Lagos State Government and Proprietors of Private Schools in the State have reached an accord to shut down any school indicted by West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) for examination malpractice for three consecutive years.

The Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Dr. Idiat Oluranti Adebule, disclosed this at a meeting with Principals and Headteachers of Public Schools. She decried the indictment of some schools by WAEC, stressing that some serial offenders had appeared on the list for 3 consecutive years (2015 – 2017).

She vowed that such schools would not be allowed to register students for the Year 2018 West African School Certificate Examination (WASCE).

Adebule intimated the School owners of the impending Education Policy review by the State and urged them to prepare a position paper and submit to the Ministry for consideration before the proposed stakeholders meeting schedule to hold soon.

The Deputy Governor implored the various School Proprietors’ Associations to mobilise, sensitise and enlighten their members to take advantage of the seamless schools’ registration policy to prevent the imminent shut down of non-compliant schools, noting that the moratorium deadline is July 2018.

Dr. Adebule also informed the gathering of the directive of the State government to School owners to ensure that all Wednesday activities in public and private schools in Lagos must, henceforth, be conducted in Yoruba Language in conformity with the Yoruba Language Promotion and Preservation Law 2018 recently signed by Governor Akinwunmi Ambode.

In her words, “To underscore the seriousness of the present administration on the implementation of the Yoruba Language Preservation and Promotion Law, the State government has translated and released a Yoruba version of the National Anthem to enable students to learn and render it daily during the assembly session”.

While imploring all school owners to ensure compliance with the provisions of the law, she revealed that copies of the translated anthem by the Egbe Akomolede Yoruba would be distributed to schools this week.

The Deputy Governor stated further that efforts are ongoing to translate major subject textbooks to the Yoruba language to enable the pupils and students read them in mother tongue and assimilate better, stressing that the dearth of Yoruba Language Teachers in Public Schools is also being addressed.

Also, speaking at the event, the Chairman, House Committee on Education, Mr. Lanre Ogunyemi, noted that a language is a tool for nation-building. He observed that all developed nations such as Japan, Germany, Britain, France, China, etc.., all teach their young ones in their languages.

Ogunyemi opined that, contrary to the school of thought which says that that the House of Assembly was promoting tribalism, the lawmakers were rather patriotic as the understanding of the major languages of the nation is an impetus to national cohesion, adding that the position of the LAHA has been vindicated by the directives of the military that soldiers should learn the various major national languages.

Responding, members of the All Nigerian Conference of Principals of Secondary Schools (ANCOPSS) and the Association of Primary School Headteachers of Nigeria (AOPSHON) lauded the initiative and promised to implement the law to the letter.

•Sourced from lagosstate.gov.ng