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• Assembly set to re-establish scrapped TESCOM
By Moshood Adebayo and Chinelo Obogo
Lagos Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, said the state saved about N2.4 billion from a ban on sponsorship of pilgrimages to Mecca and Israel.
The state government had, last year, banned state-sponsored pilgrimage to Mecca and Jerusalem.
The decision, according to the government, was informed by the current economic challenges, where it would be ‘most irresponsible’ to spend taxpayers’ money on sponsoring pilgrimage.
The governor, who spoke through his Commissioner for Home Affairs, Abdulateef Abdulhakeem, said the saved money has been deployed for more developmental projects.
“Directly or indirectly, government has been able to save about N2.4 billion from such expenditure and has been deployed into provision of infrastructure in the transformational agenda of the state government.”
He added that the state government had commenced the process of gathering data of religious organisations and their locations to set standards, give orientation and provide security for them.
In a related development, Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget, Akinyemi Ashade, said the state has budgeted N3.8 billion to tackle HIV/AIDS.
The budget, he noted, is financial support the state received from the Global Fund to fight HIV infections and assured that the grant would be judiciously used.
Specifically, he said the grant would be for 70 health facilities in three local government areas of the state, including, Epe, Ikorodu and Oshodi/Isolo.
Meanwhile, a Bill for a law to re-establish the Lagos State Teaching Service Commission (TESCOM) and for Connected Purposes has been forwarded to the Committees on Education and Establishment. They have been directed to report back to the House in two weeks.
At Second Reading yesterday, the House observed that the bill will re-establish TESCOM, scrapped in 2005 and replaced with six education districts across the state.
Briefing the chamber about the bill, Education committee, Olanrewaju Ogunyemi, said it will provide uniform guidelines and control of post-primary institutions. He added that some lacunae were observed in the state educational system after creation of the six education districts. “The bill will ensure the management of the careers of teachers in secondary schools. The six districts operate differently and disjointedly. It would ensure that teachers have an appellate body in the commission, where they could air their views. It would empower the commission to make decisions on promotion, discipline and employment of teachers with the approval of the governor,” he said.
Speaker Mudashiru Obara, however, wondered why TESCOM should be re-introduced after operating for many years. “The House passed a law that established the districts. Have we noticed any defect since we passed the law that established them? Nobody has spoken on the need to bring back TESCOM. We should be able to identify if the system is working. We must determine if the existing system has failed to stand the test of time.
“Creating a new commission means we have not done the right thing. Why can’t we insert TESCOM into the existing law rather than creating a new law,” he said.
In his reaction, Majority Leader, Sanai Agunbiade, stated that the fears expressed by the speaker was raised during executive briefings by the Ministry of Education.
He said the agency handling the discipline of teachers could not do much and that TESCOM would not reduce the powers of the districts, which, he said, could only do little in the area of discipline of erring teachers.
According to him, the districts had not failed, but that TESCOM would solve the problems the districts and the ministry could not solve.
On his part, Ogunyemi said the fears of the speaker were founded, but that there was a strong conviction from the ministry that there was need for the harmonisation of the districts with the re-establishment of TESCOM.
“The districts would now handle the disciplinary cases of teachers on levels one to six, while TESCOM would handle those on level seven and above. The district heads would report to TESCOM, which has powers to take decisions,” he said.
