LASG Releases 2020/2021 Academic Session Calendar, As LASUBEB Commences Training Of 2000 Teachers

The Lagos State Ministry of Education has released the approved Lagos State School calendar for the year 2020/2021 session.

According to the time table, public and private schools below tertiary level will resume First Term academic activities on Monday, 21st September, 2020 and end on Friday, 18th December, 2020.

The Second Term starts on Monday, 4th January, 2021 and runs until Friday, 16th April, 2021, while students will resume for Third Term on Tuesday, 4th May, 2021 and close on Friday, 6th August, 2021.

The Director-General, Office of Education Quality Assurance, Mrs. Abiola Seriki-Ayeni, enjoined all public and private schools in Lagos State to adhere strictly to the harmonised school calendar, urging school leaders to have qualitative health and safety plans that will help protect students, teachers and workers as schools reopen.

Mrs. Seriki-Ayeni said, “It is not enough to reopen but to stay open since some schools all over the world had to shut down after reopening due to a spike in the pandemic.

“All schools must, therefore, make efforts to comply with these requirements, not just for the improvement of the overall school operations but for the safe reopening of academic activities to support the Lagos State Government’s quest for a full return”.

While advising schools to have flexible teaching and learning plans, where students and teachers who feel sick can teach or learn from home via available online platforms, Seriki-Ayeni said schools must strive to avoid any COVID-19 infection among all students and staff.

The Director-General further advised that teachers, students and visitors must wear facemasks at all times, observe physical distancing, embrace regularly handwashing with soap under running water and maintain a high standard of personal hygiene within the school premises.

She emphasised that schools must have an isolation/holding bay to care for medical emergencies should anyone come up with symptoms such as cough, headache, catarrh, difficulty in breathing, sneezing and fever.

Seriki-Ayeni also stated further that measures put in place by the government include online registration of public and private schools in Lagos State with the OEQA, taking a School Self-Risk Assessment as well as undergoing an online training course in order to obtain the reopening clearance for academic activities on the OEQA website: www.oeqalagos.com.

Noting that the registration exercise will help the Office to determine the level of preparedness as well as guide schools on conditions for a safe reopening, she implored school leaders to embrace new learning styles like outdoor classes, staggered attendance, platooning or alternative attendance, among others, in collaboration with parents to foster a safe and secure environment.

 

 

Similarly, the Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board (LASUBEB) has commenced the phased training of over 2,000 Primary School Teachers on the integration of technological devices for instructional classroom delivery under the EKOEXCEL initiative.

In his address at the commencement of the training programme, being held at CMS Primary Schools Complex, Bariga, and Vetland Primary Schools Complex, Agege, the Executive Chairman of LASUBEB, Mr. Wahab Alawiye-King said the Lagos State Government had been anticipatory and proactive before the interruption of COVID-19 by including technology in the basic education system.

He explained that the training would not only empower and develop the participating teachers in their careers but also equip them adequately in order to adapt to the new system and respond to challenges that have emerged in the education sector as a result of the pandemic.

The Chairman noted that as part of efforts towards embracing the new realities, the Board has introduced a new approach which entails blended, integrated and distance learning methods, adding that it has been established that learning and teaching can happen off-sight.

He declared that the EKOEXCEL initiative will not only transform teaching and learning in the classroom but will also change many classroom activities, just as he charged the participants to conform to the new normal in basic education.

Recall that EKOEXCEL, which means Excellence in Child Education and Learning, is an educational transformation initiative of the present administration, which is aimed at bridging the gap in quality education delivery, through the use of technological devices such as teaching tablets and smartphones in public primary school pedagogy.