 This is the greater Lagos vision and army of hosts love Ikuku, Oye Doku. Governor Babaji Desu Owenlu is confident that 2022 and 2023 will be a harvest period for Lagos State, particularly in the area of infrastructural projects. He says the state government has fast tracked the completion and delivery of key infrastructure, which includes a motorized smill 27 km blue line and 32 km red line rail projects. The governor was speaking at the opening session of the 17th Executive and Legislative Parli organized for all elected public office holders in Lagos State. This is the greater Lagos vision. Welcome once again, army of hosts love Ikuku, Oye Doku. This episode features Okada Ban, Lagos government crushes over 2,000 seized motorcycles. Collapse Ikuyu building, Lagos government commences demolition, defies shortly. Lagos State governor Babaji Desu Owenlu says the ultimate goal of his administration remains that Lagos State becomes one of the top places in the African continent to leave, work and invest. So, Oye Doku was speaking at the official commissioning and handing over of the reconstructed state security service building in a limosha local government area of the states. The impact that is going to have in this area is to give more security to the people of the limosha local government. The Lagos local government in the federation, they have more population than any local government in the federation. And we secure the approval of the governor for the construction of this so that they can provide more security, network, architecture in this local government. And I want to advise the youth to become, to not do anything that will harm the security agents to go after them. The sort of passion the governor of Lagos State attach to security, promise the award of this particular project without security will not be anywhere. It is when there is security we have to provide, it is when there is peace of mind to think about what and what right to for the benefit. I want to appreciate our work now for doing that. The Lagos State government has commenced the demolition of adjoining structures within the complex of the collapsed 21-story building at Gerard Road in Ikoi. Commissioner for Information and Strategy Benga Omotoshio stated this at a press briefing. The briefing commenced with a minute of silence observed in honour of those who lost their lives in the unfortunate incident. Tap on the agenda was the construction of the two remaining buildings still standing at the premises of the collapsed 21-story building. Commissioner for Information Benga Omotoshio accompanied by his counterparts in the ministries of social duties and intergovernmental relations, Tyre Bangboshi, Martins and their physical planning and over development, Idris Salako told journalists that the construction will commence on the buildings having failed integrity tests. We are here because of the November 1 incident Lagos does not pray to ever have that kind of incident again. We are here to fulfilment of what the panel that was set up after the collapse of that building, what it recommended that the government of Lagos should do, that those other buildings that are still standing on that site should be brought down because according to experts they have failed what they call the integrity test. Omotoshio announced that a stakeholder's meeting had previously been held in this regard and all formalities have been completed to hand the complex over to the contractor for the reconstruction. The commissioner for physical planning explained that the land will be taken over by government in line with the state physical planning law. Section 74 to be precise, any property that collapsed in Lagos state is automatically forfeited to the Lagos state government. So the property as it is is forfeited. The contractor handed the construction feel-feelers level and laid fees about safety of workers saying control methods haven't worked out. We will tie up the slabs first. What does that mean? If we want to cut a section of a slab, maybe one meter by one meter, we will put steel chains through that slab in about four to six points such that it is hooked up. It holds the slab. It sort of suspends the slab even though we haven't cut it. We will then begin to cut so that by the time you are cutting, those steel chains have already held up the piece you are cutting so and it doesn't drop. He said the reconstruction is expected to take 90 days but could be extended due to bad weather. About 2000 motorcycles have been crushed in the first quarter of the year 2022. So says the commissioner for information and strategy BINGA or Motor Show. At the crushing site in Alausa he said the crushing of the bikes showed how serious the government is in enforcing commercial motorcycle ban in some areas of the states. 2000 motorcycles also known as Okada has been crushed by the LEGO state government. It goes to show the seriousness that the state government attaches to ensuring that the state is rid of Okadas and its menace. Commissioner for information BINGA or Motor Show and transport commissioner Dr. Fredrik Oladende walked journalists through the crushing site to witness the destruction of the motorbikes. People have been wondering what we have been doing with the Okadas that have been taken out of a town. So for you to see what we have been doing with them, this is why we invited you here today. I am happy you have seen the way they have been crushed. Mr. Omotoshi says that the government had to take the enforcement seriously due to the excesses of the riders and the alarming rate of road accidents recorded this year alone. In the first four months of this year, we had 1,712 Okada accidents. Of these, of road accidents of the 1,712, 767 were due to Okada. Omotoshi or however called on riders securing to the state or through modern transport schemes to get actively engaged. Commissioner for transportation Fredrik Oladende urged residents to remain calm and obey traffic laws as alternative means of transportation have been provided. We are putting more high capacity buses on the road. The government is walking around the clock to make sure that our rail system is working. We have increased the number of boats on our waterways and they should just be calm and then move about the daily business. Chairman of Lagos State Tax Force says there is no going back on the enforcement. We don't see Okadas on the road, on the express any longer. The number has drastically reduced but I know for sure and I am passing this information to them because they are watching us. They might be of the belief that the first one week of the enforcement will be thorough. After one week we are going to relax. Anyway, we will watch and see. But I am passing this message to them that from next week we will do more intense enforcement. With the recent pronouncement and a continued enforcement on the ban, Lagosians hope he is not short-lived so that the sanity is sustained. Lagos State Gov. Babaji Desawulu has declared that his government's commitment to providing quality and affordable education of the state is second to none. Saawulu was speaking during the launch of the collaboration between Lagos State University and Cornell University, New York, United States for post-graduate professional certificate programs. The governor said his administration would do everything possible to uphold the outstanding reputation of the state, owns Lagos State University Lassu and make it one of the best and best universities in the world. Joining me shortly on this episode of the Greater Lagos Vision is the commission of our education for Lacha Adé Fisayo. She will be giving us more insight into how the present administration is changing the narratives in the educational sector. But that's going to be after this break. Please stay with us. We are getting up just in a matter of months from now. That is something that we are all aware of. But Ma, would like to know from you, would you say that his promise of ensuring quality and affordable education that is second to none to Lagosians, would you say he has fulfilled it or he has lived up to that promise? You remember when Mr Babajithe Wushalassan Wulu came in, he espoused his themes agenda. The first E there was education and technology. And he promised that year in, year out he would increase the education budget which he has done without fail. Every year the budget grows larger. And every year he has concentrated on improving the quality of education in the state. He promised that he would attend to all abandoned structures, so there would be no more abandoned structures in the schools, that he would furnish the schools with adequate furniture and lots of other promises. And he would integrate technology into teaching and learning. All these promises have been met to a large degree. And I think I would like to let you know that especially in terms of improving education, making classrooms conducive for learning. And when they are conducive for learning, you can then now start working on the other soft skills you need to work on. So I would say that we really have gone far. When Mr Governor first came in, we concentrated our attention on completion of abandoned projects and we've done a lot of that across the states, right from, in fact across the six districts in the state. Then we concentrated on improving model school infrastructure by building state-of-the-art boarding houses, complete with the laundry room, reading room and so on for students in our boarding schools. After that, we now decided that it's time for us to now build specific iconic structures that will be for, I mean for A, when people are passing by, they say this one was built by Mr Governor. So there are about three that I would like to mention. The first one is the Elemoro school, which is in Ibejuleki. Ibejuleki is an area where we have very few schools. So when we sat down with the oba and we saw that about 12 schools didn't really have a good basic school, you know it's a new area of Lagos. So we started this brand new school and in this school, the Elemoro school, we built track and field, we built a stadium and sitting for spectators. So it's a very, very exciting structure. We are very pleased with it. All the issues we had with existing buildings, we tried to correct there. Like now there's, when you entered the school before, there was no reception. Now there's a reception so that we are able to attend to parents. You just don't enter school. And a lot of things like that, we included labs, we included all the structures that they would need to be able to operate effectively. That was at Ibejuleki. Now we are coming up with another building which is yet to be commissioned. The Ibejuleki school was commissioned in December, but we now have another one at Agege called the Vetland school built of containers and that's an excellent one. You see this is a green school where we are not on the grid. We are using solar throughout. Every classroom has a smart white board and tablets for the students in the class. I think there is a ratio of 1 to 2 in each classroom. And there too we are building a track and field, we are building a basketball court because after Elemoro we knew that we couldn't go back and just build a school and just open it. But we had to ensure that the school had all the structures that it needs for it to operate effectively. Another school that we are building in collaboration this time with the wives of some of our associations and support groups is a school in Ogonbo where we have actually deliberately built a ramp from the ground floor to the top. So that it will be an inclusive school where children, even those with physical challenges can get to the top on their wheelchair and we deliberately built toilets and so on so that they will be able to effectively use these toilets. So again we keep on thinking and improving on the existing models, not that we just built and I think that is part of the beauty of what this administration has been trying to do. We take a lot of data in Lagos if we work with data so that we just don't make decisions based on sentiments. So in collecting data about our students right from entry to exit, we found that there is a significant drop around GS3 to SS1 and SS2 to SS3. And this is because many of them have a need to work to earn a living. They start earning a living or they start learning a craft with a master as they call it. So we said look let's do something, let them understand this need is very important. How do we address this need? So we set up what we call comprehensive schools and the governor approved a pilot of 12 schools. So in 12 of our schools we set up these schools and these schools are running vocational programs within schools so that rather than leave school and start wandering the streets or looking for many jobs here and there, I mean we will train you and give you really first class training and that is what we have been doing. And so those teachers, if you look at the board, I don't know if it's possible for you to look at the screen, but you see the screen in front of you. This is why it is on all the time because it's the framework for the comprehensive schools program. So apart from the fact that we will teach them vocational skills like in Greek, ICT, fashion, building and construction and so on. We are also teaching them soft skills and we know the teaching of soft skills like financial literacy, entrepreneurship and so on. It's not something that is easy for teachers taught in a very formal setting. So we too entered into a relationship with a city called Tampere in Finland. I know that Finland is well known for the quality of its schools. What we don't understand is that their vocational schools are also excellent, but their methodologies of teaching, the pedagogy of the classroom is really exciting and the students learn and you see the joy of teaching and learning. So we sent our teachers there to learn from them, to study them in the classroom, to absorb the atmosphere and learn the skills, but we teach these children all these soft subjects. They are not teaching physics, chemistry and so on. It's a totally different ball game, so you have to give them the skills and that is why we sent them to Finland. And they came back really enthusiastic and they've hit the road run. If you go to any of those classrooms, they are teaching collaboratively, they are using technology to teach, they are creative, they are innovative, they are solving problems, they are planning and so on. And so from there, they will be able to do things like set up their own businesses very quickly in addition to learning the skill that they want to learn. Every child has a chance to have a marketable skill when they leave us. Like for instance, let me pick one of them, like I said it's on the board, the framework is on this screen in front of me. So let's say I pick something like a child does fishery, he's not going to do it at a very basic level, he'll do it at the best possible level, taught by the teachers who went to Finland. So he'll do fishery and we are doing this in collaboration with technical partners. In this case, it's IITA who we are working with as well as our own and Greek teachers. So we do fisheries and apart from fisheries, the students will do financial literacy, understand how to plan for themselves financially. They'll do entrepreneurship and employability, they'll be able to set up the business, write a proposal, write a letter to the bank, ask for money from the bank. We teach them personal leadership skills, we'll work on their communication presentation skills, public speaking. Even dressing an etiquette, can you imagine somebody comes to you and says oh I'm a plumber and the person just starts speaking and you see he's a neat, smart, clever person who writes his invoice, writes, asks for a loan in the bank, will give them digital literacy skills. And each one of them has a tablet on which we've loaded these soft skills. These soft skills are not skills you teach in the class per se like lessons. They are going to self-pace themselves and we are working with a Finnish company called Fonsai and they are following up to ensure that the students are learning all along. So by the time they are done, someone says I came out of Lagos State and I'm an expert in photography and videography. You will know that this is an excellent person. What we've asked them and some of them have given us, they've shared their curriculum with us. We've trained our teachers on how to teach these subjects. Some have provided internship opportunities, even work opportunities at the end. The internship opportunities for some it includes a small stipend and so we're working with professional bodies, with NGOs, international organizations. I think it's a great way of, it's a great, what can I call it, case study for government collaborating openly, transparently with the private sector and allowing the private sector to drive certain things, like the entrepreneurship and employability is by an NGO called Junior Achievement and they are going to set up companies and they started doing that. What they are doing that designing their Lagos, naming their company. So let's say all of us are learning make-over, bar-bring, hairdressing make-up, then we set up our company and we start working. Because like I said, we want them to earn an income early. So it's a practical hands-on way of learning that will give them a lifelong skill. We have to do a lot of stakeholder management because we have to let them know that it doesn't mean the child is not intelligent. Intelligence is something that is multifaceted. Some people are good at English and so on. Some people are good at drawing, that's their intelligence. There's this Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences and that's what we base this on, that look, people have multiple intelligences. What if my intelligence is with my hands? What if I'm a great fashion designer? I don't have to know physics to be a great fashion designer. So we talked a lot and the interesting thing about those schools, because we are only doing it in 12 schools now, though Mr. Governor has challenged us to go for 50 by September. You see in those 12 schools, whenever you go around and talk to the head of schools, they say school is very quiet. Because those children who were bored, who did not enjoy normal class, they are having a great time. And don't forget that the methodology of teaching is so interesting and engaging that they are learning a lot. I think it's a great one. I would allow my child to learn this. And so something like this comprehensive school system is to ensure that they have the skills that private sector needs. I assure you that all of the skills that we are teaching them, we are not doing it in the normal didactic theoretical manner. No. And we came up with a curriculum together with private associations. Like Plumber has told us, this is what we want a Plumber to know. So all these things are taught practically. And so this is our own first step towards ensuring that people who live in this system do have the essential skills of success in the world they are going to live in. The meaning of a co-excel is excellence in children's education. And this program was introduced in order to improve teaching and learning in primary schools. What we have done is that working with technical parties, we have done a lot of things in primary schools. We reviewed our schemes of work. It's our own scheme of work, not anybody else's. And we put it on tablets for our teachers. So really our teachers don't have to do much work with writing lesson notes. But if they read it up, they study it well, week in, week out. The way they'll teach was seriously improved because we included exercises, team work, collaborative. All those things we talk about has been 21st century skills. So that's what we've been doing with the co-excel. It's going on in all our classrooms. All the teachers have tablets with which we support their teaching in the classroom. It's not meant to be read from directly. It's meant to support and improve their engagement of the learners in the classroom. It's meant to give them examples of exercises that you can do and so on and so forth. So it's really in place and we've done a monitoring and evaluation of it and found that the literacy levels are very high. The children are actually reading from primary one, which was the objective. I mean children can read across all levels. They should read in primary one. Why is it appropriate? I mean, you know, you're not expecting them to be reading long, long words. But primary one, they should be able to read well. So that by six, they are fluent readers. And that was the main objective. And of course that they are good in numeracy as well. Thank you so much Honorable Commissioner for Education for your time with us today on The Great Alligors' Vision. Thank you so much. Thank you very much. That's all we have for you in this episode of The Great Alligors' Vision on Plus TV Africa. I'm Lovie Kuku Oyeduku. Bye for now.