Special Adviser to the Lagos State governor on Education, Mr. Obafela Bank-Olemoh, has stated that the state government would sustain and continue the programmes and activities of the World Bank-funded Lagos Eko Secondary Education Project (LESEP), after its expiration.

Bank-Olemoh in a chat with The Guardian stressed the commitment of the state government to continue the six-year programmes of the $90m LESEP initiative with its 2016 budget.

According to him, “Government will toe the path of the LESEP with our 2016 budget as the project winds up in a few months time.” LESSEP, which started June 16, 2009, is a partnership between the bank and the state government. It was designed to improve students’ learning outcomes in 671 public junior and senior secondary schools alongside technical colleges.

With the loan issued to the state government by the World Bank, the project was set out to achieve different objectives, which include teachers professional development training; volunteer teacher scheme; rehabilitation of existing school structures and construction of new ones; support-a-school programme and public-private partnership for technical education among others.

Describing the project as a successful one, Bank-Olemoh said government intends to continue programmmes because of the value that it would ultimately add to basic education in the state.

On the “Ibile School Project,” a 21st century model school plan, separate from the LESEP that the state government intends to achieve in the future, he said, efforts would also not be spared in ensuring that state-of-the-art facilities, including science laboratories, music classes, and ICT-wired learning become part of the state’s educational infrastructure.