Prof Adetokunbo Sofoluwe, VC UNILAG and Mr. Denis Okoro, Director MTN Foundation presenting a scholarship certificate to a recipient at UNILAG

By Dayo Adesulu
As part of efforts to reinforce the importance of education, 1Goal initiative was launched to help rally support for the education of about 75 million students who are out of school. The initiative basically, has three objectives.

One, to make government give more aid to education, secondly, to ensure that there is greater investment in teachers, textbooks and schools especially in developing countries. Thirdly, to reach out to people in developing nations and make them see the importance of formal education.

It is natural for those who cannot afford the luxury of sending their wards to private schools to expect a qualitative education for their wards in public schools. Some schools still exist both at the primary and secondary levels, where students sit on the floor to take lessons.”

The above assertion emanated from MTN Foundation Director and Corporate Services Executive of MTN Nigeria, Mr. Wale Goodluck when unfolding the organisation’s social assistance projects for schools. According to him, action began when one of Nigeria’s leading newspapers had a lead story showing students of Millennium Senior Secondary School, Egbeda, Lagos, sitting on the bare floor for lectures.

Luckily for the school, says Goodluck, MTN Foundation saw the report in the newspaper and decided to come to the aid of the school adding that the MTN Foundation has an education portfolio which seeks to improve the standard of education from primary, up to the tertiary institutions, stressing that under this portfolio is the “Learning Facilities Supply Project” which was created to support schools with critical needs.

To this end, he noted that the Millennium Senior Secondary School received a total of 250 desks and benches to ameliorate the sitting problem in the school.

Another beneficiary school of this project, he hinted, was Community Junior Secondary School,  Akowonjo in Lagos State. He declared that due to the school’s dilapidated facilities, it was relocated to the premises of Millennium Secondary School.

He affirmed that the gesture was not only limited to Lagos State but  extended to Community Comprehensive High School, Ikaram-Akoko in Ondo State and St Dominic Secondary School Isiala Mbanu in Imo State.

Another project under the education portfolio of the Foundation is SchoolsConnect project. The project according to the Director, provides both public primary and secondary schools with digital laboratories which enhances the teaching and learning in the schools as the labs donated to the beneficiary schools have networked computers which serve as electronic reservoir of books from various sources on every subject taught.

Explaining it importance, he reiterated that this easy access to information has helped the schools to modify their teaching curriculum to meet international standards. “The project also affords the students an enabling environment to adopt ICT skills.” he said.

In order to maximize the benefits of the equipment, Goodluck stated that the teachers of the beneficiary schools are trained in the use of these facilities to enable them access them and in turn transfer the knowledge gained to other teachers who will in turn transfer these skills to students saying that thousands of teachers have gone through this train-the-trainer aspect of the SchoolsConnect.

The project, he noted, is currently in its fourth phase and has been extended to physically-challenged institutions with Demonstration School for the Deaf, Kaduna becoming the first recipient of the project in this category. “Over 100,000 students and 5,000 teachers have benefitted from this germane project, he maintained.”

The replica of this project according to Goodluck, is the UniversitiesConnect project pointing out that the project is currently operational in three universities, while the fourth is under construction stressing that the project was initiated partly due to the inadequate provision of relevant books for course of study in libraries for students by university authorities.

With these libraries in place, he insisted that students can access applicable information that can aid them in their course work or assignments and thesis which is a prerequisite for graduation. “The digital libraries were also established to enable lecturers to update their knowledge on the courses which they teach their students, he added”

Speaking on  VSAT connectivity and other accessories in the digital library, Goodlucksaid further that the foundation also takes the pain to organize workshops every new session to acquaint new students with the use of the library as old students and lecturers who may not have used the library in the past, are also taught how to use the facility.

Due to the inability of parents to provide basic educational materials to their wards in schools, the Director declared that the Foundation has introduced another project tagged “Learning Support Material Initiative.” where indigent pupils and students are given books, pencils, pens, school bags and raincoat to mention but a few, as the schools receive books for their libraries, journals and assistance during inter-house sports competitions.

His words: “MTN Foundation has also commenced awards of scholarship to indigent science and technology students in federal tertiary institutions. The benefits of the scholarship are of two folds. Firstly, it would assist the beneficiaries in completing their education since the scholarship will run till they graduate provided they are able to maintain a grade point average of 3.5.

Secondly, it would encourage students to specialize in the sciences which have been linked to economic growth and development of any country. Public education requires absolute attention from every stakeholder in the country.”