Lagos state is the development pilot of Nigeria as the
nation's nerve centre. Lagos must therefore continue to take the responsibility
to pioneer solutions to most pressing national crises such as education. The
tremendous achievements of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in laying the solid
structures upon which Babatunde Raji Fashola built must be commendable in this
respect.
Significant improvements were made in the past 15years of democracy by
Lagos state which has the highest population of pupils. New schools were
established to decongest available ones and provide for increasing population
of children, classrooms were constructed or renovated in most of our schools while
teaching aids, teachers' remuneration, examination fees of final students, etc
have been attracting a great percentage of state revenue as our free education
policy has been sustained.
My Philosophy of Child Education is synchronized with
my philosophy of governance and forms my strongest motivation to join the
governorship race. Lagos state has children population of about over 4.5million
with about 2.5million schooling in our 1,597 primary and secondary
schools with over 3,000 number of teachers. Any right thinking person must agree
that matching schools, teachers, teaching aids and other needs with the growing
population of our children can only be a gradual process with successive
administrations making significant contributions and raising the bar of achievements.
The growth and development of every society is
dependent upon the contributions of her citizens. When a society has greater
percentage of its productive population making positive and constructive
contributions to the society, the society is bound to develop. In order to
attain this feat, the society must take total responsibility to train its
children from childhood into youth age giving them the best character and moral
orientation, ethical values and then professional and occupational instructions.
The society will only reap at adult ages what is sowed into its children in
their formative ages.
Training our children so as to bring responsible and
responsive citizens out of them is therefore not a kind gesture to the masses
but a fundamental duty of any government to the state, the nation and humanity
at large.
The next Lagos must therefore respond to the following
challenges, taking it from where present administration left it.
ý OUT-OF-SCHOOL CHILDREN.
Significant percentage of
our children, about half their population, is out school in their formative
ages. This does not portend a pleasant future for our state. We must continue
to shift the balance heavily to the asset side. The next Lagos will set the
agenda to take the balance of schooling and out-of-school children from 60% to
40% to 85% to 15% within 4years.
Our key strategies will be
massive increase in school structures and facilities to triple the capacity of
our school system. China and India tackle this population challenge by applying
integrated school system with a school accommodating as much as 2million pupils
distributed into sub-schools within the same school. The school has overall
principal with sub-school principals heading small school units within for
administrative convenience.
Next Lagos will under-study
this system and adapt in response to our schools population challenge. In as
much as all children must go to school, schools must not be made a mob circle
where we rather mis-educate our future leaders.
ý UNDERPERFORMING CHILDREN.
The issue of academic
underperformance is a system problem. Teacher to pupil population does not
support optimum learning. Learning cannot effective when a teacher has a class
size that puts him or her under distress.
We will expand capacities of
structure and facilities and employ more teachers to decongest classes. More
support staff such guidance counselors, cleaners, etc will be employed toward
performance enhancement.
ý Inadequate facilities; classrooms, teaching aids, instructional
materials, conveniences, transport and logistics, etc.
We will employ our
strategies below to mobilize resources to improve facilities.
ý Inadequate staff; teaching, counseling, sports, vocational,
administration, medicals.
ý Standby repair and maintenance board will be put in place to respond
quickly to repair needs in order to avoid rapid deterioration.
The strategic responses of next Lagos shall include but
not limited to;
COST REDUCTION TECHNIQUES.
Significant percentage of
expenditure and even budgets will reduce if cost reduction measures are applied
at every stage of project planning, supplies planning, execution and
implementation. Cost reduction techniques are today a major strategy of
corporate organizations in saving revenue on overheads.
COST SHELVING STRATEGIES will enlist out-of-box thinking to bankroll programmes without
using stipulated public funds.
PURPOSEFUL CRS DRIVE. Corporate Social Responsibility is a major strategy of helping
societies not to be starved by exclusive capitalism. Through CSR, capitalist
businesses have turned in part of the fortune made from their operating
environment. The past administrations have tapped into this provision to large
extent including the security fund of the last administration but next Lagos
while sustaining the security fund will initiate a similar programme for
primary and secondary schools. With almost all companies doing business in
Nigeria having corporate presence in Lagos, there is still great fortune yet to
be tapped in CSR.
PHILANTHROPIC GRANTS. World over and in Europe and America particularly, philanthropies
are made to associate with development of education by funding with due
acknowledgement the renovation of schools and or provision of facilities. The
next Lagos must tap into this untapped area to meet our challenges.
SCHOOLS VOCATIONAL
ENTERPRISES. Schools in Lagos now run vocational
training programmes with impressive responses from all stakeholders. The next
Lagos will tap into this further by making vocational studies to evolve into
big educational business by stimulating our students to produce or invent
market worthy products that will compete for market globally. Revenues from
this will add to educational development fund.
Our strategies will consider
the models that are working for the Japanese, Chinese, Indians, Korean, etc who
have products selling in Nigeria that are produce by vocational classes in
these countries.
BUDGETING AT UNICEF STANDARD. The next
Lagos will complement these and other funding ways and means with UNICEF
education standard of 26% in annual budgets. INTEGRATED ENTERPRISE PROJECT. The next
Lagos will convert roofs of these schools into solar flats. The energy
generated will be deployed for schools and uses of other places. This will save
the money been paid to PHCN. Continuous assessment and evaluation for teachers to build and sustain standards. Guidance and counselors will be
provided in each school. Medical facilities will be provided in
each school. Annual performance rewards and motivational incentives will be instituted for both staff and pupils.
We have prepared elaborate
action plan on this and we have taken it as one of our core programmes in four
years.
Bi oju o bati
eyingbeti, Oju oni ti Eko
Ipinle Eko oni
Baje o
@HABlagos
HON.
HAKEEM ALOBO BAKARE 
