DROP IN THE LEVEL OF EDUCATION IN LAGOS STATE

There has been a drop in enrolment of pupils and students in Lagos State public primary and secondary schools.

The following Statistics were released by the Lagos State Government, South West Nigeria, it shows that the number of students in both public primary and secondary schools dropped drastically in 2010.
The report shows that parents prefer to take their children to the private schools rather than the state owned primary and secondary schools across the state because of the poor standard of education.

In 2007, the number of pupils enrolled in the state public primary schools was 454, 808 the number rose to 466,201 in 2008 and further rose to 479,256 in 2009 while it dropped to 445,044 in 2010.

There was also a fall in the number of students enrolled in the state Junior Secondary Schools (JSS), as it dropped drastically in 2010. In the year 2007,the number of students in JSS stood at 324,444 and further rose to 327,825 in 2008. It rose again to 339,277 in 2009 and dropped to 320,183 last year.
The Senior Secondary School (SSS), was not left out as the enrolment dropped to 254,588 last year as against 255,588 in 2009. In 2007, 251,583 students was enrolled this rose to 261,993 in 2008.

The number of trained teachers in Lagos State between 2007 and 2010 also dropped and this shows a negative signal that the Lagos state government is no longer laying more emphasis on the training and retraining of teachers in public schools.
In 2007, the number of trained teachers was 17,577, 17,298 in 2008 and dropped to 14,913 in 2009, while there was no record that any teacher was trained in 2010.

Records from the state government show that N187.193 billion was budgeted and invested in education between 2007 and 2010 while about N99.955 billion was also spent on executing capital projects in various schools across the state.
With this huge amount, the government said it provided 2,500 new prototype classrooms; over 1,000 classrooms;166 school structures erected under the “Adopt- a- School” Policy; six Multi-lingual Laboratories in each of the six Education Districts for French, Arabic & Mandarin studies, constructed and equipped also five Government Technical and Vocational Colleges were rehabilitated.
49,788 teachers were trained; 4.2 million free text books were also distributed in 1,664 public schools across the state; 46,505 student’s furniture supplied to schools; inauguration of the Education Summit as a means of generating fresh ideas from stakeholders towards uplifting the standard of education in the state; N883.1 million was paid as exam fee for Senior Secondary Schools Certificate Examination (SSCE) students from 2008 - 2010 and N5 billion Pension arrears paid to teaching/non teaching primary school and local government pensioners in 2010.
The released by the government revealed that the student learning environment environment has highly improved. The Universal Basic Education (UBE) law which makes both primary and junior secondary school enrollment mandatory was enacted; access to use of free text books is well over 90%; it also states that students stay in school longer; while the standard of living of both the teachers and the pensioners has also improved as well as enhanced motivation; the student/teacher ratio in primary school was stable at 28:1 in 2007 -2010; Student/teacher ratio in (JSS) decreased from 40:1(2007) to 34:1(2010) and student/teacher ratio in (SSS) decreased from 30:1in 2007 to 26:1 2010.

WAEC candidates who achieved five credits including English and Mathematics at first sitting increased from 7% to 21% 2007-2010; enhanced students’ self esteem, self confidence and ability to read; staying longer in school has led to reduction of students’ involvement in crime.
The report further stated that Lagos State has the highest Adult Literacy Index in Nigeria as it stood at 89.9% while there is higher probability of job and financial independence for its populace.