As the world celebrates International World Book day on Friday 23 April, Lagos State Public Primary School pupils under the EKOEXCEL Programme, an initiative of the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu are joining the rest of their counterparts around the world to mark the significance of the day set aside to celebrate the joys of books and reading.
With this year’s theme dubbed Share a story, EKOEXCEL pupils are already telling success stories of their own since the inception of the programme funded and led by the Lagos State Government.
Access to new and improved content-rich text books, National Curriculum focused and those written Lagos State Unified Scheme of work have been provided to all teachers which has led to schools becoming more energetic and joyful, pupils eager to come to school and enhancing the learning outcomes.
EKOEXCEL is also leveraging transformative technology, in what can be described as the largest ever eLearning drive in Africa, personal e-learning devices in form of MP3 players preloaded with grade appropriate pre-recorded lessons were distributed to all public primary school pupils in Lagos state make learning at home easier and more accessible for children, an initiative that is dramatically accelerating learning with 2 times more learning maths and 3 times more in literacy.
According to a parent, Mrs. Patience Christopher, “Governor Sanwo-Olu’s commitment to education in Lagos state has been highly commendable and is one to be emulated by other state governments to achieve a total educational overhaul in Nigeria.”
Teachers are at the heart of successful learning. Introducing new training models to support and empower them will impact pupil and teacher success. The EKOEXCEL training is both up-front and on-the-job, throughout the year. A fundamental element is better methodology for teachers. The teachers will become more adept in helping children to learn in a positive environment.
Created by UNESCO on 23rd April 1995, World Book Day is a worldwide celebration of books and reading. It is marked in over 100 countries around the globe.This article appeared originally on Vanguard, April 23, 2021.
