A youth initiative in Nigeria, the Young Learners Initiative, has completed two programmes embarked upon this year to groom Nigerian children for book reading and the game of Chess.
The Initiative, which was formed in January 2024, was established to confront the challenge of primary school children’s growing lack of interest in book reading.
According to Ayomade Adeolu-Akande, a 17-year-old Nigerian and founder of the initiative, he embarked on the project out of his concern that children are losing interest in book reading and showing greater interest in non-productive enterprises.
“The mission of the organisation is to foster the love of learning among children”, said Ayomade Adeolu- Akande.
In January 2024, the Initiative held its first event which witnessed the donation of books and other educational materials worth hundreds of thousands of Naira to Tabitha Home, an orphanage located in Ibadan, the largest city south of the Sahara in Africa.
The maiden event was followed in March by a week-long chess bootcamp at Pathfinder College, a primary and secondary school located in Ibadan, Nigeria. At the event, many interested students of the school were taught the rudiments of the game of chess. The high-point of the week-long event was a chess tournament which featured a fundraiser. Fifty percent of the funds raised at the event were donated to Pathfinder College for the promotion of the children’s education while the remainder was donated for the promotion of chess in the slums of Nigeria.
The founder of the Initiative explained that the choice to teach chess in particular was to create fun and make the children benefit from the potential of chess to develop the thinking capacity of players.
“The promotion of book reading and chess is a strategic way of raising children’s interest in education,” he continued.
He illustrated that, as former President of South Africa and World Leader, Nelson Mandela had said, education is the greatest weapon that could be used to change the world. Getting children more interested in book reading in particular and education in general will impact on the development of the society because children and youths are the leaders of tomorrow.
“The future of Africa and all developing societies depend on education. The more educated the youth are, the more guaranteed the development of the societies they live in”, Ayomade Adeolu-Akande concluded.
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