A Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Scholarship Aids Initiative has appealed to the federal government to as a matter of policy increase funding to the education sector as a way of ameliorating the effect of Covid-19 on the sector.
It stated this at the Stakeholders Forum and Presentation of Award held Thursday at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL), Abeokuta saw participants from about six states of the federation.
The African Regional President of the NGO, Dr. Oluwatosin Adebayo in his address noted that there is need for the government to once again review the budget allocated to education, adding that the surge of Covid-19 has further expose the inadequacy inherent in the sector.
Dr. Adebayo further noted that the initiatives of the scholarship was to make sure less privileged children can further their education, stressing that the organisation is ready to pay the tuition of all successful candidates
“Many brilliant and intelligent children are on the street today hawking, some are into some illegal activities due to financial crisis.” He said
He added that no fewer than Three Thousand, Nine hundred and Ninety Two applicants of Scholarship Aids Initiatives has bag the organisation’s scholarship programme for the year 2020.
Also Speaking, the National Programme Coordinator of the Organisation, Dr. (Mrs) Oluwafunmilola Oluwatosin said Covid-19 has really affected the educational system all over the world, noting that the developed countries were able to face the challenges in such a way that students learning was not affected.
She however hinted that in the case of Nigeria, academic learning could not continue due to poor electricity supply, inadequate and poor internet facilities, financial problem and high level of illiteracy.
“Digital learning therefore became the new normal in their educational system. Unfortunately in our case, Nigeria academic learning could not continue due to so many factors that we always refer to as ‘Nigeria Factor'”, she stressed
She however give kudos to some private schools who were able to adopt the new normal learning, noting that such feat was not easy despite the challenges.
“They were able to shift learning from the four walls of the classroom to digital world
“In spite of these challenges, our students’ academic work never stopped” she said
