…Says innovation critical to address challenges thrown up by Covid-19
The Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Monday, unveiled 5,000 transistor radios, 5,000 face masks and cash donation by the Committee of Wives of Lagos State Officials (COWLSO) to improve access to educational contents for pupils and students in the state in response to the challenges thrown up by Covid-19 pandemic.
The transistor radios and face masks, which were donated by COWLSO in partnership with the Office of Lagos State First Lady to the Ministry of Education, would be distributed across the State, especially in the hard-to-reach areas including riverine areas.
Speaking at event, which was held at State House Marina, Sanwo-Olu commended COWLSO for the laudable initiative to play up the education of children in the State, expressing optimism that it would enhance access to educational contents on radio.
He added, “What COWLSO is donating this morning is to improve and enhance the learning capability of the children and so we are excited that they have been able to put this together for the students.”
Expressing that he understood that this is the first batch, he assured the public that others would come in. “This is a new norm. So, we need to adapt to the new realities of where we found ourselves. This is part of adaptability and innovation has to come to learning”.
The governor further explained that this initiative is as much as possible. “Learning can be done offsite. It is just something to make our children get themselves busy, have a tool, have an app, have a phone and have a radio and whatever it means to communicate.
“That at the agreed time and in the comfort of their learning environment, they can tune in, listen, take notes, interact and be in tune,” the governor said.
He said the donation by COWLSO would greatly help students to be abreast of all of the things happening as far as their education was concerned since schools are physically not operating for now.
On her part, the First Lady and COWLSO Chairman, Dr. Ibijoke Sanwo-Olu, said the initiative to donate the transistor radios was borne out of the desire to ensure no child is left behind in the access to quality education in the state.
“The 5,000 face masks and the cash donation would help to ease the burden of parents and guardians and the students in this era of the new normal,” she noted.
According to Ibijoke, statistics confirmed that there are over a million children at home during this pandemic period not going to school for the past three months, while students preparing for WAEC and Jamb exams had equally been affected.
“In this new normal, the Ministry of Education has gone ahead to improve on e-learning, loading the Nigerian curriculum on to some platforms and to reach out to more students in the rural and riverine areas numbering about 200,000 across the state in primary and secondary schools in Ibeju Lekki, Epe, Ikorodu, Badagry, Agege, among others,” she listed.
Speaking further, she averred that COWLSO is coming on board to assist with transistor radios so that our students will have access to educational programmes on radio.
“During the first phase of the lockdown, COWLSO took part in distributing palliatives. We distributed food items, hand sanitizers and everything that needed to be distributed,” adding that “However, we were still worried about the education of our children now that they are not going to school.”
Ibijoke affirmed, “We just don’t want to stop at giving palliatives. We want to move further, so we decided to donate radio transistors with batteries to ease the learning of the children, and we learnt that the Ministry of Education had perfected partnership with some radio stations.”
In her call, she urged corporate organisations, religious bodies, and human rights activists among others to come to the plight of the children by joining hands with government to play up education with the view to engender a better future for students in the State.
While thanking teachers for the time invested in education, she charged students to reciprocate the efforts of government to scale up their education by coming out with better grades.
Earlier, Commissioner for Education, Mrs. Folasade Adefisayo commended the Ibijoke and COWLSO members for the donations, saying it would perfectly key into efforts to improve access to education for pupils and students considering that some radio stations have signed on to the learning programmes initiated by the Ministry.
“The ministry is working on establishing a radio station that will be solely dedicated to education to expand time for airing of educational contents and improve access for students,” she assured Lagosians.
