Lagos will partner private sector to improve education – Sanwo-Olu

The Lagos State governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, yesterday revealed his administration’s plans to partner with the private sector to transform the state’s education sector in line with his T.H.E.M.E.S agenda. The collaboration, Sanwo-Olu stated, was necessary for the private sector to uphold the structures laid out by the government for the advancement of education, saying […]

The Lagos State governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, yesterday revealed his administration’s plans to partner with the private sector to transform the state’s education sector in line with his T.H.E.M.E.S agenda.

The collaboration, Sanwo-Olu stated, was necessary for the private sector to uphold the structures laid out by the government for the advancement of education, saying that the government alone cannot do it.

The governor made the disclosure during a public-private partnership dialogue at the Eko Hotels and Suites, organised by the State Ministry of Education, with the theme, ‘Creating A Better Future Through Education.’

Sanwo-Olu said his administration was committed to delivering quality education in public schools across the state by increasing the budgetary allocation of the sector from the paltry N65 billion to N135 billion “to drive a policy that will achieve performance.”

He stated that his administration would continue to strengthen partnership with stakeholders and scale up capacity of the educational system through technology and infrastructure development in schools, among others, to guarantee a better future for the children.

He recounted some of the successes he said his administration had recorded in the ministry in less than a year, and reiterated he would continue to ensure that teaching becomes a competitive discipline in Lagos State, maintaining it was possible to pass world- class knowledge to pupils.

“We’ve commissioned to build a total of about 60,000 chairs and tables and we’re hoping we’ll jack that up to about 100,000 before the end of the year. We’re pushing infrastructure in about 300 schools this year. We started with the first set of about 60.

“We have also set up a whole unit, which we call School Rehabilitation and Infrastructure Development, just to face school rehabilitation and development. We’re working with the ministry on that,” he said.

The Lagos State Commissioner for Education, Folashade Adefisayo, thanked Gov Sanwo-Olu for his continuous support to the ministry, explaining that the aim of the event was to improve on the already existing collaboration between the private and public sector.

Adefisayo assured residents of state of the government’s willingness to continue with the partnership in order to achieve the standard educational goals in the state.