‘Poor funding limiting educational growth’

The Founder and Coordinator, Resource Sharing Network, a non-governmental organisation, Mrs. Tosin Olowoyeye-Tosin, has identified poor funding and dearth of mentors as reasons for the  increase in the number of kids dropping out of school.

Olowoyeye-Tosin also attributed the situation to poverty and the lack of purposeful direction by both the private and public sector.

She called on well-meaning individuals, philanthropists and corporate bodies to invest more in the sector, saying it was the only way to reposition the sector to meet the Millennium Development Goals.

Olowoyeye-Tosin said this at the NGO’s recent visit to three schools namely African Church Primary School, Meiran Community Primary School and Ikola Community Primary School, all in Oke-Odo Local Government Area of Lagos State.

She noted that the initiative was to impact on the lives of the school children, especially those in the rural areas, in a way that they would see the school environment as a place to be.

According to Olowoyeye-Tosin, private sector intervention will boost children’s enthusiasm in education.

She said, “The NGO goes to the rural areas to identify mostly pupils that are orphans and pupils, whose parents cannot afford the basic tools for their education. Sadly, some of these children come to school without books and sandals. The aim of our visit is not only to donate educational items, but also boost their enthusiasm for education; we don’t want them to give up because we know that is the only future they have.

“This is not to say the government doesn’t give them these materials, but we are complementing the government’s effort. We want to help these children build their basic foundation for education. Since we started this initiative, we have different phases like mentoring the pupils to know what their strong points are.  We also pay the bills of the children. We take them out of the streets and put them in schools and we pay their fees.”

The items donated by the group, in partnership with Myne White Company, included school uniforms, textbooks, notebooks,  sandals,  bags, bibles, furniture and writing materials.