The Lagos State Honourable Commissioner for Education, Mrs. Folasade Adefisayo, has received a survey report on post-COVID-19 reality undertaken by an online schools discovery platform, SchoolsCompass.
Receiving the report titled “Understanding the Stance of a Nigerian Parent in a Typical Post-COVID-19 Learning Environment” on behalf of the State Government in her office at the Secretariat, Alausa, Ikeja on Friday, the Commissioner described the SchoolsCompass initiative as a laudable and complementary effort.
She stated that education, being a critical success factor for any socio-economic development in an emerging economy, requires all the technicalities, reports and researches that allow for critical assessment to gauge and drive policies in advancing education reforms.
Adefisayo pointed out that the Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu (BOS) Education Transformation plan was an integration of several action initiatives and ideas put together to meet the sector’s needs, while leveraging on existing needs, expertise, partnership and resources to improve the quality and relevance of the Public School system and administration.
She remarked that with findings from the survey carried out by SchoolsCompass, policies will be effectively improved upon to better deliver government agenda.
The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Mrs. Abosede Adelaja, lauded the organisation’s collaborative effort with the Ministry, saying that the result of the survey supports transition into a knowledge-based economy, which will help distill the specific initiatives and intervention plans required to execute the mandate of the State Government.
She encouraged other stakeholders to take a cue from SchoolsCompass by identifying the Ministry’s focus areas for potential Public-Private Sector collaboration, stressing that the sector’s development requires collective partnerships and stakeholders’ participation.
According to her, “With the gradual easing of the nationwide lockdown due to a progressive decline in the number of the Coronavirus cases in Nigeria, we are getting ready for School re-opening and also ensuring adherence to COVID-19 safety protocols in the face of ‘Post-COVID-19 Education Realities”.
Also speaking, the Founder, SchoolsCompass, Mr. Yomi Ojo said the COVID-19 pandemic has created the largest disruption of education systems in history, affecting nearly 1.6 billion learners in more than 190 countries and all continents.
He said, “If we are to reiterate the stands of notable authorities in the education sector, one might agree that the nation’s pre-COVID-19 education system was not sustainable as the sector is currently experiencing the drastic impact of the downturn caused by the pandemic”.
“As a tech-driven organisation, SchoolsCompass was established to assist parents in aligning with an ideal school(s) for their wards by giving them access to relevant information about different schools all in one platform”, he stated.
Ojo said his organisation conducted a survey utilising the vast database on its platform to reach targeted Nigeria’s education stakeholders and decision-makers to determine the Nation’s post-COVID-19 learning expectations. The research, which involved respondents from the six geo-political zones in the country, supports active parents’ involvement in their children's education.
According to him, the survey findings also revealed the need for schools to utilise technology in learning, especially in the post-COVID-19 era in order to remain relevant, in addition to requiring new skills to function optimally in the interest of finding sustainable solutions in empowering learning institutions to be more impactful.
Image-FB/@followlasg
Comments