Rotary’s Gift to Youths
The Rotary Club of Ilorin continues to encourage young people to go to school through its endowment. Hammed Shittu writes
It is a matter of fact that no government can meet all the needs of its citizenry by itself. It is therefore gratifying to note that notable non-governmental organisations and wealthy individuals in the society are coming forward to fill the gap in the provision of critical infrastructure in the nation’s schools in the bid to meet the demand of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
That step has ensured improved education services in the country as it complements the efforts being made by the governments at all levels to create better learning environment at schools in various communities across the country.
Also, the austere period being experienced in the country where most states and local government councils could not meet up with the needs of many schools have prompted these individuals and non-governmental organisations to come forward toward bailing out many schools in a quest to ensure quality and standard of education are met for the young generations.
It is on this premise that, a nongovernmental organization called Rotary Club of Ilorin, GRA, summoned courage and commitment to rise to the dilapidated and awkward infrastructural facilities at Isolo-Opin Senior Secondary School in Ekiti Local Government Council of Kwara State.
Rotary Club is an international service organisation composed of leaders who volunteer their time and resources towards helping other people in their local communities throughout the world.
In line with this spirit of humanitarian, selflessness and altruism, this club adopted Isolo-Opin Senior Secondary School and embarked on some projects which were considered most critical to the school in order to enhance the quality of learning for the teeming students of the school.
The first phase of star projects embarked on and completed by the Rotary Club of GRA, Ilorin include, upgrading of the school’s science laboratories and equipping it with valuable science materials, provision of 85 lockers and chairs for classrooms, multi -purpose water project serving laboratories and to be extended to the VIP toilets with four fetching points in the school, extension of electricity supply to the school and erection of a befitting sign post for the school.
Speaking at the official commissioning of the affected projects at Senior Secondary School, Isolo-Opin over the weekend, the President, Rotary Club of Ilorin, GRA, who is also former Military Administrator of Bauchi and Osun States, Colonel Theophilus Oladapo Bamigboye(rtd) said that, the club studied the situation of the school through a member of the National Youths Service Corps that served in the school in year 2012.
He said that the club was prompted to visit the school and resolved to take up the responsibility of rehabilitating the dilapidated infrastructural facilities in the school in order to boost the academic learning of the teeming students.
Bamigboye added that, the club also decided that, the school should be brought into a global village where necessary facilities would be provided so as to enhance the quality of life of the people of the rural community.
He stressed that, “the club decided to rise to the needs of the school by providing what we are commissioning in Isolo-Opin Senior Secondary School today for the benefit of the students of the school”.
He noted that with the renovation of the school’s science laboratory and provision of equipment to the lab, it will provide an opportunity for students that would like to study medicine and other related courses in the nation’s universities to prepare themselves well ahead of time.
Bamigboye who used the occasion to announce that his family would sponsor any best student of the school in science to study medicine in any of the nation’s universities, enjoined the people of the town to rise to the safety of the facilities.
And while welcoming the visitors to the school, the Principal, Mr. Ayo Abegunde said: “What we are witnessing today started with the singular effort of a youth corper, Fatima Agia with the state code No KW/11C/0168 who decided towards the tail end of her service year in 2012 to build a VIP toilet for the school, being a Rotaractor, she got in touch with Rotary Club of Ilorin GRA which eventually sponsored and commissioned the project.
“Before commissioning the toilet project, some members of the club led by Chief (Mrs.) Jumoke Bamigboye visited the school to assess the progress and saw the deplorable condition of facilities in the school.
The photographs of the facilities in the school were taken and this prompted the club to rise to the needs of the school with the history of its commissioning today that all of us are witnessing.”
Abegunde who thanked the club for bringing life to the school however promised that the facilities would be used to advance the academic development of the students.
In his own remark at the event, the immediate past Commissioner for Education and Human Capital Development in the state, Alhaji Saka Onimago lauded the effort of the Rotary Club of Ilorin, GRA, in the quest to ensure quality education in the state.
Onimago who was represented at the programee by the Permanent Secretary, Alhaji Hamid Alabi said that, “it is a wakeup call for wealthy individuals and other non-governmental organisations in the state to contribute meaningfully towards the standard of education in general in line with the state government reform agenda which places on the contributions of all stakeholders’.
He also enjoined the people of Isolo-Opin community to protect the valuable facility provided them by the Rotary Club of Ilorin, GRA, so as to allow other individuals in the society to come down and contribute towards the development of the school and the town in general.
The Chairman, Isolo-Opin Development Association, Mr. Micheal Abolurin who lauded the effort of Rotary Club for the giant stride towards the development of the school and the town called on the wealthy individuals and non-governmental organizations to continue to support the town so as to make life more bearable for the people of the community.