Children went back to school today in Lagos at the start of the 2022/23 academic year.
The State Government had last week directed the schools to resume today without fail, in spite of some hesitancy by some administrators.
Today’s resumption of studies, however, only affects public schools below tertiary level. Polytechnics, Colleges of Education and Universities will continue to run their own schedules. Also, some private schools are resuming this week, while others will open from next week.
The resumption is in compliance with the Year 2022/2023 Harmonised Academic Calendar approved by the government.
A statement signed by the Director-General, Office of Education Quality Assurance, OEQA, Mrs. Abiola Seriki-Ayeni, urged all schools to ensure strict compliance with the resumption date for delivery of quality and sustainable education in Lagos State. Students and school-based staff are expected to adhere to health and safety protocols in order to ensure a productive school year.
During the period of the vacation, the government was expected to also implement some of tasks and its promises to provide quality education for the citizens. One of the tasks was the mandatory registration, data update and validation exercise for all approved, registered and unregistered Nursery, Primary, Secondary and Sixth Form schools operating in the State.
OEQA said the school registration and validation exercise for year 2022 is essential to ascertain the schools still in operation across the State.
OEQA is responsible for the standardization, monitoring and regulation of all schools (Private and Public) below the tertiary level in Lagos, including the establishment and management of the database of all private schools in the State.
OEQA DG Seriki-Ayeni explained that the online registration exercise was held from Friday, 15th July to Friday, 12th August, 2022. All school administrators were to use the opportunity to complete the form, update their data, upload a copy of their National identity cards and supply other basic information of current school managers and administrators.
All schools below the tertiary level, registered or unregistered, were required to upload all relevant documents and schools with multi-campuses were to register each campus individually.
The exercise was meant for all approved Private Secondary Schools, Nursery and Primary Schools, Registered Nursery and Primary as well as Secondary Schools, and Unregistered Secondary, Nursery and Primary Schools.
The exercise is expected to help registered schools to update their data while it would ensure that unregistered schools attain approved status, from the documentation provided.
It could also serve as opportunity to weed out those that are not qualified to operate in the State, since it is clear that there are many illegal schools in operation and who cannot meet up with the requirements.
Meanwhile, OEQA has enjoined all School Owners, School Administrators and the entire school community to remain vigilant, especially on activities taking place in their environment, just as it implored schools below the tertiary level to ensure compliance with the Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy of the State as prescribed.
The agency said the advice is essential for the furtherance of the State Government’s Emergency Guidance for Public and Private Schools.
All schools are therefore to proactively address various safety and child protection issues that may arise from time to time, and they must ensure that the safety of learners, staff and the school community are paramount.
