The Lagos State Education Commissioner, Mrs. Folasade Adefisayo, has announced plans by the Ministry of Education to establish an Education Radio Station solely dedicated to educational content.
She spoke Friday during the 2021 ministerial press briefing to mark the second anniversary of the Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s administration.
Mrs. Adefisayo, who said the state had filed for licensing of the radio station, added: “It would serve as a channel for educational and training content for pupils and teachers. It is a long process because approval has to come from Abuja, but we have started the process and I think we are getting close to approval.”
The commissioner also hinted of plans to establish special skill-based schools (mono-academies) that would appeal to specific interests of learners; and the establishment of six mathematics laboratories in each of the six education districts.
She added: ““We will establish four mono-academies – multi-media and ICT academy (we have found a facility for this); fashion institute, construction academy, and agric/mechanical academy, in partnership with the private sector, because we want to give our pupils more options. If you cannot attend university, you can have a career in something you are good at and love doing. We will also give them the skills so they can be master practitioners.”
“We will also establish six mathematics laboratories, and Casio has promised to donate the six labs to us in the six educational districts. We plan to roll out 150 computer systems in our vocational colleges; another 30,000 devices across all our schools, and even more, complete with the scheme of work, for our pupils because their generation is so adept with it and is tech savvy. We want to teach them in the way they like to be taught so they will learn as they should learn.”
Special Adviser to the governor on education Adetokunbo Wahab, who also gave an account of his office in the last one year, said the state plans to convert its colleges of education and polytechnic to universities.
According to him, the state executive council decided on the conversion based on the preference for university education.
He said: “In the past few months we have had discussions on the future of our colleges of education. At the EXCO level, we have resolved to upgrade our colleges of education – Michael Otedola College of Primary Education and the Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education – into universities of education. The same will apply to our polytechnic at Ikorodu.
“There has been so much discrimination between university qualifications and polytechnic qualifications, such that polytechnic graduates have to do conversion programmes to remain relevant. So we are seeking to convert the polytechnic to the Lagos State University of Science and Technology.”
Both officials reeled out the achievements of the administration in the education sector in the last one year to include – the implementation of 1,097 projects across over 300 schools; training and employment of new teachers; enhancement of special needs education; provision of scholarships and bursaries worth N218,795,000 to 6,411 students; digital skills training for over 120,000 students, among others.