The Chairman of the Lagos State House Committee on Education, Science and Technology, Hon. Wahab Alawiye-King, has charged the 20 Education Secretaries of Local Government Education Authorities (LGEAs) in the state to concentrate more on monitoring and evaluating system in the primary education sector of the state.
The call was made recently during a maiden edition of a meeting with the education secretaries in the 20 local governments and 37 local council development areas in Lagos State at the conference room of the Assembly.
Alawiye-King said “This is the most important section in the education sector and this committee will be having this meeting twice or at least once a year to afford us the opportunity of knowing the challenges that is facing our primary schools in a bid to proffering lasting solutions to those obstacles’’.
The lawmaker added that the committee is ready to assist the secretaries in any way possible so that their performance can be felt positively in the education sector like never before.
“The need for this meeting arose when it was pointed out during the just concluded 3rd Lagos Education Summit that notable lapses in the performances of the students in secondary schools came from the elementary section,” Alawiye-King said.
Members present also contributed; amongst them was Hon. Lanre Ogunyemi who spoke passionately on schools in the riverine areas of the state.
He complained that teachers in those areas seldom stay because there are no motivational allowances for them from the state government.
Hon. Adebimpe Akinsola spoke on the inadequate number of teachers cum instructors in the primary schools viz -a -viz infrastructures for them.
On his own part, Hon. Mufutau Egberongbe who has once served the state in the capacity of the Education Secretary, before being elected a member of the Assembly, laid emphasis on the issue of five percent of the total emolument being allotted to them as the running cost being judiciously spent.
He said “It can be used for some minor repairs like mentoring, changing of bulbs and a host of other things.
Given the brief of their activities on behalf of others, their chairman, Mr. Oduloye Taiwo, said “Our sector is the most important sector in education sector and our responsibility is to see to the day to day running of primary schools in Lagos State”.
He however complained bitterly about the quality of infrastructures being handed over to them by the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB).
“We are suppose to be carried along from the beginning when the contracts are being awarded to the contractors to give room for better supervision,” he said.
Listing other enormous challenges facing primary schools in the state, other education secretaries stated that such challenges as: lack of official cars for them; government policy on development levy; shortage of teachers in the primary schools due to none recruitment of teachers; lack of adequate transportation for teachers serving in the riverine areas; none severance payment for teachers in the riverine areas; and inadequate infrastructures in primary schools in the state among others.