The federal government has been advised to fine-tune the strategies and machinery of its school feeding programmes for effective and efficient results.
Speaking during the ninth edition of Bayo and Bunmi Babalola Foundation’s scholarship program in Omu Aran, Irepodun local government area of Kwara state on Thursday, chairman of the group, Engineer Sunday Babalola, said that the National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP) is capable of serving as a stimulant to encourage enrolment and attendance in schools, address malnutrition among schoolchildren, and reduce the problem of out-of-school children in the country.
Engineer Babalola, who lamented recent statistics by UNICEF that Nigeria has the highest number of out-of-school children in the world, with about 18.4 million, advised that the government should not jettison the provision but fine-tune it.
He said that the past administration allegedly spent multibillion naira on the school feeding program, adding that “having reports of humongous spending on the program by the immediate administration, without verifiable results, is a disservice to the nation.”.
Engineer Babalola also reiterated the call on the federal and Kwara state governments to invest more in education, saying that “no investment in education is ever lost.”.
“Education is the bedrock of societal growth, innovations, and technological breakthroughs. There can be no meaningful societal development without quality, efficient, accessible, and affordable education.
“Education can be one of the strategies to address insecurity, kidnapping, cultism, armed robbery, and other violent crimes. An educated mind is refined and totally different from an illiterate one. With education, the world will become a better place to live in, he said.
Babalola, who also called for improved infrastructure in schools, said that education without good infrastructure will be ineffective.
“It saddens my heart to recall how many pupils are taught under trees and dilapidated classrooms. Some of the pupils and their teachers are wet during learning when it rains and are drained through leaking roofs.
“What kind of citizens, produced under such an inhuman and inhumane environment, would they be? Allowing our children and their teachers to be in such a horrible environment is not only exposing them to medical danger but also to mental torture. We should invest more to upgrade the classrooms and the entire educational environment.
“It is also imperative to ensure good and timely remuneration for the teachers, more so in this economic crunch. A well-motivated staff will produce a better result.”.
He also called on the government and concerned stakeholders to improve security around educational institutions to avoid pupils and students being endangered by kidnappers, armed robbers, rapists, and perpetrators of other violent crimes.
Engineer Babalola, however, commended the recent renewed commitment by the Northern States Governors’ Forum (NSGF) to address the insecurity challenge in the region.
No fewer than 611 students and pupils got scholarships from the Bayo and Bunmi Babalola Foundation (BBBF) during the event, as a total number of 407 beneficiaries in secondary schools and 204 beneficiaries in tertiary institutions benefitted from the scholarship program sponsored by Engineer Babalola and his wife, Pastor Mrs. Bunmi Babalola, co-founder and co-sponsor.
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