By Umar Salman Adeyemi
It has been two weeks since the start of the Free Summer Classes sponsored by Rep. Bamidele Salam to impact positively, the lives of over 1,500 senior secondary school students in Ede North, Ede South, Egbedore and Ejigbo Federal Constituency of Osun State.
The summer class, initially scheduled to hold in 10 Centres, has been extended to three (3) more Centres since the first week due to requests from the people. This was made possible because the sponsor is a leader who loves education and has a listening ear.
The program also took a different dimension this time around with the Computer and Digital Literacy Training component which is intended to expose school children of age 13-17 to computer skills useful for 21st century methods of instructional delivery. The training holds every Friday and Saturday in 5 different Centres across the 4 Local Government Areas in the Federal Constituency.
The computer training was also designed to improve the confidence level of these learners as it enables them to gain relevant ICT skills useful for taking CBT exams, as well as digital skills to improve their innovative and creative minds as youngsters.
With 4 Local Government Coordinators, 12 Centre Supervisors, 48 English and Mathematics tutors and 10 Computer Instructors, the program has deployed adequate and competent personnel to ensure successful delivery in all ramifications in order to achieve set goals.
Currently, more than 1,200 students have been admitted for the English and Mathematics Lessons while over 300 students have been undergoing the Computer Literacy Training, bringing the reach of impacts to over 1,500 students.
As the summer classes continue this week, it is hoped that the students will continue to take this rare opportunity seriously and take full advantage of it.
With 2 more weeks to go, the program will be concluded with a Unified Mock Examination whose questions have been set according to the scheme of work has been earlier on drawn up from WAEC Syllabus. After the marking and grading of the examinations, the best students from each Local Government will be recognized with awards, gifts and prizes to nurture their academic potentials and spur them to excel more in life.
The overall objective of the holiday lesson is to support educational service delivery by providing adequate support to the students and their schools in order to achieve better academic outcomes.
Umar is the SSA to Rep. Bamidele Salam on Education and Civil Society Matters. He writes from Ejigbo, Osun State.