By Dayo Adesulu and Olasunkanmi Akoni

Fashola

Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State has said that the state government’s decision to employ and retrain 500 graduates to teach core subjects was an interventionist policy to create employment and also improve capacity of the children to prepare them for exams.

The core areas Lagos State government will be employing teachers are; English, Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Biology.

Fashola who spoke in an interview with newsmen at Lagos House, Ikeja said that the policy is also aimed at equalizing society between the rich and the poor.

He reiterated that the commitment of the present administration in Lagos State to the development of education is total and that at various stages of the journey the government has had to take certain measures to attain specific goals.

Fashola explained that the several complaints raised by people about the WAEC results being poor prompted Government to conduct detailed investigation as what the problem was.

He revealed that part of the finding made by government was that beyond the pupils that passed their exams in five subjects including English and Mathematics at one sitting no one bothers about what happens to other candidates.

“People have focussed on those with credits in five subjects because that is the minimum requirement for admission into tertiary institutions. It means every time results are released, we have left out people who had five credits with only Mathematics or five credits with only English and even people with six credits without any of the two main subjects.

“First we saw that out of the 60, 000 students who sat for the exams in 2007, the percentage pass was seven percent, by 2008, it moved to 10 percent, by 2009 it was 18 percent and by 2010 it was 21 percent. But what about people who passed six subjects with only English or those with six or five credits with only Mathematics. We saw that many of them passed but in reporting we only focussed on those who made it at one sitting”.

“Many forget that this was why the November General Certificate of Education (GCE) was introduced over 30 years when I was still in school. This was why the Federal School of Arts and Sciences was introduced to strengthen those who passed in only one of the core subjects- English or Mathematics to help them improve on their areas of weakness”.

He explained that in instances of parents who hire graduate teachers that they bring home to teach their children in order to make up, some segments of society remain disadvantaged, “What about the children of indigent parents”, he asked.

Fashola disclosed that classes would be run from Saturday, “once this set finish their training for all of the students who are in SS3 first so that we can give them coaching and prepare them for this crucial examinations.”

He continued: “As we go forward, we will integrate and go to SS2 and then institutionalize this over time in the school to strengthen the capacity to deal with those five basic subjects”.

When Vanguard Education visited Muslim Junior College, Ile-Iwe, Egbe, majority of the students were busy with their academic work in their classrooms, while few others were outside the premises. Some of the students who identified themselves as Olaitan, Funmi and Ruqayyatu disclosed to Vanguard that the school is already working out the modality to make up for the lost one month by organising extra moral class for them to prepare them for the Junior WAEC slated for 28th March this year.

It was also the same scenario in Ejigbo Junior and Senior Secondary Schools, Ejigbo, as most of the students were found in their classrooms busy with academic works at about 8:30am. The students who came late to school were severely punished as they subject them to kneeling with hands up in the open field.

Meanwhile, Fashola has commended the dedication and commitment to duty exhibited by members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) deployed round the state to conduct the voters’ registration exercise.

The governor who spoke in Epe in continuation of his strategic assessment of the voters’ registration exercise round the state expressed his satisfaction to the Corps members for their performance.

The governor interacted with many residents and youths in the area who trooped out to receive him at each of the registration points and urged those who have not registered amongst them to do so as the Independent National Electoral Commission has extended the exercise by one-week.

Fashola also interacted with the officials of INEC at each of the points urging them to continue to register members of the public as they come forward in a peaceful and orderly manner. He also listened and took notes of complaints about some inadequacies at some registration points in the town from the residents, promising that all noticeable areas of complaints and technical problems would be brought to the attention of INEC as the exercise progresses.