Private entrepreneurs, philanthropists urged to provide fund for education sector to thrive in Nigeria
By Akintunde Jacobs, Akure
Private entrepreneurs and philanthropists have been called upon to come in towards raising the standard of private education up by providing fund, for it to thrive, noting that “money is very essential in driving education.”
The proprietress of the Mummy’s Place International Nursery and Primary School, a private school based in Akure, the Ondo State capital, Dr Damilola Oshin, made the call on Thursday in Akure at the official reception of Ondo State’s awardees at the 2022 President’s Teachers and Schools Excellence Award, in commemoration of world teachers’ day celebration.
Recall that the school had emerged as the overall best private school in the country, while the school was presented a 15-seater bus in recognition of its exemplary attainment by the Federal Ministry of Education.
According to her, “Education is everybody’s responsibility, we have children in school today who mostly are not even interested in learning because they have been distracted online through all these tik tok celebrities, so they want to be a celebrity all of a sudden and they are not ready to study. The celebrities also, in one way or the other encourage this, which is really distracting the students. So, we parents, teachers, schools, the government, private entrepreneurs and philanthropists have a part to play.”
Dr. Oshin, therefore said, in order to move the education sector forward in Nigeria, all hands must be on deck.
“We should raise the moral standard of the children, while the government should try as much as possible to keep the support on. We know we have dwindling resources and that’s where the private schools comes in, rich people, philanthropists should come in and help to lift the standard of education up by providing money because money is essential in driving education,” she said.
While presenting the award to the State Government, Dr. Oshin thanked the State Government for being there for the school by providing an enabling environment for the school to thrive.
“The government provided an enabling environment for education to thrive. It all seems as if education is one of the primary goals of the government of the state. They support us with workshops, seminar, teacher’s training as well as coming to us to ensure that we do what we should do. They come all the time to monitor and that goes a long way in maintaining the standard.”
She added that the award was a challenge to spur on, to be focused and be authentic saying “we will keep forging on, we will keep breaking through the barriers and we won’t relent in our works.”
Also speaking at the event, the Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Pastor Femi Agagu, congratulated the proprietress of the school on the great achievement, adding that the school had made the state proud which is worth of celebration.
Agagu, therefore, urged the school not to relent in its efforts towards making academic excellence, saying that the Ondo State students have been doing well in national competitions over the years.
