By Ikenna Asomba

WITH a population of over 21 million people, a recent statistics released by the Lagos State Government (LASG), revealed that it currently provides free education across 1,009 primary schools, 348 junior secondary and 327 senior secondary schools in the state, with an attendant increasing population of school-aged children put at 4.5 million.

Over the last 16 years, the successive administrations in the state had introduced several intervention programmes to thrust the state’s educational system to a higher pedestal. The recent being the Lagos Eko Secondary Education Project (LESEP). It introduced this project in partnership with the World Bank to enhance learning outcomes of the public juinior and senior secondary schools.

Overall education

The project according to LASG, is aimed at complement its efforts towards improving the overall education in the state. However, this intervention projects which critics say have gulped huge monies running into millions of dollars, seem not to have put to end the myriads of problems faced by the state’s educational system.

For instance, in 2014, a rights group, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), in a Freedom of Information request, filed a suit against LASG before a Federal High Court, in Ikoyi, over alleged failure to release information and documents on the spending for the past five years on furniture and other facilities in public schools in Lagos state.

The organisation said it sought the order of the court for the Lagos State Government to release information on spending of the 2009 World Bank loan of $90 million (N13.5 billion) meant to improve education in the 639 public secondary schools in the state, and details of projects carried out to improve infrastructure and facilities across primary and secondary education in Lagos State.

However, Fashola, at the launch of a book entitled “Eko Project: A Legacy of Excellence,” which was a documentation of all the different projects executed since 2009, said the deployment of the funds had helped improved students performance in public examinations as performance had improved from 7 per cent in 2009 to 41 per cent in 2013, charging teachers to work towards achieving 61 per cent WAEC performance in the nearest future.

Similarly giving details of the spending, Ms Ronke Azeez, Special Adviser to the Governor on Eko Project disclosed that the $90 million loan provided direct funding to schools between 2009 to 2013.

According to her, “N2.4billion of the loan was spent on the training of 16, 445 teachers and 7, 998 principals during the programme period, while N2.1 billion was spent on students tracking and assessment over the period and N480 million was also spent on teachers mentoring programme and allowances of volunteer teachers.”

The Special Adviser said an average of N10 million was released to each of 667 schools during the period while N40 million was released to each of 104 federal unity schools under the Step-B project. Azeez said the government procured 839 projectors, 753 internet modems, 3,441 soft-wares, 656 generators for schools during the period. To improve reading culture during the period, the government created 525 libraries, 305,000 textbooks, 423 students work book and about 10,899 reference materials.”

She added that “the government spent some of the funds on 7, 786 white boards, 20,592 mathematical set , 4668 teaching modules, and procurement of 52,532 furniture.” However, investigation by Vanguard, revealed that despite these intervention projects, many pupils and students across public schools in the state still sit on bare floor, tyres, broken furniture and windows.

Recall that on November 7, 2014, Vanguard did a report of the Ajeromi Ifelodun Secondary School, AIJSS (alias Sinclair), in the popular ghetto city, Ajegunle, titled: “Lagos secondary school where students sit on floor, windows to receive lectures.” In the school, Vanguard gathered that the JSS1 and JSS2, annually, parents whose children got admitted into JSS1, are usually compelled to pay N2, 000 for the provision of furniture (chairs and desks).

It was learnt that parents who failed to pay the said amount have their children sit on bare floor, tyres, broken furniture, classroom windows, or even stand during lessons. Arguably, this is the situation in some of the schools across the state, especially those in suburb areas.

When Vanguard visited AIJSS, on Wednesday, students were still seen sitting on bare floor, tyres, broken furniture, classroom windows, and standing during lessons. It was however observed that LASG, has commenced the building of new blocks of classrooms in the school, which is still at its foundation state, following that report, last year.

This appalling situation is also witnessed in some schools recently visited by Vanguard in the Badagry and Epe areas of the state. Aside the menace of over-crowded classrooms, deficit of furniture and other learning facilities, Vanguard gathered that another major menace in the state’s education system is the apparent dearth of teachers, as well as alleged heavy tax withdrawal from teachers’ salaries, and the delay in paying them their pension packages, among others.

Speaking to Vanguard, a teacher who has been teaching for over 15 years in the state, but pleaded anonymity, decried that the dearth of teachers places a heavy burden on the few teachers currently in the employ of the state.

Public schools

She said: “The Lagos State Government led by Governor Babatunde Fashola, has though done well in revamping the state’s education sector, but the issue which gives us concern is the apparent dearth of teachers to the over-crowded students population, across public schools in the state. Owing to the free education policy of the state government, a lot of parents are now bringing their children to Lagos public schools.

Truth be told, the Lagos State Government has not employed teachers in the school system for some years now. This leaves us in burdensome situation of excess work-load.

“That is why you discover that I am covering over eight classes in a day. I alone teach English Language and Home Economics in my school. I have to cover from JSS1 A to G in a day. What time do I have to prepare my lesson notes? What time do I have to cover the subjects curriculum for each of these classes?

The fact remains that our children in Lagos will continue to have poor outings at national examinations, if this deficit of teachers is not addressed by the incoming administration of Akinwunmi Ambode,” she cautioned.