Oladimeji Ramon

A charity, Oando Foundation, says its goal of re-enrolling and retaining 60,000 out-of-school children across the country in school by the end of 2018 is on course.

It said 33,639 out of that number had been achieved across 23 states in the country since it began the campaign in 2015.

The Head, Oando Foundation, Adekanla Adegoke, said the foundation was concerned that no fewer than 10.5 million Nigerian children were out of school.

She lamented that public schools, which were once the sole means of getting good education in the country, suffered continuous decline, forcing many to pay for private education.

“I always refer to the fact that if you look at anybody who is 35 and above, the person has most likely benefited from public education in Nigeria. I went to a public secondary school, I went to a public university, and the fees were reasonable, paying N60 or N90 for good education. But that’s not the situation now.   Why should a market woman or a taxi driver, who can’t really afford to pay for private education, have to? But they know that the kind of education they get from the public school is not the best; but there is also no choice.

“So, what Oando Plc has done is to say that regardless of where our assets are, regardless of what the communities ask for, the foundation’s focus should be education. We’ve said we are going to try to provide schools that are models to be able to advocate to government and international partners,” Adegoke said in an interview with journalists last week.

Also speaking, the Programme Coordinator, Oando Foundation, Tonia Uduimoh, said the foundation had designed a programme, ‘Adopt a School Initiative’,  which entails provision of infrastructure for adopted schools, training of teachers, establishment of ICT centres, granting of scholarships, among others.

She said under the scheme, the foundation had renovated 40 schools in nine states, established 33 ICT centres, trained 2,169 teachers, awarded 1,123 scholarships and provided teaching and learning materials to over 80,000 pupils in 74 schools.

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