Lagos State is taking proactive measures to ensure schools are safe from accidents and bullying, it was learnt yesterday.
The government also promised to increase awareness towards infusing and inculcating safety culture and compliance among pupils.
This was reiterated at a workshop organised by the Lagos Safety Commission (LSC), Office of Education Quality Assurance, in collaboration with School Run Academy. The theme was ‘Creating A Safety Culture and Compliance’.
Commissioner for Education Mrs. Folashade Adefisayo said the move was part of plans to prevent a recurrence of the December 2021 accident at Babs Fafunwa Millennium School, Ojodu, which claimed about 17 lives.
Adefisayo, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary Mr. Abayomi Abolaji, said the government is already identifying schools, especially those close the highway, and are prone to road accidents, to ensure the needful is done to prevent a recurrence.
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The commissioner said speed breakers and traffic lights would be installed in front of such schools, while officers of safety/security agencies would be engaged to ameliorate the situation.
Director-General of the LSC Lanre Mojola explained that the Safe School Initiative is to ensure schools across the state are safe and the environment conducive for pupils to learn.
Mojola stressed that safety measures are very important to ensure physical safety, disease control, discourage bullying and alcohol abuse, as well as training the school owners on how to ensure schools are safer.
He added: “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.
“We want to ensure our teachers teach the basic principles of safety and that our children interact in a safe environment.
Safety begins with us, and zero accident is possible if we all work together in a safe environment.”
Mojola added that the workshop centered on owners of boarding schools in Lagos State while the gesture would be extended to other stakeholders soon.