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…Empower Schools With Writing Materials in Kogi
By Olatunde Odimayo.
In a bid to lighten the burdens of parents and take children off the street, a serving Corp member in Kogi State, Miss Oyebimpe Olofin has paid the school fees of 30 students and distributed over 180 books including other writing materials to some schools in Lokoja.
Some of the schools that benefited from the personal community development service project powered by Miss Olofin are Muslim Community secondary school Phase 1 Lokoja and Crowder Memorial College Lokoja. The project is undertaken under Omoloye Foundation as part of activities to mark this year children day celebration.
Miss Olofin, while presenting cash sums, school uniforms and other writing materials to some less privileged in these schools observed that every child is a star if we invest in them.
“It is important that as a good citizen of Nigeria, we should help make the child and parents’ dream come true by ensuring that they are in school and not on the street.
“While interacting with these children recently, I realized that some of them want to go to school, some cannot afford to be in school while they are still in school. Every child is a star in their own way, it all depends on what you invest in them, if you give them something good, they will give something good in return
“As I speak with you, if you move around you will see many children in Lokoja roaming around the streets, instead of being in school like their fellow play mate. I feel a child’s place is in the class room and not on the street during the school hour”, she said.
Miss Olofin stated that the gesture will no doubt encourage the students on the need to see education as the best way to achieve success in life, just as she called on relevant stakeholders to help in the campaign to move children off the street during school hours.
Meanwhile, the principal of Muslim Community Secondary School, Lokoja, Mr. Yakubu Aliyu Danladi, while lauding the initiative of the convener said some of problems in the society today, especially Lokoja the state capital is traceable to government lip service to education.
“Most of the children who are supposed to be in school are not in school because of many factors. Sincerely, if these issues are not nipped in the bud, things will get out of hand.
“It is already a problem because we have criminals all around. When you are at home you can’t sleep with your two eyes closed in the night, this is not far from this children not getting proper education.
“Like the project is tagged, ‘Every Child Is A Star’, if they are given a better environment to strive. Definitely if the government plays its part, the parents do their own, the school, teachers rise to the challenges, then the society will be better for it.
“Give the right environment for learning to take place, the schools are well equipped, the parents pay their own part, the teachers are well motivated to do their own job, definitely the society will be at peace.
“The government should make education number one, two and three top priorities if we must get it right in the society. Where education is being toyed with, definitely we are toying with the society of today, tomorrow and the future”, he said.
In her submissions, the Kogi state coordinator of the National Youth Service Corp (NYSC), Mrs Nwantarali Ngozi Doratti represented by Mrs Paul Susan described the gesture as timely adding that NYSC encourages community development service which is one of the cardinal point of the scheme.
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