

LASUBEB organises public awareness campaigns to educate parents and guardians on enrolling their wards in public schools to secure their future and reduce the number of out-of-school children in the state every new session

The outreaches also attract street hawkers who request to be enrolled in school Last September, the transformational intervention rescued a 13-year-old petty trader, Segun Borno, from the streets during an enrollment drive. The timid, tired and mentally drained boy from the rigours of hawking approached Team EKOEXCEL and requested to be enrolled in school He has since been enrolled in school and will resume primary four at Ade Ife Nursery and Primary School, Bariga, this session

To further mitigate the alarmingly high rise of out-of-school children, the Lagos State administration established the Project Zero initiative under LASUBEB Despite the state’s high literacy rate (96 5 per cent, the second highest among states of the federation according to the National Bureau of Statistics), Lagos still has a high number of children of school-going age

These children have become of economic value to their parents and guardians, that it has become challenging to persuade them to enrol their children into school as well as keeping them in school

To further encourage parents to let their children go to school and mitigate child labour, last year, LASUBEB enlisted the support of famous Nollywood celebrities to educate parents and guardians on the tremendous gains of early child education and the positive impact of the EKOEXCEL programme The board will continue to adopt innovative and impactful ways to enrol children into state public primary schools

Parents recently lauded EKOEXCEL’s impacts, especially the excellent performance of Lagos pupils in the last National Common Entrance Exams. Three pupils of Lagos public primary schools were just five points behind the overall best student, who scored 201 out of 210.

The LASUBEB chair affirmed Governor Sanwo-Olu’s commitment to education development and added that parents and guardians don’t have to become indebted to send their children to school as the public schools are free and with high standards.

Many of these are either on the streets soliciting for alms, working as bus conductors, load carriers, shoe shiners, hawkers or in shops learning one vocational trade or the other while their peers are in school learning.

However, the trio were not the only successful Lagos pupils; others also had good scores, showing the significant movement of EKOEXCEL pupils towards proficiency by more than 20% 53 EKOEXCEL pupils were tracked and ascertained to have registered for the NCEE, and 32 had excellent grades The results tracking showed that the 32 pupils from 22 schools surpassed the aspirational and proficient targets by 11 6% and 9 6%, respectively Also, the threshold targets for Partially and Below proficiency were exceeded by 8% and 9 3% margins, respectively

A Nobel laureate, Professor Michael Kremer, also commended the methodology underpinning the programme administered by technical partners, NewGlobe.