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‘Oando Foundation committed to improving access to quality basic education’

By Ujunwa Atueyi
19 April 2018   |   3:12 am
Head, Oando Foundation, Adekanla Adegoke has restated the organisation’s commitment to creating a world-class learning environment in public primary schools across the country through its signature project, Adopt-A-School Initiative. Adegoke, who stated this during a media parley in Lagos, where the foundation x-rayed the many challenges confronting basic education in the country, particularly in the…

Head, Oando Foundation, Adekanla Adegoke has restated the organisation’s commitment to creating a world-class learning environment in public primary schools across the country through its signature project, Adopt-A-School Initiative.

Adegoke, who stated this during a media parley in Lagos, where the foundation x-rayed the many challenges confronting basic education in the country, particularly in the public setting, assured that the foundation is out to make a difference.

“Majority of Nigerian political leaders, captains of industries and other successful citizens are products of government-owned schools. They benefitted from public education with much excitement. But today all that has changed.”

According to Adegoke, the foundation from experiences has observed that decrepit infrastructure; inadequate water and sanitary facilities; overcrowded classrooms; out-of-school children scourge, lack of teacher capacity development; lack of modern learning facilities among other challenges were the menace of basic education in the country.

These, she explained are some of the issues the foundation is tackling through its intervention in adopted schools to achieve an educational system that will truly educate and empower the Nigerian child.

“From our findings, public primary schools in Nigeria are characterised by inadequate and obsolete infrastructure, equipment and library facilities. There is currently a shortfall of 1.1m classrooms nationwide. Lack of appropriate sanitation facilities are a huge deterrent to students in public primary schools. Severe shortages of classroom space result in class sizes that sometimes triple the prescribed teacher-pupil ratio for Nigeria of 1:40.

“Varying posts show that over 10.5million Nigerian children are out of school; and only two million of 22 million kids aged zero to five years in Nigeria have access to Early Childhood Care Education.

These are some of the issues that the Federal and State government as well as other concerned stakeholders should be worried about. On our part, we are offering a holistic model to improve the basic education sub-sector in the country,” she said.

On their strategic focus for 2018, Adegoke said, they will institute grant awards to Civil Society Organizations that align with the foundation’s strategic focus; consolidate joint programme intervention under Educate A Child (EAC) partnership and deepen programme quality; strengthen international partnerships, utilising evidence from our theory of change and programme outcomes.

Programme Coordinator, Tonia Uduimoh, said the organisation is leveraging on its resources, best practices and crosscutting solutions that have delivered similar results they aim to achieve.

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