LASG begins massive public schools infrastructure renewal, 300 classrooms almost completed
The Chairman, Special Committee on Rehabilitation of Public Schools (SCRPS), Mr Hakeem Smith on Monday said the Lagos State Government had intensified its infrastructure renewal drive with the construction of 300 classrooms at various stages of completion.
Smith during a media parley in Ikeja said that a total of 92 school buildings have been rehabilitated within the last one year, while there has been emergency interventions in 42 public schools.
He added that in spite of the challenges of COVID-19 in the year 2020, the SCRPS made substantial progress with phase 1 of its projects.
“To date, the construction of about 300 classrooms are at various stages of completion.
“The construction of seven new hostel blocks, which will provide about 1,400 beddings, are also nearing completion in the model colleges.
“In addition, the construction of eight watchtowers with alarm bells and perimeter fences to enhance security are already in place in those schools.
“The phase 1 projects took off which comprises about 300 new classrooms, hostel construction works ongoing, provision of about 100,000 student furniture in secondary and primary schools and rehabilitation interventions in 92 schools, emergency intervention in 42 schools in Lagos state public primary and secondary schools with varying classrooms per schools,” he said.
He said committee members were experienced professionals in the built environment and academia, adding that the few challenges encountered were easily surmountable.
He said sister agencies from Ministry of Works and Infrastructure as well as Education were usually seconded to the committee for efficiency.
“There are over 1,000 primary schools in Lagos and 700 secondary schools in Lagos.
“Rehabilitation is shorter than building of new schools because in the case of rehabilitation you are attending to certain defects.
“But when you are building new schools you are starting from the foundation and this takes between six to eight months maximum,” he said.
Smith said the committee created by the Bola Tinubu administration in 2004 as an intervention body to address the numerous decay in infrastructure in Lagos public schools was abandoned in 2015.
He said policy shifts between 2015 and May 2019 led to delapidation of the public schools infrastructure which the Sanwo-Olu administration picked up after a tour of facilities.
He said Sanwo-Olu declared a zero tolerance to infrastructure decay hence the inauguration of the SCRPS on November 4, 2019.
He said one of the committee’s mission was to improve the standard of infrastructures and learning environment and ensure conducive, safe and secured learning environment.
He listed functions of the committe to include Construction of New Classroom Blocks where there were short falls, Rehabilitation of Old and Dilapidated Classroom Block and Completion of Abandoned Classroom Blocks.
Others included emergency interventions, Construction of New Schools in communities where non-existed and Provision of Students, Teachers and Principal’s Furniture and other relevant initiatives.
He said various strategies were adopted to bridge the school infrastructure decay gap within a short period leveraging on collaboration with other agencies of government.
He listed ongoing projects in all the education districts in the state which are in phase two, but were initially stalled by the outbreak of the Corona virus pandemic.
He explained that the ongoing infrastructure renewal drive had generated 18,000 direct and indirect jobs in the state.
“Universally, the construction industry helps the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of any country,” he said.
He listed initiatives to boost the environment as well other initiatives which include provision of Information Technology based modern learning tools in school buildings and other IT gadgets.
