‘Sustain devotions beyond Ramadan’

AN appeal has gone to Muslims not to limit their devotions and other acts of piety to the month of Ramadan.

The Tutor General/Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Education District I, Prince Bashir Adebowale, made this appeal in his address at this year’s Ramadan lecture of the district in Lagos.

Prince Adebowale implored Muslims, especially students, to take advantage of the month to draw closer to Allah through prayer and uprightness.

He asked students to read the Qur’an and be prayerful this month more than any other time. He said they should shun all forms of vices and be good ambassadors of Islam.

He admonished them not to limit the good deeds to Ramadan.

Delivering the Ramadan lecture entitled ‘Temptation of the Youths: Overcoming the Menace of Fake News and Hate Speech’, Dr Jamiu Oluwatoki of the Department of History and International Relations, Lagos State University, said parents and teachers have a big role to educate the students on how to differentiate fake news from real news.

He charged them to correct the children with love, saying most of the students that are termed deviants are that way because they feel unloved and isolated.

“We should be able to train our children with love and sincerity and listen to them. Often they go through challenges but often parents and teachers don’t actually get to understand what they are going through. We need to teach them to be discerning. They will be able to understand what is good from what is bad and they will grow up as balanced adults,” he said.

He said children are easy to teach to detect fake news because most of them are deeply involved in social media unlike most adults.

The Director, Curriculum, Science and Technology in the District, Mrs Oluwakemi Oyegbile, said the choice of topic for this year’s Ramadan lecture was in view of the prevailing situation in the country.

Mrs Oyegbile said: “The topic is significant because fake news and social media have had a lot of impact. Most of it is negative. It is really affecting their lives. We think that at this period, there is the need to educate the students on the importance of listening to news, what they should listen to and how to discern. If they should continue to take in everything they read and see on the social media and the fake news, it will affect them negatively.”

The programme also featured quiz and Qur’an recitation competitions.

State Senior High School, Oyewole came first in the quiz in the senior category while Jakande Estate Comprehensive Senior College and Ishefun Community School emerged the first and second runners-up, respectively.

The quiz for the junior category was won by Ijaiye Ojokoro Junior High School while Tomia Community Junior Secondary and Yewa Junior High School came second and third, respectively.

The Ramadan lecture is an annual programme of the district made up of schools in Agege, Alimoso and Ifako Ijaiye local government areas of Lagos State.