Press Releases

LASG Warns Parents Over Negative Traits By Students

Apr 16, 2008 - Following rising incidences of wilful damage to school properties by students, the Lagos State Government Wednesday warned parents to caution their children and wards against such negative traits as they (parents) would henceforth be made to pay for such damaged infrastructure.

The Deputy Governor of the State, Princess Sarah Sosan, who gave the warning at a Ministerial Briefing of the Ministry of Education to mark the one year anniversary of the present administration, said the State Government would no longer tolerate a situation where students wilfully destroy school ceilings, window panes and other infrastructural provisions in the guise of celebrating graduation from their respective schools.

The Deputy Governor, who also oversees the Education Ministry, warned that any student caught henceforth exhibiting such trait would be apprehended and held responsible for such damage while the parents are surcharged on the value of such damaged infrastructure.

Addressing Government House Correspondents at the Bagauda Kaltho Press Centre, the Deputy Governor said the State Government has so much to do with funds that it could not afford continually replacing school fixtures and fittings deliberately damaged by students.

Appealing to parents to see to the moral upbringing of their children, Princess Sosan also advised them to ensure that their wards dress properly to school as the school authorities would no longer tolerate indecent dressing in schools.

She expressed the determination of the present administration to continue promotion and sustenance of qualitative education in the state adding that pursuant to that determination, the government would continue to monitor illegal and substandard schools in the state with the aim of closing them down wherever they were found.

On the achievements of the Ministry of Education in the last one year, the Deputy Governor said the Ministry completed the rehabilitation of one 17 classroom blocks in nine schools across the state, one 34-classroom block at Dolphin High School, Lagos and one six-classroom blocks in three secondary schools as well as carrying out rehabilitation work in 52 secondary schools across the State at the cost of N230 million.

The Ministry, according to her, has awarded the contract for 11,200 school furniture for Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD), Primary and Junior Secondary Schools adding that Science Equipment worth N256 million have been supplied 15 Senior and 25 Junior Secondary Schools for newly constructed schools while existing laboratories in 10 Senior and Junior Secondary Schools were equipped at a cost of N134.7 million.

In the area of staff training, the Deputy Governor said in the last one year, the Ministry has trained 1,099 teachers in Early Childhood Care Development (ECCD) education, 2,400 secondary school teachers in leadership skills through Ministry of Establishment and Training, 2,000 teachers on instructional materials’ use at the State’s Re-Engineered Education Resource Centre at Ojodu and sponsored 26 Education Inspectors and teachers to the Republic of Benin for retraining on effective teaching of French Language, among other achievements.

The State Government, she said, also released N185.6 million for the payment of 61, 510 SS3 students’ WAEC/SSCE fees in public secondary schools while also awarding bursary and scholarships to students in various higher institutions of learning.

Commending the visionary leadership of Governor Fashola, the Deputy Governor pledged that the present administration would not relent in its determination to give Education a new face in the State.