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By Young E Freeborn, Warri
Indigenes of Unenurhie community in Ughelli North Local Government Area of Delta State, in conjunction with the community leadership, recently organized a seminar as a step to raise the standard of education in the community.
The community also called on the state government to provided the needed support, such as the employment of more teachers and provision of other important educational facilities, especially the fencing of both the primary and secondary schools in the community.
The seminar, which was held on Saturday October 14, 2023 at the community town hall, brought together stakeholders, such as the headmistress, staff and pupils of Unenurhie Primary School, the principal, staff and students of Unenurhie Secondary School, pupils and students of private schools in the community, parents/guardians, selected educationists from the community, community leaders and host of others.
In his remarks, president-general of Unenurhie community, Mr. Peter Maison, who also chaired the occasion told parents and guardians to invest more on the education of their children, describing education as the gateway to life of success, independence and comfort.
“Education should be our top most priority in this community. We observed in recent times that, we are far behind in educational progress and achievements, considering the level of educational achievements of our neighbouring communities. Let’s therefore invest heavily on the education of our children.
“Education is not one man’s business. It’s everybody’s business. Yes, education in the first place is a fundamental right of every Nigerian child. But as it’s now in the country, we can’t just fold our hands and wait for the government alone to do everything about the education of our children. We must play our roles as parents and as community leaders. Therefore, on behalf of the community, I thank all the concerned indigenes of the community within and in diaspora that considered it wise to pull their resources together to organize this seminar,” he said.
Speaking on the topic, ‘Is Education a Scam in Nigeria,’ the guest speaker, Young Erhiurhoro;Kjc, who is also the community’s secretary-general, analysed the topic and gave reasons why children today abandon their educational pursuits and take up the ‘Yahoo’ online practice, so as “to make it quick in life.”
One of the reasons for this, Erhiurhoro said could be attributed to “failed government” and “total negligence” of the Nigerian government to the education sector since the beginning of democratic rule in 1999.
Mr. Erhiurhoro ended his lecture by calling on the community leadership to establish “Education Trust Fund” to enable them focus on particulara professions and academic disciplines that he said are still lacking in the community, such as law and medicine.
He also suggested that the youths in the community could be supported from such a fund to produce professors in various academic disciplines across Nigerian universities.
The seminar ended with a quiz competition organized for the senior secondary school students. Twelve students participated in the quiz competition and three of them won the available prizes. They were Miss Edna Imochi, first prize, Miss Onoseigho Derby, second prize and Miss Iruoghene Opotor, third prize. All were female students and from the Unenurhie Secondary School.
