UAC Restates Commitment to Quality Education in Public Schools

By Uchechukwu Nnaike

The Executive Director, Corporate Services, UAC of Nigeria PLC, Mr. Joe Dada, has reiterated the company’s continued resolve to tackle the declining quality of education in the country.
Dada, who made this known at the closing ceremony of the 2016 free weekend classes organised as part of UAC Goodness League initiative for students in Lagos State, said “since 2008, our company has been “doing good”- in line with UAC’s corporate tagline- and leading from the front in the grand march to stem the tide of increasing deterioration of educational infrastructure and programmes in our country.”
He called on other Nigerians, “especially with the right structures and institutions, to join the march towards lifting the country out of the mire of backwardness and underdevelopment, which the deterioration in the education sector portends especially among our youths.”

Also speaking, the Tutor-General/Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Education District I, Dr. Olufolayimika Ayandele, commended the company for bringing the free weekend classes to the district this year.
She said 300 students were coached under the scheme, adding that the impact of the knowledge that the students received would make them better and productive citizens in future.
She pointed out that as the largest education district in the state, having a student population of 130,000 and workforce of 5,000, UAC through the scheme made contact with about 7,500 students.

Ayandele urged the company to continue its focus on the district so that the number of students that would benefit from the scheme would rise to 1,000.
She promised that the district would continue to partner corporate organisations like UAC to introduce new schemes that would appeal to the intrinsic values of the students so as to make learning more interesting.
She said because the free weekend classes took place in the district this year, 90 teachers who had been tasked with the responsibility of coaching students during the holidays had the opportunity to rest.
The UAC Goodness League free weekend classes for senior secondary three (SS3) students in Lagos, which was extended to Government Senior College, Agege and ran for six weekends, recorded an impressive turnout of students as over 30 schools in the district registered for the scheme.

The programme has been successfully executed for nine consecutive years by UAC with classes holding at various times in both Gbagada and Ajegunle Centres of Lagos State.
UAC in realising the goals of the Goodness League adopted both the hard and soft issues. While the hard issues focus on the provision of equipment and infrastructural development, the soft issues involve active engagement in the teaching and instruction of students through a volunteer scheme.

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