By Ayo Onikoyi

Founder of i-Africa initiative, renowned educator, who also doubles as Executive Director, Standard Bearers Schools, Lekki, Modupe Adeyinka-Oni has called on education stakeholders to open up for increased collaborations in the quest to reduce illiteracy to a barest minimum in the country.

She said this at the i-Africa foundation trustees and award ceremony which held at the Yaba Local Council, Adekunke, Lagos, during the week. Highlights of the event was the award of scholarships to indigent students as well as award of certificates to deserving individuals. This maiden edition of the awards rewarded four pupils from two schools.

Founder of the i-Africa initiative, said the teaching of literacy in an engaging way which involves a multisensory programme will allow for inclusivity while reaching out expecially to indigent and underprivileged children.

She said the whole programme was crafted using the Finnish pedagogical style as model. She said Finland is the country with the least rate of illeteracy in the world. Thus, making it imperative for their models to be studied, domesticated and replicated in Nigeria and Africa as a whole.

When asked by our correspondent about the challenges she has had so far, the educationist said the challenges are societal and not really peculiar. She called on the Governments at all levels to do more in terms of investment and collaboration.

“I am a consultant to the Taraba State Government and we will be doing some things together in January. But I want to call on governments at the state and federal level to open up more schools for us in a collaborative manner.”

“Nigeria has some of the world’s highest number of illeterate and uneducated people. That is not only unsustainable but a recipe for disaster. This is the first edition of the awards but it doesn’t end there. We will be back next year. At the edulab, we are raising a generation of independent, confident and fast thinkers.”

“We instill in them the conviction to be Africans in a genuine way. We are not Europeans. We do not copy their styles. We want to raise a generation of authentic and confident African children. We are also in collabotation with some companies in Finland and we are domesticating maths and science for these children”, she said.

Four children from two schools got scholarships in forms of books, tuition and cash awards. Eighteen people also got certificates at the awards ceremony. Some of of the visibly elated awardees and their parents thanked i-Africa for the initiative and prayed for the continued existence of the initiative as well as the brains behind the programme.