The Lagos State Office of Education Quality Assurance, Ministry of Education is set to drive enhanced provision for qualitative education in the state educational institutions below tertiary level in line with the vision of the Governor of Lagos State, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
This was disclosed by the Director General, Mrs Abiola Seriki-Ayeni at the Office of Education Quality Assurance Focus Group Discussion and training on the enhancement of skills for evaluators. This Continuous Professional Development (CPD) training is to effectively achieve the mandate of the agency to lead the provision and promotion of enhanced quality standard in education through setting clearly defined approach leading to quick wins in learning outcomes.
Mrs Ayeni explained that the staff Training Need Assessment (TNA) is the first step embarked on to reposition OEQA towards analytically and strategically enhancing organizational performance through the use of holistic baseline data to execute plans. She also said that other plans includes rebranding the agency, introduction of automation of major processes like the evaluation process and grading assessment need of private schools to help reach about Twenty Thousand schools.
According to her, highly effective, confident and experienced evaluators are key to realistically achieve quick wins in education, closing basic identified gaps like teaching and learning, achievement and standard, quality of learning environment, learners personal skill and effectiveness of leadership and management to ensure best practices in education.
“We have prioritized capacity development to drive our long term vision. We have drawn up holistic training and relevant focus sessions for evaluators to be highly effective using baseline data to solve challenges and execute plans. It will help ensure that works are modeled to help support teachers on confidence and classroom management with required tailored expertise. Since our target is reaching out to about Twenty Thousand (20, 000) schools, we are preparing our evaluators towards automated evaluation processes and automated Grading Assessment of Private Schools (GAPS).” the Director General said.
Speaking further, Mrs Seriki-Ayeni said high performance standard achieved through training, retraining and application of new strategies is always basically responsible for successful organizational goals because education requires intensive enlightenment and competent officers that can influence strategic planning and commitment to set visions and goals. Officers that will break new grounds; team builders that will keep the banners of quality education flying in Lagos as well as dedicated to reforming the state educational framework using 21st century educational growth indices to drive the state education policies.
At the Focus Group Session, Ms Olanrewaju Oniyitan, Chief Executive Officer of W-Holistic Business Solutions and facilitator said the OEQA is on a mission to articulate the state of activities within the agency and use same for on the field activities because continuous professional training is paramount for all evaluators to achieve its aim. She enjoined the officers to imbibe the 21st teaching and learning skills acquisition in order to get things done appropriately.
Olaniran Emmanuel
Head, Public Affiars
OEQA