‘LASG must invest more in education’

The Lagos State Government has been advised to invest more in the education sector to improve on the standard of education in the state. The General Overseer of the Upper Room Baptist Church, Ketu, Lagos, Pastor Oluleke Akinola, said good education would mean more prosperity for the state. He spoke on Tuesday at an event tagged, ‘2015 Excellence Award’, organised by the church to reward the performance of some public secondary schools in the Kosofe Education District 2, in the last West African Senior School Certificate Examination. Akinola said stories of examination malpractices funded by school principals were not good for the state. He said, “Stories of examination malpractices organised and funded by school principals abound. We, however, hope that the performance we are rewarding today were not fraudulently obtained. Principals must ensure that examination malpractice is not encouraged in their schools; otherwise the standard of education will fall in the state and we will all suffer for it.” The cleric, who acknowledged the efforts of the state government, especially in the area of security, said the Governor Akinwunmi Ambode-led administration should extend the same effort to education. Akinola explained that the award was to acknowledge good performance in public secondary schools, adding that it was a Corporate Social Responsibility programme which the church believed would encourage hard work among students, teachers and principals. The Tutor-General, Education District 2, Mrs. Solarin Titolayo, who represented Ambode at the event, noted that the level of performance by students would increase if other organisations could emulate the church. Adebo Ehije of Ikosi High School, Ketu; Timothy Igwe of Mende Senior High School, Mende Maryland;and Simbiat Alebiosu of Ikosi Senior High School, were rewarded with gifts for emerging first, second and third best students respectively in the examination.