Lagos deploys technology to promote safety in schools

Forum 7 months ago

Lagos deploys technology to promote safety in schools

The Lagos State Government has said it is exploring technology to implement and sustain its safety programmes across schools in the state.

The lead resource of Safe School Lagos Initiative, Dr. Bisi Esuruoso, made this known on Tuesday, at the maiden Beacon of Safety Award Conference held in the state.

Esuruoso said the state government had also formed an alliance with relevant agencies such as the police and the Federal Road Safety Corps.

She said, “The Safe School Lagos Initiative is engaging stakeholders in the technology sector to achieve its goals. We have a portal where we have already streamed every piece of information that the schools need in terms of safety. Once they are onboard, they can get all the information needed. They can also upload incidents, record and report things in real-time. We are also doing internet safety in terms of cyber security whereby we give schools software and tools to ensure that the children don’t go to certain sites while on the school premises. We are also using technology for SOS alerts.

“Having alerts whereby if something is happening in one school, everybody knows straight away, because it just takes one person to report it in the app and all the members of the ecosystem that are logged will know. We are also working with the police and the Federal Road Safety Commission and all the first responders to ensure that safety is entrenched in our schools.”

She added that the body in its call for safe recruitment checks, provided clearance to every teacher in Lagos schools to ensure that they are safe to be close to the children.

“We are working with the police in this regard. Without safety, we cannot have sustainability in the furniture because the lives of the children will be cut short and we don’t want that in Lagos State,” she added.

The Director General of Lagos State Safety Commission, Lanre Mojola, said the theme of this conference speaks to the importance of technical operations of all relevant stakeholders in the educational sector.

Mojola said, “The Lagos State Safety Commission is saddled with the responsibility of ensuring the safety of lives and properties across all socio-economic centres in Lagos State. We have issued safety-compliance certificates to schools that have met minimum safety standards. 3000 students and 5000 teachers have been trained in terms of safety protocols and they have been inaugurated as safety ambassadors and safety champions.

“As part of efforts to highlight, safeguard and reduce injuries in public schools, the commission recently installed safety signages across all government technical colleges and tertiary institutions. We will continue to ensure that safety comes first within our educational environment.”

Also, a Nollywood actress, Bukky Wright advocated cyber security training for children.

Wright emphasised the importance of the training, saying, “We need to have a kind of cyber security training for these children because I believe it is key, and apart from that, we need to have policies and procedures in place for the children and even their families to be compliant on.

“For the school, it is very key. But first of all, we must talk about cyber security training for these children because all of them do not know the danger and do not have any security training in place.”