‘Poor Funding Limiting Educational Growth’ -Tosin Says.
Published Story of the BagSwap Event in PUNCH Newspaper: (click on the link to be directed to the page)
The
Founder and Coordinator, Resource Sharing Network, a non-governmental
organisation, Mrs. Tosin Olowoyeye-Tosin, has identified poor funding and
dearth of mentors as reasons for the increase in the number of kids
dropping out of school.
Olowoyeye-Tosin
also attributed the situation to poverty and the lack of purposeful direction
by both the private and public sector.
She
called on well-meaning individuals, philanthropists and corporate bodies to
invest more in the sector, saying it was the only way to reposition the sector
to meet the Millennium Development Goals.
Olowoyeye-Tosin
said this at the NGO’s recent visit to three schools namely African Church
Primary School, Meiran Community Primary School and Ikola Community Primary
School, all in Oke-Odo Local Government Area of Lagos State.
She
noted that the initiative was to impact on the lives of the school children,
especially those in the rural areas, in a way that they would see the school
environment as a place to be.
According
to Olowoyeye-Tosin, private sector intervention will boost children’s
enthusiasm in education.
She
said, “The NGO goes to the rural areas to identify mostly pupils that are
orphans and pupils, whose parents cannot afford the basic tools for their
education. Sadly, some of these children come to school without books and
sandals. The aim of our visit is not only to donate educational items, but also
boost their enthusiasm for education; we don’t want them to give up because we
know that is the only future they have.
“This
is not to say the government doesn’t give them these materials, but we are
complementing the government’s effort. We want to help these children build
their basic foundation for education. Since we started this initiative, we have
different phases like mentoring the pupils to know what their strong points
are. We also pay the bills of the children. We take them out of the
streets and put them in schools and we pay their fees.”
The
items donated by the group, in partnership with Myne White Company, included
school uniforms, textbooks, notebooks, sandals, bags, bibles,
furniture and writing materials.
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