By Enitan Adewunmi
The Lagos State government has promised to provide the Basic Education Quality Assurance, BEQA, monitoring team of the State Universal Basic Education Board, LASUBEB, with necessary support that would further make quality education accessible to every child.
The Executive Chairman of LASUBEB, Hon Wahab Alawiye-King, stated this at the headquarters of the Board in Maryland, Lagos, while handing over two new buses and some office tools, including laptops, photocopying machines, among others, to the Basic Education Quality Assurance department under the 2018 UBEC continuous quality assurance program.
Alawiye-King said that the gesture was in line with the government’s determination and focus towards ensuring that Lagos State school pupils receive the best in terms of quality education
While advising the BEQA team to make good use of the tools, Hon Alawiye-King added that the buses and tools were provided to make their duties of monitoring the activities of primary schools across the state easier, while also enhancing the delivery of quality education in the state.
A Permanent Board member of LASUBEB in charge of the BEQA program, Hon. Dayo Israel, acknowledged the roles play by the Lagos State government and all other relevant agencies of the state government in making Basic Education Quality Assurance a priority in the state.
Stating that though the activities of the BEQA officers had been severely affected by mobility in the past, he saluted the officers’ unwavering determination and aincerity of purpose in the delivery of their mandates, inspite of the mobility challenge.
He said, “Part of the challenges of the BEQA team was mobility, the team has never relented in ensuring that teachers are well assessed, monitored and evaluated, thereby making learning and development available to children.”
He however expressed the hope that with the added work tools and utility vehicles, the pace of delivery and rate of performance of the BEQA officers would improve tremendously, stressing that there would be noticeable improvement in the education sector generally from the pupils to the teachers.
The Universal Basic Education Board, UBEC, Coordinator for Lagos State, Alhaji Alabi Baba Asaju, said that the gesture was from the Federal Government to all SUBEBs across the country, having observed that schools are not being monitored effectively in some states of the federation.
He added that the officers are supposed to monitor ongoing projects across government schools, examine how schools are performing and come up with some suggestions to the government.
On how the gesture would improve standard of education, he said, “It will improve learning because any activity being carried out by teachers and pupils, if not properly supervised, may never bring about the expected output hundred per cent.”
Asaju however, commended the BEQA department in the state for finding alternative means of performing their monitoring roles with the support of the leadership of LASUBEB, which he said made the state maintained its Centre of Excellence nomenclature, even in the education sector.
