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Making Education a Priority

Daily Independent
Aramide Oikelome
Dec. 12, 2003

The need to conserve funds for the education of children and for the critical development sectors of the state have been cited as reasons behind the decision of the Lagos State Government to stop sponsoring people on pilgrimages.

The Governor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who dropped the hint during a chance meeting with some selected journalists interviewing his wife, stated that the government considered children?s education a top priority because of their enviable position as the future leaders of the country.

Specifically, Tinubu pointed out that the government, in the last few years, had contributed immensely to the upbringing of children, which included paying examination fees, building additional schools and the provision of medical services.

The philosophy of Lagos State, he said, had been hinged on the philosophy that ?children are our tomorrow and we have to prepare for you today,? which was why his government decided to pay all the examination fees for the children with the conviction that no matter how poor they are, the cost of examination would not hinder them from getting good education.

Tinubu also explained that because of the priority placed on the welfare of the children and the youth, the government had embarked on building additional schools to improve the teachers? ratio in every class so that the workload of the teachers would be minimal.

Other facilities, which the government gives to the children of the state, include free treatment until they are 12, immunisation, anti-malaria treatment and free eye-glasses.

He said: ?We manage the children from pregnancy, before they were born. We provide antenatal care for their mothers when the children are in the womb. When they are born, there is free treatment until they are age 12. The future and their health are being guaranteed.

?Now, we are providing school tools, establishing computer centres in every school. That is why we even stopped sponsoring people on pilgrimage so that we can use that money for their children?s education. Those are the things we are doing. There are many other things, like free milk from infancy to free milk in schools. Free milk distribution right now is going on, immunisation is also going on, anti-malaria treatment and so many others in the medical area,? he added.