LIFEINSLUM reports the marvelous initiative of the Education Rights Campaign for organizing the thirteenth edition of the Free Coaching Lesson in Ajegunle. This is a programme initiated to engage young people. Corporate Organizations should support this initiative with whatever support in order to help fulfill the aspirations of these teenagers.
On Monday 23 July, 2018 at Nawair UD Deen Primary School. The Education Rights Campaign (ERC) kick started the thirteenth edition of the annual Free Coaching Lesson that was initiated in 2005 in the Ajegunle community, one of the poorest and populated slum in Nigeria with a population of more than Five million people.
Since the kick off in the opening ceremony of the exercise. More than 150 students from both public and private schools within and outside the community so far have been attending the exercise. In addition, volunteer teachers are also coming down to teach subjects like Mathematics, English Language, Biology and other related Science, Art and Commercial subjects.
Interestingly, some of the volunteer teachers who were once beneficiary of the ERC Free Coaching Lesson in the past, are now graduate from any of the Federal or State public Universities. While the exercise is registering huge numbers of students attending since the kick off. Parents within the community are also coming down to enquire more about the lesson.
For majority of the parents coming down to enquire, it is unbelievable hearing students attend free tutorial centre without payment. For them, it is not possible. But for clarity purpose and what the ERC stands for both in principle and ideology. The the Education Rights Campaign organizing the free coaching lesson is to fundamentally states that government must begin to adequately fund public education with at least 26% of its budget.
Meanwhile, organizing this year edition in the Ajegunle community is to serve the purpose of engaging young people especially students from poor working class background who are unable to pay higher tutorial fee in any of the private organized respective Tutorial Centres in the community. Importantly, now we are in a period of youth restiveness evolving with higher tensions.
While the free coaching lesson is expected to run for six weeks in the Ajegunle community, in addition with the numbers of students that subsequently as the lesson progresses till the first term resume September shall increase. Furthermore, for the two weeks that the lesson had been on. The first and second week had recorded a number of 220 and 426 students respectively from the classes of SS 1, SS 2 and SS 3 that had attended.
In the light of this, the Education Rights Campaign organizing this programme in the community want to use this medium to appeal for material and financial support from individuals and corporate organizations wanting to impact changes in the lives of young people in a community like Ajegunle cast in the shadows of poverty, social violence, prostitution etc that people says nothing good can come out from as crab hole.
Corporate organizations who believe in the otherwise, should not closes its window and look over the other lane. Instead, they should look into the eyes of this programme and support it. Support to this far reaching programme can help to boost the activities in the lesson that has contributed hugely to young people in the community for the past ten years. For support to the programme, visit educationrightscampaign.blogspot.com
By
Fidel Davy
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