75 per cent of Lagos private schools have no licence — commissioner

Just a quarter of the about 20,000 private schools in Lagos have been approved by the state government, education commissioner Folasade Adefisayo has said.

Adefisayo, who spoke during the 2021 ministerial press briefing in commemoration of the second year in office of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, said many of the private schools were not fit to be approved.

She said the condition required for the registration of the private schools is to have conducive classrooms and the full material testing of the building.

According to the commissioner, the registration of private schools in the state increased by 127 per cent, from 2019 to 2020. In 2019, 729 private schools were registered, while in 2020, 1,660 private schools were registered.

She said the registration of the schools was to ensure that no child was left out of school.

Adefisayo said that during the period under review, the Education Quality Assurance Unit of the ministry initiated the establishment of 27 mini libraries, to ease the process of research and statistics for students.

“The Office of the Education Quality Assurance is saddled with the responsibility of ensuring smooth evaluation of public and private schools,” she said.

“Also, monitoring their academic activities and ensuring the schools adhere to the required guidelines provided by the state government.

“During the period, the agency conducted over 2,247 resumption monitoring on schools and 173 whole school evaluation was conducted.

“The agency conducted 131 interventions/follow through visits and organised a virtual online training on the role of private schools in the implementation of the Lagos State Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy,” she said.

The commissioner said that the government in partnership with SKLD Integrated Services Ltd set up and installed a Casio Mathematics and Science Laboratory.

She said the objective was to provide continuous support and resources to meet the strategic objectives and need in enhancing the delivery of science related subjects.

Adefisayo said that since the inauguration of the Mathematics and Science laboratory, the ministry had trained no fewer than 100 teachers across the six Education Districts.

It had also trained over 60 technical instructors across the five Government Technical Colleges in the state.