Lagos Government to upgrade 21 school libraries across 6 Educational Districts

The Lagos State Government on Sunday said it had concluded plans to upgrade 21 secondary school libraries across all the six educational districts in the state.

The Special Adviser to the Governor on Education, Mr Obafela Bank-Olemoh, said in a statement that the libraries would be upgraded by the end of 2016.

Bank-Olemoh also announced the commencement of the State Digital Library project.

According to him, the state government’s Private-Public-Partnership initiative tagged: Adopt-A-Library, was geared toward transforming the state public libraries into modern, ICT-enhanced knowledge centres.

He said the Ipaja public library had been upgraded, while the Ilupeju public library was recently upgraded by Custodian & Allied as well as the Herbert Macaulay Library, Yaba, currently under renovation by Guaranty Trust Bank.

Bank-Olemoh said that the libraries and ICT centres at Ireti and Falomo Secondary Schools were recently upgraded by ARM Pensions, while Citibank also upgraded the library facility at Government Senior Secondary School, Victoria Island.

He also said that PricewaterhouseCoopers and Leadway Assurance had committed to adopting school libraries in Victoria Island and Surulere, respectively.

Bank-Olemoh said the digital library project was in line with the vision of Gov. Akinwunmi Ambode to provide unlimited access to knowledge for all, through the collection and curation of digital content through an online portal.

The portal, according to him, would be accessible via an internet connection on a range of devices including desktop computers to feature phones.

He said the content would include E-books on numerous topics, 1,600 videos covering English, Mathematics & Sciences for all classes and 2,000 study aids in key subject areas for secondary school subjects.

He listed other benefits to include quality research papers from Lagos State Tertiary institutions, covering a wide variety of topics to be digitised for the platform, vocational training videos, creatively presented history lessons as well as an online course on coding.

The first phase of the digital library will be launched in January 2017; on completion of this phase, the digital library will feature Study Aids, the special adviser said.

Others is: Tutorials, Instructional Videos and selected e-books for Primary to SS3 approved texts, Brief History of Lagos State and an online forum,” he said.

Bank-Olemoh also said that the digital library was principally designated to benefit all Lagos residents, adding that the platform would be accessible from within and outside the country.

“The library will be designed to ensure optimal user-experience for the designated community, which includes producers of content, publishers of approved school textbooks,” he said.

He said that efforts were ongoing to enhance the functionality and patronage of the state’s public libraries and school libraries. 

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