The Lagos State Government is set to empower over 100,000 students through its Eko digital project, with plans to train an appreciable number in the Job Initiative Lagos programme this year.
Special Adviser to the Governor on Education, Tokunbo Wahab stated this at a Media parley to appraise the activities of the Office last year and give insights into what is expected in the new year.
According to him, over 341,000 students in public and private schools have benefitted so far from the Eko Digital Project, while 60,000 penultimate and final year students of higher institutions across the state benefitted from the Job Initiative Lagos in the last two years.
Wahab, who stated that the administration of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu is investing in human capital development, which is key to development, said the budget performance of the office of Special Adviser on Education last year stood at 99.5 percent, with hope to perform optimally this year.
The Special Adviser said in 2021, the present administration, through the office upgraded 155 libraries in public schools across the state to revive reading culture among students, while plan is in the pipeline to upgrade 200 more this year.
Wahab also stated that the budgetary allocation of 12.6 percent earmarked for the Education sector this year, would address more Infrastructural deficit in schools across the state, while work would intensify on the over 8,000 bed space Hostel being built in the Lagos State University, LASU, Ọjo.
The Special Adviser added that by next week, recognition would be granted to the state by the National Universities Commission to run the two new State Universities.
According to Wahab, ‘’Last year was very eventful, one of our major Key Performance Indicator (KPI) was that we were going to have a two new universities, two years ago we had done our findings, we had engaged consultants and the numbers were not looking good with respect to two of our institutions, those are colleges of educations, the enrolment was dwindling, the subvention we grant them every month was going up, same for their running cost, so we must do something urgently.
“The UTME structure has made it clear to us that the best of our students are good for the universities, the second best will go to the polytechnics, the others will go to the colleges of education. You need to also bear in mind that NCE as a certificate is no more commanding in the market.
“Then the discrimination against HND in the market was something we needed to address holistically, hence we approached the Lagos State House of Assembly with two bills.
This one I am not only going to thank the governor, I am going to thank the House of Assembly and the Speaker, Rt Hon. Mudashiru Obasa who showed leadership as usual, showed cooperation and understanding and in record time passed those bills and the governor is assenting to the bills this afternoon.
“This is going to be the major part of this governor’s legacies, it showed that he has planned and prepared for the future of Lagos, Lagos students and their education ’’
