The Lagos State government on Tuesday affirmed that the environmental change the state needs must begin in all the schools across the state.
This affirmation was made by the Permanent Secretary, Office of Environmental Services, Dr. Omobolaji Gaji, during the year 2025 Annual Environmental Bees Club, EBC, Handlers’ Symposium held at the LCCI Conference Centre, Alausa, Ikeja.
He added that the change could be achieved in the way the young people think, act and dream about the environment.
The Permanent Secretary who was represented by the Director Environmental Education Unit, Mrs Monsurat Banire, said the gathering was not a routine exercise but a strategic investment in the future of Lagos.
He described the vision behind the Environmental Bees Club as not just an ornament but a framework.
He added that it was a framework where students encountered the environment not as an abstract subject but as a daily practice of responsibility innovation and leadership, stressing that the role of teachers there was not incidental but were the pivot around which the framework spinned.
According to him, the theme of this year’s symposium, “Trash to Treasure: Transforming Waste into Resourceful Opportunities in Schools,” was more than a slogan. It embodies a profound truth that is within the very problems we face lie in the seeds of our solutions.
He explained that the compost heaps can become gardens, Upcycled waste can spark enterprise and what the children learn about resourcefulness today can grow into industries as well as livelihoods tomorrow.
He said the sub-themes for the practical engagement which included composting, recycling, upcycling, and creative reuse were practical skills for economic empowerment which teachers were expected to cascade the knowledge to the youths.
He said Lagos was a city which housed over twenty million residents alive with growth and energy, yet burdened by the realities of rapid urbanisation, rising waste streams as well as the climate pressures of a coastal megacity.
Gaji said the Ministry’s commitment was clear and stated that environmental education must not remain at the margin but was central to building a Lagos that thrived amidst growth and change.
He added that the effectiveness of the vision also depended on the handlers who breathed life into the EBC across classrooms and clubs at both public and private schools across the State.
He urged the handlers not to think of themselves only as teachers but as co-architects and drivers of sustainable lifestyles.
He added that every project they led, every lesson they improvised and every idea ignited in the students formed a building block towards greener initiatives and lifestyles.
“Let us leave this symposium well informed, inspired, ready to transform challenges into opportunities, and opportunities into lasting change.
“Together, let us build a generation of Lagosians who see waste not as an end, but as the beginning of possibilities,” he said.
Earlier in the welcome address, a director in the Sanitation Department, Mr Ramon Fagbolade, noted that the Environmental Bees Club was not just another extracurricular activity but the government’s living classroom for environmental literacy.
He added that it was a platform where knowledge was turned into habits, and habits into lifelong values saying the effort rested squarely on the handlers’ shoulders because they were not only supervisors of clubs but “you are torch bearers of behavioural change in your schools.”
He stressed that the excursion on the second day was not a mere outing but meant to anchor their teaching in the reality of Lagos saying a city where the challenge of waste was also the seed of opportunity.
The Guest Lecturer, Mrs Temitope Okunnu, of FABE International who spoke on “composting as a tool for food sustainability” said everyone must work together to ensure a sustainable environment.
She thereafter trained Club Handlers on ways to generate composite from food waste.
Participants at the training workshop include teachers from public and private school in Lagos State.
