By Gabriel Ewepu

AS education remains key in all ramifications of national development, students of primary, secondary and tertiary levels including educators, have benefited from Tongston Holdings’ N1.7 million worth of prizes, to boost their educational pursuit.

This was made known by the Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Tongston Entrepreneurship Holdings (Tongston), Engr. Bello Mohammed Tongoat the ‘1st North- East Festival of Literature, Culture and Creativity’ held at the Gombe State University, which was convened by Halima Factor Community Initiative from November 16-18, 2021.

The cash prizes, business and career advisory sessions, vouchers and educational materials to were given to winners of the prose, poetry and drawing categories The event featured lectures, literary and entrepreneurship workshops, exhibitions, cultural night and 3 competitions in the Prose, Poetry and Drawing category at each of the primary, secondary and tertiary level.

Meanwhile, students and educators across primary, secondary and tertiary level were represented from the five participating States of the North-Eastern region of the country.

The competition was also attended by the Governor of Gombe State Governor, Inuwa Yahaya who represented by the Gombe State Commissioner for Higher Education, Meshack Audu Lauco; Deputy Governor of Gombe State, Manasseh Daniel Jatau; Gombe State Commissioner for Youth and Sports; the representative of the Vice Chancellor of Gombe State University; the representative of the Director General of the Voice of Nigeria; and the representative of the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC.

Each of the three young people at tertiary level won cash prizes of N50,000 respectively, and the career and business advisory worth hundreds of thousands of Naira courtesy of Tongston.

Each of the six educators representing the winning primary and secondary schools won cash prizes of N30,000 courtesy of Tongston and secured vouchers for Tongston’s Introductory Entrepreneurial Educators’ Course (TIEEC) worth hundreds of thousands of Naira.

However, in his speech, the CEO spoke on the need for entrepreneurial education for sustainable socio-economic development.

Also there other lectures delivered at the event including literary and entrepreneurship workshops, exhibitions, cultural night and three competitions in the Prose, Poetry and Drawing category at each of the primary, secondary and tertiary level.

He said: “The North-East that has been the hardest hit region in Nigeria, with high levels of insecurity and poverty.

“The North-East also records the highest illiteracy rates in Nigeria. The lowest being 31.9 per cent for males, and 14.9 per cent for females both recorded in Yobe. States in the North-East have female primary net attendance rates of 47.7 per cent.

“The education deprivation in Northern Nigeria is driven by various factors, including economic barriers and socio-cultural norms and practices that discourage attendance in formal education, especially for girls.

“Therefore, the North-East Literacy Festival marks an important first step in re-invigorating the literacy levels in the region. The core objective of the Festival was aligned with Tongston’s core values of personal, economic, socio-cultural and sustainable development.

“Indeed, Tongston’s core proposition is premised on chronic unemployment, underemployment and unemployability amongst youth with basic/tertiary education, driven largely by the nature of the education system not preparing youth for the world of work, business or government.

“The focus is on building entrepreneurial thinking abilities whilst integrating media, finance and business to produce intrapreneurs and entrepreneurs that can drive sustainable socio-economic development in our nation and continent.”

It was on this premise that Tongston pledged its support in cash and in-kind prizes worth N300,000 to the students. As part of the Tongston’s service offerings, and the centrality of the sustainable development goals as one of its core values, led by Tongston boss, which provided free career and business advisory services to three tertiary students and winners of the various categories at the Festival.

The students represent three tertiary institutions including the Gombe State University, Adamawa State University and Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University. The students also received cash prizes of N50,000 each.

In addition, over N1.3 million worth of prizes comprised of N150,000 worth of cash prizes and vouchers to six educators from the representing winning educational institutions across the six categories at primary and secondary levels, to access Tongston’s maiden first of its kind Introductory Entrepreneurial Educators Course (TIEEC).
However, he said, “TIEEC is Tongston’s unique opportunity for the select educators to explore the concept of education, the entrepreneurial mindset, and the development of the key competencies required to embark on the journey to become Entrepreneurial Educators and the need for Entrepreneurial Education for personal, cultural, socio-economic and sustainable development. Tongston continues to deploy the TIEEC to educators and school leaders who are keen on revolutionizing their approach to education and learning.

“It will be recalled early in the year, the Federal Government through the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria, TRCN, announced that over 50 per cent of Nigerian teachers are not qualified in primary and secondary school nationwide.

“This is as against the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) revealing a deficit of 277,537 teachers in the country. This shows a wide deficit in teachers’ capacity in the country and importantly the need to intensify efforts at improving the quality of educators.

“It is therefore important to focus dogged efforts to up-skill our educators as the drivers of the future leaders of our nation and continent”, he added.