Ayandele Applauds Education District III, Vows For More Programme

By Babatunde Kaka

Nigeria is a nation blessed in both human and capital resources. The natural resources deposited in large quantities are scattered across her landscape. The immeasurable endowments bestowed on Nigeria is the envy of many nations especially weather and climate. However, she is bedevilled with not with natural disasters but ineffective leadership. If not, she would have been at par with several developing countries of the world.

Unfortunately, she got hit with two different crises which no one saw coming. It was the covid pandemic at first and later on the Endsars youths protests. These two crises undoubtedly took its toll on various sectors of the Nigerian socio-economic life and the most hit is arguably the education sector. This is so since schools were shut to contain the spread of the ravaging pandemic.

Again, Lagos, the land of aquatic splendour and centre of excellence, was dealt another major blow owing to the fall out between youths demanding for an end to police brutality, bad governance and other pressing issues of national interest.

Despite the unfortunate crises, it is a surprise to realise that Education District III topped the list of best results in the just concluded WASSCE examination for SS3 students in Lagos. What could have kept her going during the turbulent periods?

In light of this, Ekohotblog caught up with the result-driven Tutor-General and Permanent Secretary of Education District III, Dr Olufolayimika Ayandele, who made mindblowing revelations as to how she was able to weather the storms at different intervals with her team.

She attributed the success recorded to the professionalism and commitment of her teachers and principals, and also to the dedication of students.

“One thing is I have wonderful teachers and team members in Education District III. The teachers are wonderful, they are professional, the Principals with their VPs are thorough leaders, it is about managing the situation which they have done well and that is why one can see the thing being translated into our performance.

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“We want to thank God that for the year 2020 West African Senior School Certificate WASSCE, the District came first, we have the best result in the whole of Lagos State and that shows the level of commitment of our workers, stakeholders and of course, the children themselves because if they were not ready to learn, then we will not be recording this kind of success.

“So, I am using this medium to say kudos to my children and I wish them the very best wherever they may be,” she said.

When asked about strategies to put in place to improve quality of education in Lagos State due to learning disruptions during the lockdown and also the generally unpopular medium, virtual learning, employed to educate the pupils, Dr Ayandele who recently bagged CNI’s EDCAA 20 Exemplary Leadership of the year award in Epe Division has this to say;

“Unfortunately, you are not speaking for District III, you are speaking for Lagos State and Nigeria in general. But to be candid, the State Government did put some measures in place which we all keyed into in the district.

“On the radio and television programme, we ensure that our children followed and after listening, the teachers would come together to assess lessons learnt.

So, we are not yet there but we have improved. When we talk about performance, we are talking about close to 60% and that is something innovative”, she added.

As a trailblazer well-grounded in innovative programmes and projects, the TG/PS hinted at what to expect from her highly revered office in terms of children programmes and projects in 2021 in terms of projects and programmes.

Ayandele said, “We’ll keep on focusing on child-centred programmes. We know how these children learn and then the way we would interact with them will be in such a way that will stimulate them. the important thing is for them to learn, we do not want them to cram. so, we would keep on advancing our methodology, ensuring that we put them into consideration in all our activities and our programmes.”

While the glowing district top brass was full of praise of the administration of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu on the giant strides made so far towards the Education sector in the state, she assuredly stated that more children centred programmes that would pave way for a conducive learning environment are to be expected in the coming year. This, she was certain about on the heels of the 2021 budget which has education as one of the top priorities of the government.

“The state government is ready, the administration of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has put most things in place to ensure that the children are learning under a conducive environment. You can see our schools, that is the work of the present administration and then more are to come. He has voted so much into education. The 2021 budget has education in one of the priority levels and we can only wish for the best,” she said.

She rounded up by noting that she was not oblivious of the fact that the children are quite many, she averred that the government does not want anyone out of school and which is their next focus. She emphasised that schooling must be made interesting for children because they have to come to school first before they can learn.