The Lagos State Government, in preparation for the Y2023/24 academic calendar, has assured stakeholders of prioritising harmonised and standardised instructional days of learning for all schools to ensure children have the minimum standard of learning days and hours.
The Director-General, Office of Education Quality Assurance (OEQA), Mrs. Abiola Seriki-Ayeni, disclosed this at a stakeholders’ meeting held at the Adeyemi-Bero Auditorium, Alausa, Ikeja, on Thursday. She noted that it is important for stakeholders to deliberate, harmonise and standardise the school calendar of both public and private schools in the State.
She maintained that the engagement would ensure that a fit-for-purpose academic calendar is developed whereby students would spend productive instructional hours in the classrooms and also serve as a pre-emptive measure in planning for unforeseen events and circumstances.
The Director-General said, “In as much as the calendar may seem like a very minute detail when it comes to larger issues we have within the education space, the calendar is very important’’.
“Since the inception of the present administration in Lagos, the OEQA has been able to collaborate with our stakeholders to ensure that the calendar is enforced, that there is a greater understanding and that at the end of the day, everything concerning the calendar is to support things that occur within schools. This is to ensure that children have the minimum standard of learning days as well as hours and most importantly standardisation across the board not just in public schools but private schools as well”, she added.
Seriki-Ayeni further noted that the mandate of the OEQA through the harmonised academic calendar is to ensure that the best interest of all children in the state is well protected while the calendar would ensure that schools are held accountable to the same standards. In addition, it would entrench the flexibility that schools may need, when they have some circumstances beyond their control, to ensure the safety of students, teachers, and schools as well as provide the best learning outcomes for the pupils.
She commended the stakeholders for their compliance with the Y2022/23 academic calendar, noting that it has been the most compliant year with improved communication between OEQA and the schools.
The Director, Planning, Research and Statistics of OEQA, Mr. Remi Abdul expressed gratitude for the high turnout of participants. He noted that the stakeholders’ engagement has become a yearly event to chart the course of progress for educational activities in both public and private schools.
Appreciating the stakeholders’ commitment and resourcefulness in advancing the education sector, the Director sought the understanding and commitment of the participants in actualising the mandate of OEQA which is creating a safe environment for pupils to learn and develop.
In his remarks, the Chairman, Lagos State Universal Basic Education (SUBEB), Mr. Wahab Alawiye-King, represented by a Director in the Agency, Mrs. Yetunde Kolade, stated that the harmonised calendar would ensure that everyone is working on the same page, urging participants, especially those from the private sector, not to see it as a state affair but as a step in the overall development of the educational sector in the State.
The State Officer, National Examination Council (NECO), Mr. Adebayo Ayinde, commended the State government through OEQA for organising a highly productive and important stakeholders’ engagement on the harmonised school calendar, adding that it shows how futuristic and important the Lagos State Government is.
He, therefore, advised Ministries of education across the country to emulate this laudable initiative.
