Zephaniah Jisalo: We must elevate our basic education to global standard

Zephaniah Jisalo, minister of special duties and inter-governmental affairs, says the country needs to elevate basic education to internationally acceptable standard.

The minister spoke on Saturday at the official launch of the ‘Back to School’ jump start project phase two in the Surulere area of Lagos state.

Represented by Bello Maigari, executive secretary of National Lottery Trust Fund, the minister said the initiative is one of the numerous projects of the Trust Fund in improving the standard of basic education across the nation.

“I commend the National Lottery Trust Fund ably led for the current executive secretary and his able management team by doing excellently well in harnessing resources to facilitate this wonderful initiative. The idea to help jump start schools by equipping our students with state of the art educational materials for academic excellence and improving the standard of education to international standard is a well-conceived programme,” Jisalo said.

“The funding of implementation of the 2nd phase of this programme by the the National Lottery Trust Fund is meant to build on the successes of the first phase which has tremendously improved the standard of learning and provided a conducive learning environment of public schools across Surulere Federal Constituency.

“On this note, let me reiterate that it is important that the management of the benefiting public schools must ensure the provision of these instructional and educational materials are judiciously utilised across the benefiting public schools so as to achieve the desired goal of a better standard of learning and conducive learning environment.

“It is therefore, on the strength of this effort, that I encourage the Fund to continue on this laudable path as we all strive to elevate basic education in Nigeria to internationally acceptable standard. It is also very important to ensure the full monitoring and evaluation of the project so as to that outcomes envisaged for the learning programme are delivered for the benefit of Nigerians.

“I congratulate the good people of Lagos State particularly the Surulere Federal Constituency on this very special occasion of the launch of this project. I also commend and urge the initiator of this programme, the Chief of Staff to the President to continue on this path of initiating laudable projects that will reflect the current national dynamics.”

Speaking at the event, Adaku Apugo, head of the planning committee, said the initiative was designed to address the vulnerabilities of the public education system laid bare by the COVID-19 pandemic.

She said the project has been able to impact the lives of 46 schools in the constituency.

“Just to shed a bit of light on our journey so far and how we got here. This initiative was launched in March 2022, two years after the Federal Ministry of Education approved the closure of schools as a response to the pandemic, disallowing the resumption of the third academic term of the current school calendar. It was created to jump start public schools in Surulere Federal constituency, as they resume school with the primary goal to empower children going back to school through better educational delivery and assurance of safety,” Apugo said.

“Notwithstanding the success of the first phase of the Back to School Jump Start Project, the Nigerian educational system still grapples with multiple factors that have negatively impacted the education of millions of children. The reality is that teachers as well as children do not have access to the basic tools necessary for e-learning, hence the educational system suffers and will continue to suffer if we do not take proactive steps to ensure that teachers and students are provided with the key tools that they need to thrive.

“This laudable project is part of our collective responsibility to continue to impact the lives of our nation’s youths by helping to boost Nigeria’s educational sector. We recognize that educational gaps still can exist within the sector and we seek to address some of these gaps and improve the current capacity of schools by providing assistance in promoting Best Practices through the Back to School Jump Start Project Phase II.

“The Jump start project phase II implementation has identified the following four strategic priority areas to make this intervention a success (1) Classroom infrastructure; (2) Sanitary facilities (3) Stationery and (4) the deployment of a national Learning Management Systems (LMS) for e-learning. These priority areas constitute a comprehensive hierarchy of the challenges faced by the public educational system and the solutions that prepare us for the future.”