The Governor of Babajide Sanwo-Olu has announced plans to introduce an executive order that will stop school-age children from roaming the streets in Lagos during school hours.
The governor revealed this on Friday during the launch of the Lagos Education Access Fund (LEAF) and the inauguration of the board of the Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board (LASUBEB).
Sanwo-Olu said the planned order would reinforce the state’s efforts to tackle the problem of out-of-school children while holding parents, communities and relevant institutions accountable for ensuring children attend school regularly. According to him, no school-age child should be found outside between 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. unless there is a valid reason.
He explained that LEAF represents a shift from focusing solely on school enrolment numbers to ensuring students achieve meaningful learning outcomes such as improved literacy, numeracy and retention.
Through a partnership with the Education Outcome Fund (EOF) and other development partners, Lagos plans to deploy $25 million in outcomes-based financing to support more than 200,000 children across the state.
The initiative will prioritise enrolling about 50,000 out-of-school children aged six to 14 through community outreach programmes designed to remove barriers preventing them from attending school. It will also support 150,000 pupils already enrolled by strengthening literacy and numeracy learning.
Sanwo-Olu said the programme builds on Project Zero, a state intervention launched in 2021 that has already helped return more than 36,000 children to formal education.
He added that the government has also provided vocational training for over 360 parents and guardians in skills such as fashion design, soap making, catering and hairdressing, recognising that family economic stability is crucial for keeping children in school.
The governor highlighted the state’s investment in education infrastructure, noting that Lagos has built more schools and classrooms in the last seven years than were constructed in the previous two decades. In one education complex alone, he said 35 schools with capacity for nearly 20,000 students are being completed.
Sanwo-Olu stressed that meaningful progress in education requires collaboration between government, development partners and communities. He thanked organisations such as the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, the Federal Ministry of Education Nigeria, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan for supporting Lagos’ education reform efforts.
At the event, the governor also inaugurated the LASUBEB board, appointing Hakeem Shittu as chairman to lead efforts aimed at strengthening basic education and ensuring accountability in the state’s education system.
