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Thirteen teachers and school administrators were on Wednesday honoured with brand new cars and other prizes, as Lagos State marked the 2021 Annual Teachers’ Merit Award.

The lucky winners were Adenike Ojo, Adeola Adefemi, Bolanle Alamu, Fausat Adegeye, Folashade Oyedeji, Lukman Agbabiaka and Michael Ayoola

Others were Olubukola Dosumu, Olusegun Muftau, Oluseyi Amao, Omolayo Fadayomi, Soji

Megbowon and Yahya Adesokan.

Speaking on the occasion, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu said the teaching profession and education were critical to the society to be left in the lurch

“Today has been an eventful day for me and the state Earlier today, we inaugurated the Vetland Junior International School, Agege which is the first modular, digitized school in the country. Our focus on education is in line with our belief that education is the fulcrum that would ensure a better society.

Today’s event is to promote merit and encourage healthy competition among our teachers

“When we held the first edition last year, some people thought it was a fluke Last year we gave out salon cars but now we are giving out 13 brand new sport utility vehicles. Recognising teachers is to help promote world class education in our state. I am happy to tell you that our huge investment in EKOEXCEL has been justified by the evaluation that was done

“Over 15,000 teachers have been skilled up through local and international training Also, our performance in WAEC exam has improved In 2020, we had 38 79%, but in 2021, we had 81% which is inclusive of credit passes in English and Mathematics We are not expecting anything less this year

“In February this year, we started the Comprehensive High School programme with 12 schools and we want the figure to hit at least 50 this year The programme is meant to set our students on their career paths We will continue to increase budgetary allocations to education and take the welfare of teachers as priority", he said.

The governor also commended private school owners for the support

The Guest Speaker, Mr Gbenga Oyebode, who is also the Chairman, Teach for Nigeria, said education has taken a new dimension with the COVID-19 pandemic.

He urged teachers to innovate and adapt to the new trend.

The Commissioner for Education, Mrs Folashade Adefisayo, lauded Governor Sanwo-Olu for living up to his promise of rewarding teachers in the state She said 3,529 applications were received out of which 22 got to the semi final stage

The Chairman, Nomination Committee, Mrs Lai Koiki, explained that the applications were screened at four stages and the exercise done in transparent manner

She announced that two of last year’s winners went ahead to win national and international honours.

But they and the others need to go beyond general platitudes to share their granular education plans, given its dire straits. Specifics are essential to show that they are serious about education and its vital role in the 21st-century, which is knowledgedriven We need more commitment to addressing the issues in education, particularly the learning poverty and inchoate policies

27th June 2022

Following the conclusion of party primaries and the emergence of presidential standard-bearers of the major political parties, there’s an urgent need to examine the candidates’ stance on education critically

Lecturers in public universities have been on strike for over three months before their polytechnic colleagues joined them in snubbing work

Secondary and primary schools are not faring any better, with a recent United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) report highlighting the poor learning outcomes in primary education The UNICEF report noted that while some 10 million pupils are out of school, 70 percent of those in primary schools cannot read or perform basic numeracy tasks at 10

The vast majority of Nigeria’s youth face a bleak future if they cannot read and write; a bleak future for the youth means a bleak future for the country. For those who do attend school they are not learning anything that would help them create opportunities for themselves or their society UNICEF warned that in a couple of decades, the millions of current street children and those who attend school but don’t learn will be unable to add to society or the economy Our presidential candidates need to face this threat with strong policies and plans in education have been majorly focused on infrastructural development such as renovation of schools and provision of school furniture, actual learning gains interventions have been inadequately funded, with poor teachers’ training and outdated teaching methods, it’s time the individuals, including the leading four, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, former Anambra State Governor Peter Obi and ex-Kano Governor, Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso give a detailed breakdown of their plans and vision for taking education out of its current position and balance the existing budgetary allocation for education to focus more on learning gains

In a document entitled ‘My Covenant with Nigerians’, Atiku had said, “The public education system is ill-equipped and has consistently underperformed, keeping millions of our children out of school and producing graduates with skills and competencies, which are not aligned to the needs of our communities and our industries Incessant industrial actions by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and other unions of educational institutions have undoubtedly affected the quality of our workforce with far-reaching consequences on the economy.”

In a viral manifesto of Tinubu, which his campaign organisation has since disowned, reportedly pledged commitment “to overhauling the education sector and making a significant impact in education as a matter of priority I will triple education spending over the next four years from the current 8% to over 25% ”

Learning gains have to be improved UNICEF’s gloomy forecast about the future of Nigeria’s primary education and even the comatose tertiary education needs to be averted The standard-bearers need to speak to this in detail and not just profess commitment to education

It should be a cardinal part of their manifestos as a recent study by a Nobel Prize-winning economist Professor Michael Kremer has shown that all is not lost for education in Africa. The study showed ‘among the greatest learning gains ever measured’ is coming out of Africa The study holds out hope for Nigeria and shows that there will be marked improvements if the appropriate teaching and learning methodology is used by SUBEBs

Reviewing the seminal study that critically appraised the methodology of a global edtech solution provider, NewGlobe, in Kenya and which Professor Kremer presented at the recently concluded Education World Forum in London, there is reason to believe those phenomenal impacts can be replicated in public education systems across Africa

“Attending schools delivering highly standardised education has the potential to produce dramatic learning gains at scale suggesting that policymakers may wish to explore incorporation of standardisation, including standardised lesson plans and teacher feedback and monitoring, in their own systems ”

The study suggests that if replicated at scale across public education systems, the learning gains would be enough to put African children from underserved communities on track to match their peers in countries with incomes three or four times higher

The study finds that after two years, primary school students, up to junior secondary in NewGlobe’s programme are nearly a whole additional year ahead of children taught using standard methods For early childhood development –typically three and five-year-olds –children gain nearly an additional year and half of the learning; learning in two years what students in other schools learn in three and a half years

Thankfully, some states, including Lagos, Edo and recently Kwara, have been proactive in addressing the rot in both primary and tertiary education by adopting NewGlobe’s methodology Lagos and Edo States, where the same NewGlobe methods reviewed in the study are in use in public primary schools under the government initiatives, EKOEXCEL and EdoBEST, have recorded significant and measurable impacts in improving learning outcomes, teaching and school administration. Therefore, the parties’ presidential standard-bearers don’t need to look outside Nigeria for models they can adopt on a national scale

This is particularly noteworthy as studies have confirmed the efficacy of NewGlobe’s method in Lagos The EKOEXCEL 20202021 Endline Fluency and Numeracy Evaluation showed that pupils are making substantial progress in oral reading fluency and foundational numeracy compared to their performance before the initiative’s commencement.

It further showed that an average Primary 3 EKOEXCEL pupil is now reading at nearly the same fluency level as an average Primary 5 pupil from before the launch of the EKOEXCEL programme The evaluation also affirmed that EKOEXCEL is improving learning over what existed before

Also reviewing EKOEXCEL’s impacts, the Paul and Jean Hanna Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution of Stanford University, Professor Eric A Hanushek, awarded the 2021 Yidan Prize for Education Research, lauded its impact on Lagos’ economic transformation

He wrote: “The EKOEXCEL early results point to the kinds of transformational educational experiences that can dramatically change the future economic outcomes for Lagos State In educational interventions, it is seldom the case that positive results are apparent so early in the program. We now have strong research from around the world that shows that economic growth is directly related to the populations’ skills. If the EKOEXCEL improvements are sustained across all of the primary schools in Lagos, the future labour force of the state will be significantly enhanced, leading to a new economic era ”

The same successes have been recorded in EdoBEST; which has now expanded into progressive schools and junior secondary schools so that the impact reaches even more of the State’s youth Edo’s schools are now delivering learning at a pace that matches them with education giants in South Asia and the World Bank is so confident it has lent its support. Improved learning experiences in classrooms across the state.

Education is too important to be treated with levity by Nigeria’s aspiring presidents We need them to make it a crucial part of their manifestos and engage with us, the citizens, on how they will tackle the rots in the current system from the bottom to the top

Presidential candidates need to ensure that it is not a few outlier states that are changing the opportunities for their population but that it is systematic, intentional and focussed System change at local, state and national levels No country develops without strategic education that uses available funds effectively.

At this point in our national development, we need the politicians to commit more to quality education. That is the only pathway to growth. As Aristotle rightly noted, “the roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet ” The aspiring presidents and others seeking executive elective offices need to know this and prioritise education if they are serious about delivering economic growth and a prosperous Nigeria