A trait that admirers and even critics attribute to Abiola Seriki-ayeni, Director-general, Office of Education Quality Assurance, Lagos State is that of keeping words. They add that she is not given to running away from tasks; rather, she derives joy in tackling challenges and addressing the needs of education community in the state.
Can you lead us into your personal and professional background?
Ibelieve in the power of education to transform societies. Very early in my career, I did not intend on getting into education and I found myself there by chance. I recognised at the completion of my university level by taking a trip to Haiti with a missionary group, the Importance of education in joining cultulrarists in language, in context, in empowerment and I found education to be a vehicle at which change can actually happened. I found education to be a powerful tool and that is the means at which we can transformed. With Education, that is basically where we are and that is where I am now.
One year down the line, what has been your experience so far?
It’s very interesting. Before me, I had one predecessor in the person of Ronke Soyombo, whom I was privileged to have known. I had an idea of some of the issues that were on ground that needed to be addressed to move the agency forward. I think one year down the line despite the COVID – 19 pandemic, I think we have done pretty well. And how do I engage that? I engage that by looking at the transformation of my staff. When I came, there seems to be a lot of hopelessness. They just needed to be leadership; they needed to be a direction that they all can buy into. Very early on I was able to communicate to my staff, the type of agency that I believe we can achieve together. That has to do with things like: integrity, moral, honesty, hardwork and commitment. So very early on, it was very important for them to understand the values that I hold as a person, the values that I hold as a professional, one of the things, we were able to flexed out what some of the key priorities should be. They found that there is a method to the madness. So when am saying that we need to sit down and plan, initially they may have thought that its stressful, not really meaningful, that we needed to focus on big things like we need to purchase a Toyota bus, tablet or we needed money.
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But far from it, as we examined why we were here in the first instance, where we are going and what impact do we hope to live behind? All these have been the help. I have seen it in the buying-in and the commitment that I noticed from my staff over a period of time. I think that is my biggest achievement this year. Achievement is centred on relationship, the Importance of relationship We see that in the quality assurance collaborative technical committee, where we reached out to various MDAS and we told them that we recognised our limitations in our own expertise as educators by assisting us when we go out to the schools, we need more holistic views when we are looking at our schools, can you give us your representatives in your MDAS so we can liaise with them, we can have them as part of our monitoring team, so we can have their ideas to ensure that when we go out to schools, we would be going with a 60-60 degree lens Something that can capture the whole picture of our schools and that has been helpful. We recently launched it even in the delivery of our training for school reopening, and that is where we had experts from health because we wouldn’t be able to give health expertise We are also beginning to have our entire processes automated and that covers the way we do our quality assurance, not manually going in and write reports but actually putting it in on a tab for quick turnaround.
What are the Cardinal aims and objectives of the OEQA?
It’s centred on making sure that we have standards for how education is delivered, standards for how business of School is conducted, standards on how children are assessed, and standards on how we can engage teacher’s effectiveness. It’s very important as simple as it may sound, we have standards to ensure we are able to drive the rate at which we are able to drive quality education in the state. We have
standards, we are creating standards and thinking that to have business processes for everything, even how our officers goes to the field, how they conduct the affairs of the agency, by recognising that everything needs to be intentionally taught and captured, not just actions but also in terms of strategic documents. I recognise that I am not going to be here forever, my tenure has a limited period of time. I want the system to be able to run well without me, I also know that my officers would be here after I might have left. So it is important for us to live a legacy for them that is different, that is meaningful and that is sustainable. Towards improving the efficacy of the Office of Education Quality Assurance, a grading instrument was instituted for evaluating the standard of education in schools -a revamping of guidelines for establishing, operating and sustaining a school and increased Private School Registration above 100% year on year. The Office has since launched the read Aloud Programme for Basic School Students in the State.
With all these laudable ideas and proposed projects, are you adequately getting supports from the state governor?
I am getting his full supports in terms of work we put forward before Mr Governor. No programme I embarked upon that I don’t seek his approval, to be able to move forward with it. The governor has been exceptional. With the vision to become a model of excellence in the development of education in the country, by providing high quality education accessible to all learners, through effective and efficient management of resources for the attainment of self-reliance and socio-economic development, the Sanwo-olu led administration has continue to raise the bar with strategic measures and transformation plan for the success of the sector. The administration with the passion for learning, schools transformation and capacity building for teachers has been further driven with the new trends towards engendering quality education that will be at par with the 21st century standard of learning.
The State Government with its trail blazing agenda has resolved to restructure the Education sector by ensuring that the teaching and learning methods in the schools are improved statewide. The challenges the sector is faced with, were unquantifiable at the inception of the administration and proffering solution to these multi- faceted challenges required the laying of formidable foundations to achieve laudable feats in the quest for positive changes and the resolve to surmount these challenges.
Where were you before your appointment as The DG, Office of Education Quality Assurance?
I had worked in Lagos as Governor Ambode senior special assistant on education. I did that for some time. I also worked extensively in the USA within the education space to be specific. Years ago, I worked in the oil industry in Lagos State as well.
What would you say are the challenges confronting office of education quality assurance?
The challenges definitely still exists and I think recognising these challenges quickly and been able to circumvent them. It is the key that one really needs to embrace. We are civil service, we are in government and typically things are seen in 13 ways and I think for the office, it’s important that whatever it is, am spearheading my office to a model for how education in government can work. Typically, we have seen that education in government can’t work, and for me, working with my staff, we have recognised our limited resources and understanding that they are like seas. What can we do with what we have? If we chose to focus on what we don’t have, we can be there forever. But if we think about the fact that we has experts in education that have been here for years, people that knows their onions in and out, are there in the right roles, are we putting into consideration the welfare of our officers. What small thing can we put in place to motivate our officers that is not moneybased? Can we recognise people, can we celebrate people, can we be there for people, the most important resource I have in my team are my people and able to recognise that early made a little difference.in terms of challenges, you always have such as lack of fund and no enough buses for operational use. Although I know those things exists. Getting other people to recognise opportunity has been a challenge for something that I have seen. Our governor had exemplified, we have no choice than to key into that.
Who can you say influenced you the most among your parents in your academic pursuit?
I will say both of them in different ways. My father has always instilled the importance of good education, the importance of integrity, the importance of being the best, from a very young age, the importance of honesty of telling the truth. I will say my mother instilled the sense of responsibility to others. She instilled the Importance of loving other people, the Importance of understanding one’s language and culture. Between both of them, she is always being the one to speak the native tongue to me and as a result, I understood it before I could speak it. I would say they are both heavenly influenced who I am and what I stand for.
Can we get to know what you do with your leisure time or rather which best is your form of relaxation?
Right now, I would probably say I don’t have that much relaxation time but I do spend my time intentionally. I spend a lot of my time with my family. My children are still very young, the work I have at hand does not allow me much time with them. I spend majority of my time with them by shutting off my phone, shutting off everything when am with them, Just being around my family very important to them. I have been very blessed to have both my parents alive. But I had lost people along the way. I know the Importance of making the best use of today; enjoy the small things, and things that I don’t see quite meaningful.
