Officials of the Lagos State Ministry of Education have been urged to visit schools in the Badagry area of the State for proper assessment of their infrastructural requirements.
The Education Committee of the State Assembly made the call during a visit to schools under District 5 headed by the Tutor General/Permanent Secretary, Mr. Erinle Olumide Olufolami to ensure compliance with COVID-19 protocols.
The Chairman of the Committee, Mr. Yinka Ogundimu said that despite the fact that the brief of the Committee was to ensure that schools complied with COVID-19 protocols, the committee was concerned about the state of infrastructure in the schools.
Speaking at Araromi Ilogbo Senior Secondary School, Oko Afo, Badagry, Mr. Ogundimu said that the school was overcrowded and that it lacked enough teachers, classrooms, and furniture.
He urged the State Ministry of Education to visit the schools while lamenting that having about one hundred and sixty students in a classroom did not give room for social distancing.
At Araromi Ilogbo Junior Secondary School Oko Afo, the Committee Chairman noted that the population of the school was too high with five thousand students and an average of one hundred and seventy students in one class.
The story was not different at Ajara Senior Secondary School, Ajara, Badagry, where the Principal, Mr. Padonu Dosunmu told the committee that the school had eight classrooms for one thousand seven hundred and forty-six students.
He said work had stopped at the site of the construction of classrooms for four years.
Also at Ajara Junior Grammar School, Ajara, the Vice Principal of the school, Mr. Fatai Adenuga, said that the school has seventeen classrooms for more than two thousand five hundred students.
He said that the school had seventeen teachers, but still needed teachers in Christian Religious Knowledge, Physical and Health Education, Mathematics, and Introductory Technology.
Responding, the Chairman of the Assembly’s Education Committee, Mr. Yinka Ogundimu said that the classrooms were inadequate and that it was not possible to divide them amongst the students.
The Committee was also at Alternative High School For Girls in Agboju, Amuwo Odofin, Awori Ajeromi Junior Grammar School, and Badagry Grammar Junior and Senior Grammar Schools.
Ibukunoluwa Temitope
