Lagos Comprehensive Schools Programme Rallies Stakeholders

Ugo Aliogo in this report examines how the Lagos State government is rallying stakeholders to address the high attrition in public secondary schools

Two months ago, the Lagos State Government, working with partners in the organized private sector and non-governmental agencies, came up with what It believed was a winning formula: a masterstrokethat addressed the worryingly high rate of attrition in its public secondary schools.

The Lagos State Comprehensive Schools Programme, birthed from a need to keep prospective dropouts in, and aimed at improving the prospect for their future by marrying top quality vocational training to regular academics curricular. The pilot phase was launched in 12 secondary schools across the state’s 6 Education Districts and covers categories such as Agriculture; Tech and Digital Skills; Beauty and Events; Building and Construction; and Media and Entertainment.

On April 13the State rallied its troops – administrators, principals and teachers of the public secondary schools – to the Adeyemi Bero auditorium in Alausa, Ikeja, for a progress report, and feedback gathering to ensure all are still on the same mission.

“We can’t be happy with the number of our children dropping out of school,” lamented the Commissioner for Education in Lagos State, Mrs. Folasade Adefisayo. Obviously convinced that much work still has to be put in by all concerned. She buttressed this fact recalling her encounter with a yam seller when she worked as an administrator of a government secondary school in Oshogbo, the Osun State Capital. “The principal shed tears because the student had been her best student in Chemistry a few years before.”

This was also a reference to another factor of the “students not being taught what they wanted to do.” The Comprehensive Schools Programme, Adefisayo insists, would help them become self-reliant by teaching skills they are good at and passionate about. Here, Adefisayo cited the example of her daughter, who put herself through university by braiding the hair of her colleagues. “She was independent and able to work for her upkeep.”

The educators present also brought up a number of suggestions to improving the programme, one being to expand it to include private secondary schools for a fully rounded take on the dropout challenge, to provide facilities for the physically challenged students and to register patents for products by the students in the programme.

While acknowledging the various input from the audience, the commissioner announced the involvement of the Office of Education Quality Assurance (OEQA) to help in the maintenance and improvement of programme standards.

On the target of expanding the programme to 50 schools by September, Mr Abayomi Abolaji, Permanent Secretary Ministry of Education, explains a major factor in the selection process of the schools is the availability of infrastructure. “In terms of the classrooms, we will renovate them to such a state as to become conducive for proper learning by replacing furniture, installing smart TVs and other gadgets for the VTech sessions.”

The programme would ultimately cover every public secondary school in the State.

“Because all our schools are affected by the dropout problem, we want to retain those who would learn different vocations within the structured environment of the schools.”, Adefisayo reiterates. “We are saying to them, ‘Pay attention, do well, make us proud.’ As we continue tracking them and seeing them get to wherever they can in life.”

Over 500 students are currently in the Lagos State Comprehensive Schools Programme.