By Lukman Olabiyi, Lagos
Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board (LASUBEB) has organised a pupils’ agriculture exhibition to boost farming in the state.
According to LASUBEB Executive Chairman Wahab Alawiye King the initiative was to promote agriculture in the state and also encourage farming among pupils.
The event, which was held at LASUBEB Multi-Purpose hall Maryland, Ikeja, was attended by
the Commissioner of the Ministry of Agriculture, Ms Abisola Olusanya.
Speaking at the gathering, Olusanya stated that agriculture is an effective tool against hunger and poverty adding that it is very essential to major industries such as manufacturing pharmaceuticals, plastic, and so on.
She stated that agriculture is the catalyst of development in the country and also a bedrock of every profession stating that no nation can survive without food.
She added that the domestic production of livestock and farm produce is far below national demand which is leaving room for the importation of livestock with inflation, urging the pupils to continue to engage themselves in farming.
She urged teachers to introduce scientific methods of farming such as mechanised farming and other technical models in agriculture to EKOEXCEL pupils.
LASUBEB Executive Chairman Alawiye King disclosed that 51 schools from 11 local government education authorities benefited from the agricultural training programme funded by Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) adding that the project is to foster agricultural skills in the pupils.
‘Today shows that education is holistic, it is better to catch them young, over-reliance on oil and other product has to be discouraged, agriculture is the most important sector and we are naturally endowed in this part of the world and as such, we need to take advantage of it.
‘This is the harvest period; this is the second series and as you can see it is a bumper harvest. It is to encourage the pupils into agriculture and to also show that it contributes to our economy,’ he said.
At the exhibition, the pupils joyfully displayed various farm produce and livestock such as yam, plantain, cassava, chickens, pigs and many more.
EKOEXCEL pupils now attend and participate in such exhibitions with much-improved dramatisation and execution of their play-acting with an eagerness to showcase their development in school.
Before the introduction of EKOEXCEL, pupil attendance, pupil learning outcomes, teacher content knowledge, teacher motivation as well as pupil optimism were below par.
With EKOEXCEL, these drawbacks have been addressed by a technology-based platform that provides teachers with all the necessary tools and support that they need to help their pupils learn.