With the purchase of first aid boxes for its 1,016 primary schools, the Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board (LASUBEB) has taken school safety to a new level.

Health officials, on the other hand, believe it should go a step further by training teachers and others in the school environment to put them to good use – something Mrs. Sherifat Adedoyin, the permanent board member in charge of co-curricular activities, supports.

Iodine, glucose, paracetamol, hand sanitizers, hand gloves, moko lubrication, and other items were among the items in the boxes, according to her.

SUBEB Chairman, Mr. Wahab Alawiye-King, who was represented by board member in charge of Quality Assurance, Dayo Israel, praised Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu for authorizing the project at the presentation/distribution of the boxes to the schools last Thursday in Lagos.

“The chairman followed the approval of the project with his excellence because of the significance of equipping our schools with first aid boxes.  With this significant activity, we will see that our children are going to receive healthcare in school. The chairman would like to appreciate the education secretaries and head teachers and hopes that the boxes would be well utilized,” he said.

Bakare Adebayo, the desk officer in charge of health at Agege LGEA, complimented the board for the initiative, stating that the first aid boxes will make the schools safer and more equipped to handle injuries among students, particularly during sporting activities.

“I would say an appreciation to the governor to start with because he has shown concern for safety. The pupils are up and doing; they engage in sporting activities so there is no how they can afford not to experience injuries when they play around in the school. So there is a very good reason for us to have a well-equipped first aid box to cushion the effect of injuries before the arrival of medical personnel,” he said.

I’ll beg SUBEB to train the chief officers in first aid, and after that, we’ll hand it to our health teachers. We’re now going to teach them how to use first aid. It’s important to know when to use spirit, iodine, and other things like that because if they don’t get trained, they may not know what to do and may end up with expired drugs.

Mojisola Ajayi, the Desk Officer in Charge of Health at the Oshodi/Isolo Local Government Education Authority (LGEA), said that training for desk officers and school-based health officers is required so that they can learn how to respond to emergencies.

“I would implore SUBEB to train the health officers how to use the first aid and after training, we would train school health officers how to use first aid. It is necessary you know the times to apply spirit, iodine and some other things.  If they are not trained, they may not know the way it is and may most likely have expired drugs,” she said.

Mrs. Adedoyin said LASUBEB would monitor all schools and restock the supplies on a regular basis in order to keep the boxes well-used and maintained.

“We monitor schools from time to time and one of the things we will demand to see is the first aid box. We will open and check all the items there; and then we do replacement. When necessary, we will also check for expired items.  All the ones you see here the one that will expire so soon is 2023,” she said.

She went on to say that the health officials will be trained soon.

“We train them from time to time. We train all our health officers and we are organizing another one very soon to teach them and educate them on the proper use of these items,” she said.

Source: The Nations.