Funmi Ogundare
The Lagos State Government said it will commence the training of teachers in rural and riverine areas in a mobile workshop designed to build their capacities, identify and source local components to produce instructional materials that students can easily identify with.
The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Mr. Adesina Odeyemi, who announced this, said the mobile workshop would ensure the design, production and utilisation of instructional materials with locally sourced materials designed to improve the academic performance of public schools students, adding that it would hold across the six education districts from October 11 to 20, 2016.
He said the current administration has since inception, embarked on training and retraining of teachers to boost the standard of education at all levels.
“This initiative therefore is in line with government’s objectives because research has proven that students learn easier, faster and better with instructional materials than just being told things in abstract. This is what is termed learning from known to unknown.”
The workshop commenced on October 11 at the Hall of Education District III Office; that of District IV will hold at the New Era Secondary School, Surulere on October 12; it will hold in District V on October 13 at Awori Ajeromi Hall, while District VI will be on October 14.
Also the workshop will hold in Education District I at Egan Junior Grammar School on October 18, while that of District II will hold at the conference hall on October 20.
In another development, the state government recently inaugurated two libraries and ICT centres in Ireti Senior Secondary school and Falomo Senior High School, Ikoyi.
The libraries were built through Public-Private Partnership (PPP) with ARM Group as part of the government’s Project 350 initiative.
The initiative according to the Special Adviser on Education, Mr. Obafela Bank-Olemoh falls under the larger objective of the government through the access to knowledge intervention to increased access to knowledge for Lagos residents.
“These new libraries are fully finished with new furniture, books and computer systems. There are also internet facilities to improve the learning experience of the students.”
He thanked the management of ARM Group for collaborating with the state, while reiterating the commitment of Governor Akinwumi Ambode to expand access to knowledge for all Lagosians regardless of their socio-economic background.
In her remarks, the Group CEO of ARM Group, Ms. Olajumoke Ogundare, advised the students to take advantage of the new library facility, saying, “at ARM Group, we see any investment in education as very critical for the development of our society. That is why we have partnered Lagos State to upgrade these libraries.”
The Project 350 initiative falls under a tripod pillar of ‘access to knowledge’ which also includes the adopt-a-;library project, a private-sector driven initiative to upgrade all state-owned libraries and the creation of Lagos Digital Library, an online library which will serve as an education portal and a repository of knowledge.
