Yesterday ,Tuesday 29th April 2025 for me was a day to remember .
I was picked or I volunteered to be part of a mentorship programme put together by my school’s Old Students Association to deliver a career talk to the 2025 graduating class of the school
Apart from me , we had other notable alumnus of the school from various professions that were on ground to mentor the students too
Ofcourse , my main topics were Mass Communication and Law and I believe I did justice to the topics based on the reaction of the school authorities and students alike
While speaking on the requirements needed to study Law in Nigeria , I informed the students that three subjects were a MUST . Mathematics, English Language and English Literature with any other two subjects ( Minimum requirement is five credit)
I recommended ” Government ” as one key subject , that a pupil should have at SSS level ( though not compulsory )
It was at that point that the students informed me that though some of them picked Government in their WAEC exam commencing next week but they don’t have a teacher for the subject in the past one year
I turned to the school authorities to ask why is it so , and they confirmed what the students said
They went on to inform me that for over a year now , they’ve written to the Lagos State Ministry of Education for a Government teacher but they turned a deaf ear to the request
My investigation later revealed that this was not limited to Government alone but several other subjects
What happened in the school is being replicated in several other public schools in Lagos State , where we have shortage of teachers
I was shocked
Lagos State that prides itself as a mega city, with the 3 largest economy in Africa, with all the billions of Naira it generates monthly cannot fully fund secondary education
This is a big shame and serious indictment on the part of the Governor of Lagos State who recently travelled all the way Harvard University to deliver a lecture
I learnt it wasn’t this bad during the time of Governors Babatunde Fashola and Ambode
It is for this reasons that most parents who can afford it, enrolled their children in private schools
It’s obvious something is definitely wrong with secondary education in Lagos which requires Governor Sanwolu’s immediate attention
Some of us who grew up in the 80s still remember the free and qualitative education under Governor Lateef Jakande
Some of us wouldn’t have become what we are today without that free education
The rot in the education sector in Lagos State should be addressed immediately
Building metrolines, bridges , roads and other infrastructure are not enough , the education of our children should be a priority of the Government
It is on this note that I commend the unprecedented efforts of people like Oba Adedokun Omoniyi Abolarin ( ORAGUN OF OKE-ILA , OSUN STATE ) who single handedly built tuition free schools in his domain for the children of the less privileged
On our part, some of our Alumnus have agreed to mobilise themselves to lecture the students in some of these subjects before the exams
It seems a bit too late, but it’s better late than never
Chris Kehinde Nwandu
National & Global President
Ojota Secondary School Old Students Association ( OSSOSA )
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