1st February, 2024
The Lagos State Government has vowed to eradicate all impediments against children’s safety in schools across the State.
To this end, the State through the Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency, in partnership with relevant stakeholders met on Wednesday to address the current situation in line with the State’s principles of Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy.
Speaking at a Review of the Joint Visitation Exercise of the Lagos State Task Force on Child Safeguarding and Protection in the state, the Executive Secretary of the Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency, DSVA, Mrs Titilola Vivour-Adeniyi said the meeting was convened to review the report that was conducted last year to ascertain the level of compliance of the Policy of Safeguarding and Child protection in schools.
The DSVA boss said besides the review, the meeting would enable them chart a course for improvement on how to scale up safety of children in schools, stressing that the earlier visit to some schools in the state availed them the opportunity to know the level of exposure of some schools to safety measures.
She said the entire framework of safeguarding and Child Protection was what the Lagos State Joint Task Force on Safeguarding and Child Protection is committed to “hence we thought it was expedient to visit these schools and ascertain the level of compliance.
“Over a period of 3 months, the Lagos State Task Force on Child Safeguarding and Protection which comprises top level representatives of the Office of Education Quality Assurance, Ministry of Basic Education, Ministry of Youth and Social Development, Lagos State Safety Commission, State Universal Basic Education Board, Local Government Education Authority, Education Districts and Child Protection Network was able to engage 601 schools from the six education District and we team was also able to visit and conduct on the spot assessments of 271 schools.
“Out of the schools visited, 145 of these schools have adopted the safeguarding and protection policy. However they were some areas that we need to assist the schools in improving so as to ensure safety of children at schools in Lagos state.”
Vivour-Adeniyi acknowledged the efforts of the state Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu as well as the Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Dr. Kadri Hamzat for their commitment in ensuring that the letters of the safeguarding and child protection policy came alive and the policy was fully implemented.
According to her, “We are looking at empowering those officers, to build their capacity so that they could be able to detect red flags, detect child change in behaviours, more importantly to be able to know the referral part to be adopted once such disclosures are made, either to them directly or indirectly.”
The Tutor General and Permanent Secretary, District 3, Dr. Funke Idowu Oyetola commended the efforts of all members of the Lagos State Task Force on Child Safeguarding and Protection for their continuous efforts in ensuring the safety of children in schools in the State.
She charged them to continue to ensure the right strategies and approaches to enhance the right environment for studies were always put in place for the children in schools.
Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Youth and Social Development, Mrs. Toyin Oke-Osanyintolu called for more cooperation of stakeholders with the government to ensure safety of school children.
The Permanent Secretary, who was represented by the Director, School Social Work Services, Mrs Mujedat Oladipo said the meeting would allow the relevant MDAs to identify the problems observed during the school engagements and proffer solutions and recommendations.
“This will ensure that all the observed gaps are corrected and ensure that the schools that are not in line with the Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy are made to comply through adequate sensitisation and education for the well-being and all the school children in Lagos state,” she added.