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Giving 45,000 Nigerian Children Quality Education via OPM Free Schools

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By Emmanuel Afonne, (NAN)

For the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), achieving the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 on education and training modalities by 2030, will be a herculean task in Nigeria.

According to the two UN organisations, one in every five of the world’s out-of-school children is in Nigeria, while about 10.

5 million of the country’s children aged 5-14 years are not in school even though primary education is officially free and compulsory.

In the same vein, infographics from Lauretta Onochie, Social Media Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari, however, said that the number had dropped from 10.

5 million to 8.6 million.

Whatever be the case, statistics show that only 61 percent of six to 11-year-olds regularly attend primary school and only 35.6 percent of children aged 36-59 months receive early childhood education which, they said, was the major reason the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of achieving Universal Primary Education (UPE) by 2015 failed.

To narrow it down, states in the North-East and North-West are the worst hit with female primary net attendance rates of 47.7 percent and 47.3 percent, respectively, meaning that more than half of the girls are not in school.

The cause of education deprivation in northern Nigeria and some parts of the South is, however, not far-fetched.

The Boko Haram attacks and the mayhem unleashed by bandits and killer herdsmen on most of the Nigerian communities have made lots of children drop out of school and thereby putting a snag in government efforts to achieve the SDG 4 by 2030.

Economic barriers and socio-cultural norms and practices are also stumbling blocks to acquiring formal education, especially for girls, and by extension the UN development goals.

Interestingly, the General overseer of Omega Power Ministries (OPM), and the President of OPM Foundation, Apostle Dr Chibuzor Gift Chinyere, have set “Operation Get 45,000 Children Back to School”.

The operation is aimed at ensuring that children of the less privileged from Northern and Southern parts of the country have access to free and complete quality education, within a safe learning environment.

This explains why Apostle Chinyere has built eleven free primary and secondary schools with the state-of-the-art facilities and the pupils and students given four pairs of free school uniform, free school shoes and free school books.

The schools are presently located in Rivers, Bayelsa and Abia.

The students and pupils are also given beverages (Milk and Milo) on regular occasion to compliment the schools free feeding programme.

He said: “Just like the United Nations is advocating, our programme ensures that education is prioritised and that it is targeted at children who are least likely to receive it.

“Our free schools are fully funded through the offerings and tithes received from our members in over 150 branches of the church within and outside the country.

“We want to assist the Federal Government in actualising the SDG by 2030 to make sure all the children have access and quality education, skills and knowledge for lifelong learning,” Apostle Chinyere said.

Seeing the less privileged parents squeeze out their hard earned little money to send their wards to school in spite government’s perceived free education unsettles.

Another free school is presently being constructed in Kaduna to ensure the less privileged in the Northern part of the country are not left out as Nigeria march towards achieving the SDG 4 by 2030.

Apostle Chinyere is taking the gesture to the next level; apart from establishing free primary and secondary schools, the man of God is constructing an all-girls’ free technical college which, he said, would be completed by December this year.

There is no doubt that the federal and state governments have made frantic efforts to ensure that there is free education from primary to junior secondary schools across the nation, but there is still a snag as parents still pay about N2,000 to get their wards go to school every term.

For instance, in some schools parents are forced to pay between N500 and N1,000 for school charge, Parents Teachers Association (PTA) dues and data (usually for computing of results) every term to attend the so called free public schools of government, but it is interesting to note that the cost of attending the OPM free schools is absolutely free.

Apostle Chinyere is saying it to the high heavens that everything in the OPM schools is “absolutely free”.

“We have four sets of school uniforms, school sandals, free school books, free lunch and free school bags. The pupils also go on international excursion; like the last time, they were in Paris.”

This is the reason the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), honoured him with the “Icon of Free Education Award”.

Mr Robin Nwokocha, Chairman of NANS, Rivers chapter, who presented the award to Apostle Chinyere on behalf of the national president, said the award came as a result of his commitment to the education of the less privileged children.

Apostle Chibuzor, who appreciated NANS for the award said that apart from the free schools, the church had also given scholarships to five students studying in Canada. He said three others are due to join before the end of the year.

In his words: “We also have a scholarship programme where we send undergraduate students to Canada to study; another three are due to travel soon.

“We also have a local scholarship for undergraduates here in Nigeria because of this, NANS leadership decided to give me an award of Icon of Free Education in Nigeria.

“I thank God for them; this is the first time NANS is recognising my impact in education for the less privileged.”

Apostle Chinyere may be getting close to becoming an Ambassador of the UN going by his humanitarian activities.

The aim of UNICEF’s education programme is to support the government in achieving SDG 4 by 2030 through improved planning and by addressing some of the systemic barriers that hinder the implementation of an effective education strategy.

The OPM founder seems to be keying into this opportunity to the benefit of the Nigerian child. He would not want the opportunity of attaining the UN development goal on education by 2030 to elude Nigeria like the MDG.

He is seeking to collaborate with the Federal Government, UNESCO, UNICEF and other agencies for this objective to be realised.

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Education

FG to Develop Data on all Schools to Address Challenges in Education

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The Federal Government says it will sign a partnership contract with an ICT firm to generate data on all schools in Nigeria in order to tackle challenges in the sector.

The Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman disclosed this in Abuja on Monday at a two-day capacity building workshop for Desk Officers in the ministry, its Departments and Agencies.

Reports says the capacity building workshop focuses on the implementation, collation, harmonisation and reportage of ministerial deliverables.

“It is our plan that by end of this year or early next year, we will be signing a partnership contract with a firm that will be working with our IT people to generate data on all schools in Nigeria.

“This is because we need to know our teachers, and every single student, we need data to know the trend of learning, our school infrastructure.

“This exercise will enhance decision making and policy formulation as the data collected and collated will aid evidence based planning, measure implementation and progress and identify areas where improvement is required,’’  he said.

Mamman added that data would help to advise the state governments on the right policy to make that would affect the schools positively.

He charged heads of MDAs, desk officers and other participants to tailor their programmes, activities and projects towards the realisation of the deliverables.

“The uppermost focus of the Ministry in general is in the areas of ensuring generation of credible, timely and reliable education data at all levels; and promotion of skills development.

“It is also in the enhancement of skill development across the entire education landscape for innovative and employability education; teachers training and development; and reducing the number of out-of-school children in Nigeria.

“I believe if we get it right in education, everything else will fall in place.

“The doctors who man our hospitals, the nurses who delivers the vaccines, the engineering in charge of our construction works, everybody is the bye-product of our activities,’’ he said.

The minister commended the government of Kaduna state and the security organisations for helping in the release of the 287 abducted school children in the state.

The Senior Education Officer, Foreign Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO) , Ian Attfield, pledged to support government in actualising the deliverables and as well support in addressing learning crisis through continuing education financing.

It will be recalled that President Bola Tinubu in his Renewed Hope Agenda for the education sector signed a 23 Ministerial Deliverables and the 13 Pillars of the Education Sector Roadmap 2024-2027.

The deliverables are: strengthening research and innovation in education sector, reviewing the status of technical and vocational education board, strengthening the education management information system, among others .(NAN)

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Sen. Buba Pays UTME Fees for 350 Science Students in His Constituency

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Sen. Shehu Buba, representing Bauchi South at the Senate, has paid 2023/2024 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) fees for no fewer than 350 Science students in his constituency.

Mr Mohammed Dahiru, the Senator’s Programmes Supervisor, said in Bauchi on Monday, that in addition, all the beneficiaries will also be sponsored by the Senator in any university of their choice within the country.

Dahiru added that the Senator urged the beneficiaries to be more serious and read well in order to pass their exams.

Some students who are the beneficiaries of the gesture commended Sen. Buba for paying their fees.

They told newsmen in Bauchi, that the gesture had relieved their parents of the burden to pay for their UTME fees as they kept struggling to put food on their tables.

Jabir Khalid, one of the beneficiaries admitted that his parents couldn’t pay his examination fees because they had no money.

He extended his gratitude to the senator, adding that Buba also organised UTME lessons for them so that they could pass the examinations.  

“Sen. Buba came to my rescue and paid for me and many other students. And I shall be writing my exam on April 19,” he said.

Similarly, another beneficiary, Khadija Hassan, who was elated by the gesture, said her parents tried and paid for the first UTME she wrote but couldn’t raise money for this second one.

“I want to call on the senator to continue with his good deeds,” she said.

Also, Abubakar Ibrahim, commended  the senator for paying for their UTME fees in this difficult time when things are hard especially for the poor masses.

 “Some politicians don’t care about people’s education, not minding if you can afford to go to school or not.

“However, Senator Buba has shown us that he cares about our education to the extent of paying our UTME fees and I am among the lucky beneficiaries.”

“I also wrote the JAMB mock examination which I passed. The main examination will be held on the April 19,” he said. (NAN)

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Education is Dying in Nigeria, People no Longer Read Books – Arogbofa

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Basorun Seinde Arogbofa, a leader of the Yoruba Sociocultural Groups, Afenifere, says education is dying in the country because people no longer read to improve their knowledge.

Arogbofa said this on Saturday in Akure on the occasion of his 85th birthday and public presentation of his new book, “The Psychology of Growing Old: A Personal Experience for both Old and Young”.

The Afenifere stalwart, while addressing the people present at the event, noted that education would die without books.

Arogbofa observed that the book publishing industry was also dying, mentioning some of the renowned publishing companies that had gone into extinction.

“Education is dying.

I know we have modern technology like this and that, but we can’t begin all this without writing; without producing the books, and we are not producing. Where do we go?

“This is a challenge for us in education. And of course, without books, we can’t move ahead.

“I’m aware that some will write in their bedroom or publish in the kitchen, and nobody, no editor will know what they have written, and they will go in front of their house to start selling the books.

“The next thing is that we find them in the hands of our students. And that is where education is going,” he said.

Arogbofa appealed to the state government and all stakeholders to see how to revive the reading culture in the country.

Speaking at the event, Gov. Lucky Aiyedatiwa of Ondo State congratulated Arogbofa on the occasion of his 85th birthday.

Aiyedatiwa, represented by his Chief of Staff, Mr Segun Omojuwa, saluted Arogbofa’s courage, mental alertness and scholarly exposition which he said were visibly demonstrated in the new book.

The governor said the occasion was not just for the presentation another book by one of the most versatile authors, but for celebrating hard work, focus and resilience of an icon who had served the Yoruba nation and Nigeria.

“It gives me great honour to be present at this auspicious occasion of the public presentation of the latest book of our revered elder statesman, Basorun Seinde Arogbofa, OFR.

“Let me first of all congratulate baba on his 85th birthday anniversary. Four scores and five years are no mean feat. It has undoubtedly been by the benevolence of the Almighty.

“This is even more outstanding and commendable when one takes into consideration his age.

“Baba is an exemplary leader and elder, I admire for his forthrightness, honesty, truthfulness and for always standing for a just cause.

“We hope to continually tap from your knowledge and wealth of experience,” he said.

Also speaking on the sideline of the event, former Governor of Ondo State, Olusegun Mimiko, said government needed to do more in terms of social security for elderly.

“As part of social security plan, we must take care of our old ones, especially the healthcare, there must be a healthcare security mechanism to take care of our old ones,” he said.

A former Governor of Kano State, Ibrahim Shekarau, identified inadequate funding and population challenge as the bane of education in the country.

Shekarau said that the rate of population growth has outgrown the planning and funding of the available facilities.

“I and those before us, the maximum in a class was 30, 40. I remember in the 80s, my government decided to make maximum in a class 50, but today, we have 100,150,” he said.

Shekarau later said all these were not beyond what the government could still address.

Reports says that the book was reviewed by the Ondo State Commissioner for Justice and Attorney General, Kayode Ajulo, SAN.

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