The Lagos State Office of Education Quality Assurance, Ministry of Education has reviewed the dates for midterm break and open day in the 2018/2019 academic calendar to keep pupils in the state safe during and after the general elections.
This was made known in a statement signed by the Public Relations Officer, Quality Assurance, Olaniran Emmanuel on Wednesday.
The review, which was done by the Director-General, Office of Education Quality Assurance, Mrs Ronke Soyombo, the Joint Association of Private Schools Owners of Nigeria and officials of the Ministry of Education in Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos, has fixed open day for all schools for February 13, first midterm break for February 14 through 18, while the second midterm break was fixed for February 28 through March 4. The World Book Day was also fixed for March 7.
While urging the stakeholders to urgently pass the message to other school owners and parents, Soyombo said, “Since schools’ activities fall within the date for the general elections, the adjustment became inevitable as security is very paramount to protect our pupils and avoid crisis during the elections. Strict compliance to theses dates are critical to ensuring our children stay away from the academic environment during the voting exercise for safety.”
Soyombo also advised the stakeholders to always support programmes that promote the development of education. “We need to raise the standard of literacy in schools. Some of our schools only concentrate on grammar and spellings without proper comprehension and writing. In order to make our pupils proficient readers, schools should emphasise on raising the profile of reading, not only during lesson time, but also for pleasure.”
