AbdulRazaq: Developing Education System in Nigeria Expensive

•Presents scholarship awards to 12 best students in Kwara

Hammed Shittu in Ilorin

Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of Kwara State yesterday said the task of developing the education system in Nigeria was expensive and should be a collective business by stakeholders.

AbdulRazaq called on well-to-do individuals and foundations to support public school funding in the area of infrastructure or fund students who met certain criteria of exceptional brilliance and commitment to academic excellence.

The governor spoke in Ilorin yesterday during the presentation of scholarship awards to 12 outstanding students from public schools, who would have their secondary school studies fully bankrolled under the Kwara State Education Trust Fund (Kwara-ETF).

The lucky 12 winners of the scholarship were picked based on excellent performance at various screening stages conducted by Kwara-ETF.

The scholarship will cover expenses for their secondary school education.

AbdulRazaq said, “We urge members of the public to also donate and adopt students.

“Don’t just leave the responsibility to the government and the PTAs (Parents Teachers Associations). Educating our children is our collective responsibility.

“Education belongs to all of us. It is our business. But we have seen over the years that governments alone can’t fully fund education. We need to engage through other means.

“We have, therefore, gone through the education trust fund to fill in the gaps. What you have seen here today is a module where some students were selected through a very rigorous and transparent process to benefit from scholarship.”

While hailing the selection process, AbdulRazaq congratulated the winners, saying, “I am truly excited that these pupils are from humble backgrounds. They did not cut corners to make the list.

“They (winners) were chosen through a transparent process. This is just the beginning. We will keep tracking them to the university level.

“Our government will also donate more funds into this trust fund.”

Earlier, Executive Secretary for Kwara-ETF, Oluwadamilola Amolegbe, said the 12 pupils emerged from an initial shortlist of 640 pupils based on merit.

Amolegbe said, “We started the selection process by setting exams for all the Primary Six pupils, who were beneficiaries of the digital literacy programme of KwaraLEARN.

“And we got 640 top performing ones, out of whom we first selected 180 pupils.

“After sponsoring them for the NCEE exams (National Common Entrance Examination), we selected 20 per cent of them (36 pupils), who performed well.

“Then, we picked the top performers among them, from across the local government areas, and who also got admission into unity schools.”

Programme Manager of Kwara-ETF, Mrs. Zainab Abdulsalam, said they were committed to the vision of the scheme to build the future of the state through sustainable investments in quality education.

“These are our pupils, who, we believe, represent the face of an average Kwaran. They are here having this opportunity to get amazing exposure that leads to unlimited opportunities for them,” Abdulsalam said.

She added, “We intend to track them, monitor their performances, and make sure that at the end of the day all the investments that Kwara has made in education through KwaraLEARN, Kwara ETF and Ministry of Education are paying up in tangible ways that we can see, not just in numbers but by the success of the students.”

Maxwell Kolawole, one of the parents of the lucky pupils from Ekiti Local Government Area of the state, said the pick meant that the government had taken off his burden of paying the school fees and other expenses, commending AbdulRazaq for the gesture.

Kolawole lauded the selection process that he described as transparent and impressive.

“This is truly a pro-masses initiative, and we are grateful to the governor and his administration,” he said.