The Lagos state government has admonished parents, teachers, religious bodies, and community leaders to embrace safety culture in order to curb accidents, injuries and fatalities in all the schools across the state.
The wife of the Lagos State governor, Dr Ibijoke Sanwo-Olu made this charge last Thursday at the inauguration of the Lagos State School Safety Initiative held at the Adeyemi Bero Auditorium, Alausa.
Sanwo-Olu who was represented by the wife of the Commissioner for Information, Mrs Funmi Omotosho, said that safety of children is the collective responsibility of parents and all other stakeholders.
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In her words, “Our children are the owners of the country and that is why they are called the leaders of tomorrow. Since the future of any country belongs to the young ones, the best way out is to give generous attention to the children and youth, especially their safety.
“As parents and guardians, we must continue to instill good values in our children so that they will grow up to become responsible and patriotic citizens of the country.
“It is important for us to understand that the safety of our children starts from our respective homes and we must accord their safety the seriousness it deserves in the interest of the future of our children and the country.”
The Director-General, Lagos State Safety Commission, Mr Lanre Mojola, said the event was organised to train school children on safety and to recognise teachers who have shown commitment to the safety of their pupils.
“This programme is in continuation of our keep safety alive campaigned flagged off last week. The essence of the campaign is to ensure that pupils take safety as a culture. We want them to understand that they need to think safety first before they act.
“This programme particularly is part of our safe school initiative, where we will be training 300 school prefects and will be decorating teachers that have shown commitment, excellence in safety across the state. We are basically recognising teachers and training school pupils on basic safety practices,” Mojola said.
He added that the Commission inspected and audited over 30 schools in the state to ensure that the schools were located in a safe environment.
