The Kwara State Education Trust Fund (Kwara-ETF) is off to a flying start!
Kwara-ETF on Wednesday awarded its first scholarships to 12 outstanding pupils from public schools and the beneficiaries will have their secondary school studies fully bankrolled under the Fund.
‘The development brought immeasurable joy to Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, who saw it as a dream come true for him and the people — barely two years after the Fund took off.
Established via a 2021 legislation to run under a trustee drawn majorly from the private sector and community concerns, the Education Trust Fund has attracted considerable support from philanthropists and other bodies’ a Government House, Ilorin statement said on Wednesday.
Mr Rafiu Ajakaye, who is the governor’s Chief Press Secretary, noted in a statement made available to Team@orientactualmags.com that Abdulrazaq while giving his speech during the short orientation programme held for the inaugural beneficiaries who met the thresholds, said the task of developing the education system in the country is expensive and should be a collective business.
He urged well-to-do individuals and foundations to support public school funding in the area of infrastructure or fund students who meet certain criteria of exceptional brilliance and commitment to academic excellence.
The statement noted that the lucky 12 were picked based on ‘excellent performance’ during the stages of the screening exercise conducted by the Kwara ETF while the scholarship will cover their ‘education cost’ .
‘We urge members of the public to also donate and adopt students. Don’t just leave the responsibility to the government and the PTAs (Parents Teachers Associations). Educating our children is our collective responsibility.
Education belongs to all of us. It is our business. But we have seen over the years that governments alone can’t fully fund education. We need to engage through other means.
We have, therefore, gone through the education trust fund to fill in the gaps. What you have seen here today is a module where some students were selected through a very rigorous and transparent process to benefit from scholarship’ he said.
Governor AbdulRazaq also hailed the selection process and congratulated the winners.
‘I am truly excited that these pupils are from humble backgrounds. They did not cut corners to make the list. They were chosen through a transparent process. This is just the beginning. We will keep tracking them to the university level.
Our government will also donate more funds to this Trust Fund’ he added.
Executive Secretary , Kwara ETF, Oluwadamilola Amolegbe, said the 12 pupils emerged from the initial shortlist of 640 pupils based on merit.
‘We started the selection process by setting exams for all the primary six pupils who were beneficiaries of the digital literacy programme of KwaraLEARN and we got 640 top performing ones, out of who we first selected 180 pupils.
After sponsoring them for the NCEE exams (National Common Entrance Examination), we selected twenty per cent of them (36 pupils) who performed well. Then, we picked the top performers among them, cutting from across the local government areas, and who also got admission to unity school’ she said.
Also speaking, Zainab Abdulsalam, the programme manager said they are committed to building the future of the state through sustainable investments in quality education in line with the vision of Kwara ETF.
‘These are our pupils, who, we believe, represent the face of an average Kwaran. They are here having this opportunity to get amazing exposure that leads to unlimited opportunities for them.
We intend to track them, monitor their performances, and make sure that at the end of the day all the investments that Kwara has made in education through KwaraLEARN, Kwara ETF and Ministry of Education are paying up in tangible ways that we can see, not just in numbers but by the success of the students’ she added.
Maxwell Kolawole, one of the parents of the lucky pupils from Ekiti Local Government, said the pick means that the government has taken off his burden of paying the school fees and other expenses, commending Governor AbdulRazaq for the kind gesture.
He also lauded the selection process which he described as transparent and impressive.
‘This is truly a pro-masses initiative, and we are grateful to the governor and his administration’ he added-Team@orientactualmags.com Do you have any information you wish to share with us? Do you want us to cover your event or programme? Kindly send SMS to 08035023079, 08059100286, 09094171980 or get in touch via orientactualmag@gmail.com. Thank you
