11 Kwara secondary school students to benefit free university scholarship

Eleven secondary school students selected from rural communities in the 16 Local Government Areas of Kwara State will qualify for free full scholarships into public universities after two-week training programme on community development.

The scholarship programme, sponsored by the state government and the three Senators representing the state in the National Assembly, in collaboration with the Haashim Initiative for Community Advancement (HICA), was aimed at arresting rural-urban drift, among other objectives.

Speaking with journalists during the training programme at the International Vocational Technical and Entrepreneurship College (IVTEC), Ajase-Ipo, on Tuesday, the coordinator of the Countryside Emerging Leaders Fellowship (CELF), Lawal Olohungbebe, said the project also aimed at providing training for the young ones in three areas of self-development, community development, and entrepreneurship.

Olohungbebe said that a major challenge in most rural areas of the state is that young male secondary school leavers go to urban cities to engage in commercial motorcycle business (okada), while girls get pregnant among other social ills.

The coordinator, who said that the state is largely agrarian community, said that the project promised to move rural farmers from peasant to mechanised agriculture, towards improving agricultural activities in the state.

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He also said that the intervention, aimed at impacting on the agrarian sector of the state economy, in particular, would enable the young ones to also transfer knowledge gained and the impact such on people in their respective rural communities.

He said that the initiative, which has about 200 volunteers, would teach the participants on community extension services, repair of boreholes, modern agric practices and businesses, among other areas of agricultural entrepreneurship and governance.

Olohungbebe also said that the initiative, planned to be an annual event, “has the potential to make children of nobody be somebody with great impact in his or her community.”

Thirty-two students, comprising of 16 males and 16 females are participating in the programme.

Some of the young participants, who spoke with journalists during the training programme, said that they have developed self-confidence and garnered requisite knowledge to impact on their community.

NIGERIAN TRIBUNE

11 Kwara secondary school students to benefit free university scholarship