Lagos State Government says it will initiate measures to curb bullying and auto accidents in both public and private schools across the State.
The State also promised to increase awareness towards infusing and inculcating safety culture and compliance among the students.
The declaration was made at a Safety Initiative Workshop organised by the Lagos Safety Commission, Office of Education Quality Assurance, in collaboration with School Run Academy, with the theme; ‘Creating A Safety Culture and Compliance.’
Lagos State Commissioner for Education, Mrs. Folashade Adefisayo said that the move by the Government is to prevent incident that claimed lives of three students and injured about seventeen others at Babs Fafunwa Millennium School Ojodu in December, last year.
The Commissioner who was represented by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Mr. Abayomi Abolaji said that Government has started identifying schools on major roads that are prone to auto crash and would ensure the needful is done to prevent reoccurrence of such incident.
“The schools on the highway would have breakers and traffic lights while officers like Neighborhood Watchers, Federal Road Safety Corps, Lagos Safety Commission would be engaged to ameliorate the situation,” she said
Safer environment
The Director General, Lagos Safety Commission, Mr. Lanre Mojola explained that the whole essence of the Safe School Initiative is to ensure that school environment across the state are safe while students are made to cohabit within conducive learning atmosphere.
Mojola stressed that safety measures are important in order to ensure physical safety, disease control, discourage bullying, alcohol abuse, and training the school owners on how to ensure that schools are safer.
According to him: “Safer schools produce safer children and safer children are the bedrock of the future. So what we shall be doing is to meet school operators and engage them on how we can make safety the fulcrum of the curriculum within the schools.
How we can ensure that teacher teach basic principles of safety and to ensure children interact at safety environment.
Safety begins with you and zero accident is possible if we all work together and in a safe environment.”
He said the workshop was organised for owners of boarding schools in Lagos State, as the Commission would soon extend similar exercise to other stakeholders.
Adequate regulations
The Chief Executive Officer, SchoolRun Academy Ventures, Dr. Bisi Esuruoso, said that it has become imperative for school management to employ technology that would aid and enhance their security measures at all time.
Esuruoso who has been an advocate of School Safety over the years, emphasised that efforts must be geared towards raising general safety awareness.
He said there was need to beam searchlight on the overall safety of schools, students and their teachers, while seeking more attention on proper safety regulations of other public spaces.
She said: “There is need to regulate certain places, people, products, services and activities that school-aged children are exposed to and from September 1, 2022, places such as churches, mosques, fun-themed parks and learning centres would be regulated for safe practices.”
Systemic approach
Others at the event emphasised on high quality standard, quality parenting and community involvement for safety to be achieved.
They also suggested a systemic approach to managing safety in schools and colleges and to ensure total compliance as people should see safety as part of daily life.
Lateefah Ibrahim
