The Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu has disclosed that the State spent over N4.2 billion on final year students in public secondary schools to register them for the school-based West African Senior School Certificate Examinations(WASSCE) in the last four years of his administration.
He also disclosed that the state government through Project Zero of the state’s Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) has reabsorbed no fewer than 11, 957 out- of-school- children back to classrooms as part of its efforts to tackle the menace in the State.
Sanwo-Olu made this disclosure on Saturday at an event organised by the state’s ministry of education to commemorate this year’s Children’s Day celebration at the Police College, in Ikeja.
He said the full payment of WASSCE fees for all the SS3 students in the state-owned secondary schools is a promise kept by his administration to keep the students moving up the ladder without leaving anyone of them behind at least at that level of education.
Sanwo-Olu, who was represented at the event by the deputy governor, Dr Obafemi Hamzat, said a testament to the huge investment in education is shown in the outstanding performance of the students in WASSCE as number of those, who obtained credit pass and above in a minimum of five subjects including English Language and Mathematics have increased from 38.79% in 2020 to between 74% and 80% in the last two years.
He added that many of the students also scored from 250 up to 352 marks out of 400 in the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) being conducted by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board.
He cited the duo of Dejo Osejoro Segbenu, who scored 352 and Rapheal Mulero, who scored 351 in the last UTME as examples, saying the state government is very proud of them all.
“It is also on record that our students in addition to accademic excellence are doing very well in extra-curriculum activities as many of them have won various national and international awards for the state,” he added.
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