The Lagos State Commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education, Jamiu Alli-Balogun, has said plans are underway to create additional technical colleges and vocational centres across the state.

According to him, this will help to reduce the number of out-of-school children in the state.

Speaking on Tuesday in Ikeja, Mr Alli-Balogun said the administration of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu had stepped up efforts and strategies to meaningfully engage out-of-school children to remove them from streets.

He said the colleges and centres would go a long way in accommodating and providing access to quality training for them.

He said that the mission of the Lagos State Ministry of Basic Secondary Education was to ensure that no ‘out-of-school children’ would be allowed to loiter again in the state.

“I have a mindset to boost the scope of technical and vocational education in the state in line with Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s THEMES agenda. We want to take as many ‘out-of-school children’ out from the streets, so that they can be in school learning one skill or the other, be useful to themselves society and even be employers of labour,” he said.

On the sidelines, the commissioner, who spoke on the issue of drug abuse among youths, said that collaborative efforts with community leaders, police, security agents and anti-drug clubs would be adopted to address the menace.

Earlier, Mr Alli-Balogun disclosed that the Lagos State Government in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Education would host the 67th National Council of Education meeting slated to hold from December 12 to December 15, 2023.

He said that arrangements had been concluded to host the Nigeria Examinations Committee meeting in Lagos Airport Hotel, Ikeja and described the NEC as the highest policy-making body on education saddled with the responsibility of ratification of the recommendations.

The commissioner added that the NEC meeting, with the theme “Addressing the problems of policy implementations: Panacea for the achievements of education 2030 agenda,” would have Prof. Tahir Mamman, Minister of Education, as Chairman of the event.

He added that delegates expected at the NCE included ministries, agencies and government parastatals, including officials from the federal and state ministries of education, higher education, science and technology; the FCT education secretariat, federal and state education parastatals and other agencies.

 (NAN)