Education
Source: This Day
The Emoeferotu Foundation, a non-governmental organisation dedicated to fostering the well-being of children across Nigeria's rural communities, has disclosed that around 10 per cent of young Nigerian girls that are enrolled into primary one classes eventually transit to secondary schools.
The organisation also explained that poverty, inherent cultures of early marriage, economic limitations and parental apathy have mostly contributed in sustaining the development, which it described as a societal anomaly.
President of the foundation, Pam Esiri, disclosed recently in Abuja at its sixth anniversary and logo launch that the situation is equally not different for boy's enrolment into secondary schools, adding that the quality of education and depth of knowledge offered to the average Nigerian child has continued to diminish.
Following these anomalies, Esiri stated that the foundation has embarked on an ambitious process of raising about N120 million in its "children refinery fund" with which it will utilise in setting up structures that include a grooming centre, vocational laboratories and scholarship grants for the restoration of the Nigerian child.
Esiri explained that the fund will, among other objectives, be deployed by the foundation in the provision of education-based programmes for disadvantaged and displaced children, provision of after-school support schemes to foster opportunities for personal growth and completion of post-primary education amongst affected children.
"The foundation is geared towards ensuring that it caters for the unmet needs of children in rural communities in Nigeria by creating the children refinery fund; we hope to create after-school education and grooming centres for disadvantaged children with this fund.
"Today, it is sad to note that only 10 per cent of girls that enrol in primary one transit to secondary schools. Some of the main reasons for this are poverty, culture of early marriage, economic and apathy of parents. The story is not too different for boys when you look at the quality and depth of knowledge acquired from school," she said.
Making a case for improved societal interests in providing conducive environment for Nigerian children to grow in, Esiri stated: "The private sector can only do so much; they have to make returns on investment to shareholders and re-invest for business growth but partnership in which ordinary citizens pay back to the society, harness individual concerns, ingenuity and talent with that of government and private sector is a win-win situation for our country."
"It is in this light that I will call for your most generous donations to give our children from poor rural families another vista of life; we should give them hope and a chance of life so that they can realise their potentials and develop their talents because we will be repaying back to the debts owed our society by helping our children," she added.