EKO Project: Raising standard of public schools in Lagos

When the Lagos State Government initiated the Lagos Eko Secondary Education Project in 2010, its objective was clear.

The learning environment of the public schools in the state was in dire need of rejuvenation. It was not only an eyesore to the government, but it was telling much on the not too encouraging and poor performances of students in external examinations.

Consequently, parents who were financially buoyant took the step of withdrawing their wards and enrolling them in private schools, while those who had no option hinged their hopes that someday government will intervene and give the schools a face lift.

But four years since the commencement of the Lagos Eko Secondary Education Project; a partnership between the state government and the World Bank, the 639 public junior and senior secondary schools across the six educational districts in the state have continued to record improved quality in the standard of learning and education.

One unique feature of the EKO Project is that it guaranteed direct funding for schools. This way, the usual trend of bureaucracy and time wasting that characterizes government businesses in this part of the world was completely down played.

Expectedly, the project did not take too long before it began to yield beneficial results. In the first two years of implementation, over 5,000 teachers were trained in leadership and core subjects such as English language, Mathematics and Sciences as targeted schools demonstrated improvement in learning outcomes.

Not satisfied, the State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola initiated the annual Governor’s Education Award to reward 134 out of the 639 schools who judiciously utilize the grant with improved results in the performance of the students in external examinations as proof of success.

The 134 schools enlisted for the award received an additional N2million each from the Governor, a situation that has further engender healthy competition among the schools to ensure they benefit from the gesture yearly.

At this year’s edition of the Award, Fashola could not hide his joy on the success the Project has recorded in four years. For him, the huge funds pumped into improving public school education via the Project have been justified.

Speaking at the event which held in Oregun, Lagos, Fashola reiterated that the Eko Project was an innovation to bring competition to public schools performance evaluation as a way of improving the quality of learning outcomes and inspiring better results.

“We did not want to fall into any trap or any error of issuing grants and promoting complacency. We wanted competition because we know that if there is competition there will be improved productivity. So, every school gets its annual grant; but by this competition that has been induced by the Governor’s Award the successful schools now get an extra grant,” he added.

He explained that government was also careful not to make the grants personal and to make whatever was the reward for success from the Governor’s grant to go to the school “in a way that it is the whole school that take collective ownership of the victory achieved”, adding that the money that comes as a result of being a successful school in the Award goes to the entire school.

Noting that there have been opportunities for individual recognitions, Fashola observed with joy that since the initiative started in 2010, no Education District has won it back to back, “which means that the improved performance has moved from Education District V, winner of the maiden edition in 2011, to Education District II that won in 2012, to Education District 1 in 2013 to the successful Education District that will be announced today”.

“In effect, improved performance has spread across our State evenly. The idea of this Award was meant to compliment the Eko Education initiative; because it did not come with the Eko Project. We had embraced the Eko Project and we decided if we were giving money to these schools under the Eko Project how do we measure. So we decided to put a Governor’s Award in order to inspire them to use their money innovatively, with commitment, passion and create a competition”, he said.

The Governor, who listed other Education projects of the Government to include Adopt-A-School, emphasized that the direct funding of schools by the State Government itself has not abated adding that it has continued to increase year after year.

“What we wanted to ensure was that resources were increasingly put to our school”, the Governor said adding that although this year’s Education budget represent about 16 per cent of the total budget size for the State, investments domiciled in other sectors of the economy also benefit from the Education sector.

Other examples, according to him, include “the School Health programme, and School Milk Programme, Domiciled in the Ministry of Health, where children in schools are given milk in order to improve their brain cell development. There is a School Eye-Screening Corridor where children are encouraged to use the eye corridor to test their eyes.

“There are schools that are flooding; there is waste management in the schools which are domiciled in the Ministry of Environment. All of that by the time you aggregate it, I venture to argue, that we would be well in excess of the threshold that is recognized for global standards. But what we cannot do is to put all of that money in one Ministry; the capacity to even utilize it is not there”, the Governor said.

On the successes that the Eko Project has brought to the State’s public school system, Governor Fashola said apart from the results which, according to him, have greatly improved from seven per cent in 2007 to 41 per cent in 2013, the project has helped public schools to procure 839 projectors, 753 internet modems, 3,441 software and 656 generators.

The investment, he said, has also led to the provision of 525 libraries, 305,000 textbooks, 10,899 reference materials and facilitated the training of 16,832 teachers and 2,609 principals and vice-principals, adding that the personal benefits of the project was equally enormous.

Such individual benefits, the Governor said, include the Power Kids Club which, according to him, “is the club that we set up in a school that wins the Governor’s Award to begin to expose these children very early in their life to electricity, conservation, preservation, and how power works”.

Assuring that when the World Back Project under Eko winds down, the direct disbursement of annual cash grant to all the State’s public secondary schools and technical colleges will continue, Fashola said Government has set up an institutional framework to support cash disbursement to all the schools under the State’s Budget.

The Governor, however, emphasized that the continuation of the programmes after he hands over next year would depend on the Government to be elected by the people adding, “I wish to emphasize categorically that this programmes are the initiatives of the Lagos State Government under the platform of the All Progressives Congress. Very soon, elections will be called and you will hear all sorts of promises and you will have to make a choice with your votes”.

“Make no mistake about it, the World Bank grant is a loan, it is not a dash. It is a loan to the State and the plan to pay it depends on your continuing to pay your tax. So let nobody come and sweet talk you that there will be no more tax in Lagos. If they do so there will be no services in Lagos.

“I can promise you that an APC Government will continue these projects. I can make that promise to you. But it is for you to secure the continuity of this project by voting wisely in the next elections not only for the Governor, because it is not only the Governor’s show, but for the legislators because they would be the ones passing the Eko Project”, the Governor said.

Earlier, in her presentation, Special Adviser to the Governor on Lagos Eko Project, Ms Ronke Azeez, said the project was being used as a springboard for the New Education Year, adding that this year’s edition has been for reflection of the progress so far made in the sector.

According to her, “The Governor’s Education Award is to encourage and motivate public secondary schools through competitions to improve on performance adding that it has become a yard-stick for measuring performance in the six Education Districts of the State”.

One of the Students who anchored the programme, Miss Ronke Adedeji, thanked governor for the achievements of his administration in the education sector promising that the children would continue to seize the opportunities provided by the administration to achieve the best in life.

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