An educationist and founder of Kingston Nursery and Primary School, Dr Victor Basola has rolled out measures to move about 2,000 out-of-school children off the street on free education.
This is just as he called for an emergency in the education sector over government and corporate organisations’ laxity to sponsor free education to reduce the number of about 10.5 million out-of-school children off the street.
Basola, said this yesterday, at the school’s premises in Ogun State, during a global press conference on free education, stating that there was a need for free school for out-of-school children, especially from underserved communities.
He recalled when the policy on free education was initiated by Obafemi Awolowo, which witnessed a 90 per cent increase in primary education, said if free and quality education is re-introduced, the number of out-of-school children would be drastically reduced.
According to him, government is hypocritical about the supposed belief in education.
“Corporate organisations sponsor nude shows for as far as N20 million but set aside a paltry amount for best-graduating student. They sponsor stupidity but difficult to sponsor education. That is corporate foolishness,” he said.
He said the school, which currently operates with 60 pupils having free education, inclusive of all learning materials, was initiated to give underserved communities access to free and quality education, inclusive of free meals per day.
With an ambition to accommodate more pupils and open branches across Nigeria, he highlighted challenges of power supply, textbooks, stationaries, rents and media visibility for smooth running of the school.
Noting that the school is a testimony of faith and passion that believes in the future of the country, he called on sponsors to support the move for them to continue with their vision of drastically reducing the huge number of out-of-school children across the country.
While commending the initiative, the Personal Assistant to Ogun State Commissioner on Women Affairs, Adebisi Ojo, said there are plans by the state to respond positively to the laudable initiative the school is embarking on.
