.Upgrades, digitalizes 107 public school libraries

By Olasunkanmi Akoni

Lagos State Government has disclosed that  120,000 Public Primary and Secondary Schools pupils/students across its Six Educational Districts have been empowered with basic computer skills  under its  Digital Skills Initiative, DSI.

The students/ pupils were trained in the areas of Basic Computer Skills, Coding Skills, Scratch, Cloud Service   and World Wide Web, Internet Technology, Interactive and Visualized Coding to prepare them ahead of the global information technology requirement.

Special Adviser to Governor Sanwo-Olu on Education, Barrister Tokunbo Wahab made this disclosure, during a ministerial press briefing at Alausa, Ikeja, as  part of the activities commemorating the second year anniversary of Governor Babajide  Sanwo-Olu administration in the state.

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Wahab explained further that DSI, which was implemented in collaboration with private companies was aimed at empowering youths and young students in Lagos Primary and Secondary schools by equipping them with knowledge, skills, and know-how that would enable them to thrive in the technology space in a couple of years’ time and compete in the future job market with digital skills like their counterparts from any part of the world.

While noting that Digital Skills Initiative  is in tandem with the state government vision for education and technology,   which is the third Pillar of the T.H.E.M.E.S  development agenda of the administration in the state.

‘’Digital Skills Initiative is a program that   aimed at providing opportunities for pupils of the state of Lagos to learn coding skills, basic computer skills, introduction to the World Wide Web and internet technology so as to develop their  digital skill and prepare them for the 21st century  global information technology challenges,  Eko Digital Skills is one of our own way of achieving Education and Technology part of the six Pillars Development Agenda of Governor Sanwo-Olu administration and  Mr. Governor is very passionate about this project and had committed huge resources into it,” he stated.

In addition to this, the Special Adviser  disclosed that the success recorded in the Digital Skills Lagos has encouraged the state government to commence  the phase two of the Digital Skills Initiative  which aimed at empowering youths and young students of Lagos state that are out of  primary and secondary schools but yet to obtain a higher level of education either in  a vocational training institute or tertiary institutions.

He added that 25,000 students have so far benefited from different ICT training  programmes under the Phase 2 of the scheme. They were trained in different areas of ICT knowledge including;   Computer networking, Coding, Computing and Advance worldwide Web, internet technology skills such as cloud computing and virtualization, among others.

Wahab, who noted the ranking of the Lagos State University as the second best University in Nigeria and one of the best six hundred institutions  across the world  by the Times Higher Education Ranking  for the Year 2020 and 2021 was an indication that the state government’s efforts at making the educational system of the state a model for the country and West African sub Region is a reality.