AfricanChildDay:LASUBEB’sEKOEXCELSeeks Collaboration,SupportOfStakeholders

The intervention has also aided uniformity, and strict adherence to the curriculum as teachers’ tablets are preloaded with lessons and content that can be effectively monitored for standardisation across Lagos’ public primary schools.

EKOEXCEL has also significantly increased pupils learning outcomes and drastically reduced the number of out-of-school children in the state by enrolling them in schools through the ‘Leave No Child Behind’ policy

The Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board (LASUBEB’s)

EKOEXCEL says it is ready to collaborate with stakeholders in the education sector to eliminate harmful socio-cultural and economic practices that affect the all-round development of pupils

LASUBEB said this in commemorating the 2022 Day of the African Child themed: “Eliminating Harmful Practices Affecting Children: Progress on Policy and Practice

Since 2013,” on Thursday, June 16.

The day has been celebrated annually since 1991 in honour of students massacred in Soweto, South Africa, in 1976 for protesting against education injustice and inequality in the apartheid regime

Speaking on the 2022 event, especially in light of last year’s revelation by UNICEF that Africa has 42 million out-of-school children and Nigeria 10 5 million, EKOEXCEL reaffirmed its commitment to improved learning outcomes for pupils in Lagos public primary schools through innovative pedagogy

It also reassured that training primary school teachers in modern teaching styles that would improve their delivery and further boost pupils would be a priority.

LASUBEB Chair, Wahab Alawiye-King, solicited the cooperation of parents, guardians and other stakeholders to ensure further that it continues to impact pupils positively

“We only have the pupils with us in schools for a limited number of hours daily They spend more time at home with their parents and guardians; we need them to complement our efforts so that the pupils can survive in today’s knowledge-driven economy Besides, we want to improve our pupils’ learning outcomes further and enrol those on the streets to return to the classroom. To do this, we need everybody to play their role by discouraging child labour, selective education of boys and other harmful practices that might affect children’s future We thereby solicit more support from NGOs and other stakeholders in the education sector to get pupils in the classroom and stop harmful cultural practices "

Initiated in 2019 by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, EKOEXCEL has radically transformed primary education in the state It has recorded tangible gains among teachers and pupils, leading to improved learning outcomes for pupils and more professional teachers Over 14,000 teachers from 1,011 public primary schools have been captured under the scheme It has also enhanced the teacher-pupil interaction experience through technology (eLearning) in Lagos State primary schools.

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

In a seminal study that critically appraised the methodology of global EdTech company, NewGlobe (technical partner of EKOEXCEL), in Kenya and which he presented at the recently concluded Education World Forum in London, Nobel Prize winner, Professor Michael Kremer found that it produced better and more equitable learning outcomes among students.

Kremer said, “the study finds that if replicated at scale across public education systems, the 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 in NewGlobe’s Kenya program are nearly a whole additional year ahead of children taught using traditional 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.”