By Lukman Olabiyi
The Commissioner for Education, Mrs Folashade Adefisayo, has said education remains a key and critical component of development.
Adefisoye made the remark during the Lagos Education Conference 2023 held in Ikeja.
The 2023 state Education Conference organized in conjunction with Casio and SKLD Integrated Services Limited.
The theme of the Education Conference is: ‘Exploring the opportunities in Public-Private Partnerships For Educational Development in Nigeria’.
Speaking on the theme of the conference, Adefisoye said there is no government either at federal or state level that can all alone provide quality and functional education at both formal and informal settings for its citizenry and meet up with global standards, reason private sector involvement is greatly required.
She said Lagos State is peculiar among other states of the federation not only because of its huge population but also because of the high rate of people migrating into the state on a daily basis.
According to her, 26 persons migrate permanently into Lagos State every hour and majority of them are youths and children and that means increasing responsibility in education and other sectors for the government also on daily basis
While acknowledging the huge role being played by private schools in providing quality education for large numbers of children in the state, especially at primary and secondary school levels, Adefisayo urged corporate organisations, groups and individuals to equally lend their support to jointly move the education sector to higher pedestal
In his remarks, the Assistant Manager Casio Middle East and Africa FZE Education Business Marketing Division Mr. Hamza Aoun said the collaboration with the Lagos State Ministry of Education in training of teachers and students to embrace technology in the classroom using calculators.
He affirmed that the shoring up of students’ learning process and critical thinking through the use of technology remains the primary focus of the partnership, saying the initiative will help to educate and enhance student’s performance.
On his part, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Mr Andrew Adejo commended Lagos State for always being at the forefront of innovation in the education sector and encouraged not to relent.
Mr Adejo explained that the federal Government had been carrying out similar projects in the sector and announced that the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, TETFUND, is coming up with a strategic and operational framework for entrepreneurship, employability and innovation, to enable an interface for research and development with the creation of industrial hubs.
Other participants at the conference harped on investment in the young people as the state government and its partners are improving the technical skills needed to face the future.