Lagos lawmaker distributes free educational materials to Kosofe pupils
By Oluwatope Lawanson
Lagos lawmaker, Hon. Sanni Okanlawon distributing education materials to Kosofe pupils on Tuesday
A lawmaker, Mr Sanni Okanlawon, representing Kosofe Constituency 1 in the Lagos State House of Assembly, on Tuesday distributed free educational materials to no fewer than 1, 000 pupils in public primary schools in his constituency to enhance learning.
Okanlawon, also the Chairman, House Committee on Primary and Secondary Education, made the donation to seven primary schools.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that pupils from Oworoshoki Primary School, Muslim Mission Nursery and Primary School and Mosafejo Nursery and Primary School were some of the beneficiaries.
Other beneficiaries were from : Aiyeroju Primary School, Local Government Primary School in Oworoshoki, Oke-Ifako Nursery and Primary School and Ifako Nursery and Primary School, Gbagada, Kosofe.
The materials include: exercise books and text books.
Okanlawon noted that in 2020, he constituted a seven-man committee headed by Moyosore Ogunlewe, an APC chieftain, which came up with recommendations that itemised challenges bedeviling education in the constituency.
“I have to start implementing the recommendations of the committee one after the other ; and one of them is the need for us to support our children, both in primary and secondary schools.
“There is also the need for us to offer our shoulder of assistance for the needy to lean upon.
” That is what we have commenced today with the primary schools pupils. By the grace of God, in a few weeks, we shall move to the secondary schools.
”We have just started with seven schools today and in the next few weeks or month, we would have covered all the schools in this constituency.
“We are doing a lot of things in the area of education. At present, we have a bus that plies between Maryland and Ojota, that helps to transport pupils and students in the area,” he said.
Okanlawon promised to inaugurate computer laboratories in some selected primary schools, which had already been set up in the constituency.
The lawmaker said that the idea was to make the pupils become ICT compliant because the world had gone digital.
“And at the cradle level, they must be getting acquainted with the nitty-gritty of digitalisation,” he said.
He also said that he would be offering scholarships to students from his constituent who are in tertiary institutions by the end of October.
“This scholarship will take care of their wellbeing, their books, and tuition fees while in schools.
“This will go a long way to assuage the pains of parents an guardians paying tuition fees and taking care of their children and wards while in school.
“I am doing this personally because government cannot do it all, it needs the concerted efforts of people like us as well as other philanthropists.
“Nigeria of our dream is achievable if we can contribute our quota to her development,” he said.
Also speaking, Mr Babatunde Soneye, the Education Secretary, Kosofe Education Local Authority, lauded the lawmaker for his kind gesture to the pupils in the council.
Soneye noted that the gesture would go a long way in facilitating learning among the pupils in their classes.
He noted that most of the parents were poor and believed that government had to provide everything that their children needed in the school.
Mrs Ifeoma Okeke, the School Manager, Muslim Mission Nursery and Primary School, Oworoshoki in Kosofe LG, urged other well-meaning Nigerians to assist pupils in public schools with educational materials.
“I feel excited about this gesture because most of these parents cannot afford a single exercise book for their wards.
“By this gesture, the pupils will be able to write and be on the same learning page with their colleagues.”
She commended also the lawmaker for donating money to pupils whose uniforms looked tattered to buy new ones.
Okeke, however, identified inadequate classrooms as responsible for the over populated ones.
She said: “The school does not have enough classrooms and when the environment is not conducive enough, the pupils will not feel comfortable to assimilate what their teachers are teaching them.
“For example, pupils in classes A and B are merged together in a class which should not be. We can only appeal to the authorities to provide more blocks of classrooms.”
Mrs Nwamaka, the Head Teacher, Mosafejo Nursery and Primary School, Oworoshoki, commended the lawmaker for disturbing the writing materials to the pupils personally.
Nwamaka said that the teachers and the pupils were overwhelmed at the kind gesture by the lawmaker.
(NAN)
