No fewer than 3,992 indigent students from SouthWest Nigeria benefited from a scholarship scheme of Scholarship Aids Initiatives.
The Initiative, a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) gave the scholarship awards to the students at the year 2020 Stakeholders’ Forum and Presentation of Awards, held in Abeokuta, the Ogun state capital.
About 8,034 students applied for the 2020 Scholarship scheme.
The African Regional President of the Initiative, Dr. Oluwatosin Adebayo in his welcome address noted that the Initiative is committed to creating opportunities for the less privileged to have access to quality education.
The theme of the event was, “COVID-19: The Effect On Nigeria Educational System”.
He said, the Initiative would pay 75 percent of the tuition fees of the beneficiaries while their parents pay the remaining 25 percent.
Adebayo disclosed that the Initiative is planning a tuition-free private university to accommodate indigent students with exceptional academic records.
He accused the government of not being serious with education, saying “It is saddened that the government doesn’t want the youths to be educated, the government is trying to discourage students from going to school that is why we are having all this crisis in the education sector.
“The mission of this organisation as a Non-Governmental Organisation is to make education become easy for the less privileged ones in the society by assisting students towards their career.
“Many brilliant and intelligent children are on the street today hawking, some are into some illegal activities due to financial crisis”, Adebayo said.
The National Programme Coordinator, Initiative Dr. Oluwafunmilola R Oluwatosin while speaking on the theme of the event said, COVID-19 had adversely affected the educational system all over the world, but the developed countries of the world were able to face the challenge such that students learning was not affected.
Olutosin said the outbreak of COVID-19 did not seriously affect the education sector of developed countries because “they had long before now put in place e-learning which assisted them in coping with the effects of the pandemic.
“But in the case of Nigeria academic learning could not continue due to so many factors that are always referred to as ‘Nigerian factors’ such as poor electricity supply, poor network, inadequate internet facilities, financial problems and even high level of illiteracy”, she added.
She however commended schools that deployed the technology in teaching their students during the COVID-19 lockdown period.
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