Lagos tasks stakeholders on end to bullying, accidents in schools

Lagos State government, yesterday, said school safety should be the concern of all, reason stakeholders must be involved to make pupils feel safe in school environment.

The state government said it would initiate proactive measures to curb bullying and accidents in public and private schools.
It stated this at a Safe School Initiative workshop organised by the Lagos Safety Commission and Office of Education Quality Assurance in collaboration with School Run Academy with the theme, “Creating A Safety Culture and Compliance.”

The state’s Commissioner for Education, Mrs. Folashade Adefisayo, said the move by the government was to prevent a repeat of the incident that claimed lives of students and injured about 17 others at Babs Fafunwa Millennium School, Ojodu, in December last year.

The commissioner, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Mr. Abayomi Abolaji, said government had started identifying schools on major roads that are prone to accidents and would ensure the needful is done to prevent recurrence of such incident.

She noted that the schools on the highway would have speed-breakers and traffic lights, while officers from Neighborhood Watch, Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) and Lagos Safety Commission would be engaged to ameliorate the situation.

Also, the Director-General, Lagos Safety Commission, Mr. Lanre Mojola, said the whole essence of the safe school initiative was to ensure that school environment across the state is safe while the students are made to cohabit within a conducive learning atmosphere.

He stressed that safety measures were 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 that the workshop centered on owners of boarding schools in Lagos State as the commission would soon extend similar the exercise to other stakeholders.

Others at the event emphasised on high quality standard, quality parenting and community involvement for safety to be achieved. They also suggested a systemic approach to manage safety in schools and colleges as well as ensuring total compliance.