Children’s Day: LASUBEB’s EKOEXCEL Wants More Cooperation from Parents, Guardians

The Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board’s (LASUBEB) EKOEXCEL has called for more cooperation from parents and guardians in raising well-educated children who will fare well in the 21st-century knowledge-based economy and contribute meaningfully to the nation’s growth as adults.

In a message to mark this year’s Children’s Day, LASUBEB Board Chair, Wahab Alawiye-King acknowledged the complementary roles of parents and guardians in fulfilling its mission of improving learning outcomes among pupils and developing professional competencies of teachers and school administrators with innovative technology, the EKOEXCEL programme would do more with parents’ support and cooperation.

“We appreciate our parents and guardians for their support in ensuring that the efforts of the Lagos State Government on our lovely children through EKOEXCEL are not wasted. They have always been supportive, but we want more from them.
“I recall that during the COVID-19 enforced lockdown in 2020, parents cooperated well with us to ensure the success of our EKOEXCEL@home initiative, which provided continued access to learning during the pandemic. The more we want from them now is in terms of after-school care for our pupils. They should assist them in revising, doing their homework, and resisting sending them on errands that will prevent them from resting and studying.
“This is the area of cooperation we want from them. It will be wasted efforts if they get home and start going on errands that will prevent them from resting and going over what they were taught in school. Revising will help their academic development while adequate rest will also boost their physical and mental development.” The LASUBEB Chairman said.

He noted that since its inauguration in 2019, EKOEXCEL has recorded notable achievements, including moving over 18,000 head teachers and teachers from analogue to digital teaching, using tablets and updated curricula.

Over 14,000 primary school teachers from 1,011 public primary schools have been captured under the scheme. It has also enhanced the teacher-pupil interaction experience through technology (eLearning) in Lagos State primary schools.

Alawiye-King who is currently in Britain, the United Kingdom, where he’s attending the 2022 Education World Forum (EWF) featuring education ministers from over 100 countries, international organisations and Non-Governmental Organisations, explained that the intervention had also aided uniformity and strict adherence to the curriculum as teachers’ tablets are preloaded with lessons and content that can be effectively monitored for standardisation across Lagos’ public primary schools.

He reiterated EKOEXCEL’s commitment to excellence, felicitated the children and promised that Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s administration would prioritize their welfare and education.

According to him, in addition to its positive impacts on teachers, EKOEXCEL has significantly increased pupils learning outcomes and drastically reduced the number of out-of-school children in the state by enrolling them in schools through the ‘Leave No Child Behind’ policy.

He revealed that the EKOEXCEL 2020-2021 Endline Fluency and Numeracy Evaluation showed that EKOEXCEL pupils are making remarkable progress in oral reading fluency and foundational numeracy compared to their last performance before the initiative’s commencement.