In a bid to ensuring that the highest quality standard, safety and compliance with the State’s regulations is attained in Lagos schools, the Office of Education Quality Assurance (OEQA) on Thursday, 4 May, 2023, organised an orientation programme for proprietors and school owners below the tertiary level on approval/post-approval processes.
The event held at the Adeyemi Bero Auditorium, Alausa, Ikeja was organised to acquaint school owners/proprietors with guidelines and standardisation required before approval can be granted and ensure that these processes are strictly adhered to after approval.
Addressing participants at the event, the Director-General, OEQA, Mrs Abiola Seriki-Ayeni noted that the Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu administration placed a high premium on the quality and standard of learning in schools across the state hence the office is constantly evolving to ensure the highest standard is attained.
‘’Mr Governor has tasked us that as a regulatory agency, we must be an enabler, that we must constantly be open to learning new ways in which we can enable our schools, teachers, school leaders so ensure that indeed quality education can take place in our schools and that it will impact learning outcomes’’.
She encouraged the stakeholders to see themselves as an institution of learning having decided to impact children, hence they should take up the responsibility to establish corporate educational institutions as a calling befitting the future of the children.
According to Seriki-Ayeni, “quality education is contingent upon quality of learning, quality of books, quality of teachers and stability of environment”.
‘’Lagos State is committed to ensuring that your school is successful, committed to ensuring accountability and that there are minimum standard processes. Are we going to fold on our minimum standards, absolutely not’’.
‘’The children and residents of Lagos deserve an educational system that has high standards, our future depends on it and what we do now is important as it is crucial to the development of our state and nation’’.
Seriki-Ayeni charged the participants not to see the orientation programme as a norm but for stakeholders to work holistically and maintain the standards that the State has set in the past years. She noted that the approval process is the easiest path but the post-approval which entails maintaining standards is the hallmark, as quality is above everything.
The D.G maintained that compliance and standardisation are key in child protection as pupils should be safe within the walls of learning. She, therefore, reiterated the commitment of the office to ensuring the well-being and safety of pupils hence schools must comply with high-quality standards of learning as well as protection.
Earlier, in her welcome address, the Director, Private Education and Special Programmes, Mrs. Fabambi Falayi explained that the responsibility of OEQA is to strengthen control, regulations, standardisation, monitoring and evaluation of public and private schools below tertiary education.
She took participants through the approval process, provisional approval as well as post-approval process noting that schools shouldn’t just go to sleep after obtaining approval but must maintain the standards required as the office is saddled with the responsibility of continuous monitoring of schools to ensure that they comply with laid down process, procedures and guidelines.
Participants expressed gratitude to the State government for organising the forum where they can learn, unlearn and relearn as well as ask questions that relate to the approval processes.
In attendance were school proprietors/ school owners, OEQA district coordinators, heads of departments and units among others.
