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By Henry Uche, Lagos
The Founder of Kingston Nursery and Primary school, Victor Basola, is giving hope to ‘out-of-school children’ in Akute-Ajuwon axis of Ogun State through it’s free education initiative.
Basola is presently giving free education to 60 pupils with the provisions of free uniforms, text books, free food per day and free medical services.
He said for this to continue and expand, he needs support from stakeholders, government and individuals.
In a world press conference on Wednesday at his school, he said his fund is channeled to the school when sponsors do not respond.
“We have been able to look inward and trust God for opportunities to create businesses that can help to sustain the provisions. Some of the partners have been consistent and some have not, you never can tell what would have happened. On our own, we do business and we have been contributing massively for the sustainability of the school,” he said.
He revealed that he has plans to sponsor the children from Kingston school to higher schools, ie. If a child finishes up from the school to go for a higher school, they will keep paying the fees until higher institutions.
Until then, he hopes to have a complete school that have nursery to university where the children will finish up.
Speaking about the criteria for accommodating the children, he said, the child must be brilliant and their parents must be willing to send them to school not being forced.
“In a case where the child is not brilliant, there is a provision for such child, like a pre- class that he or she undergoes for few months then write exams to test his or her ability,” he maintained.
The founder said he would be accommodating children with special needs in the school by August. 2024. According to him, the thought of it came after one of his teachers went for special training on that.
The educationist affirmed that though he cannot cater for 2 million children for now, however, gradually, they will be able to increase numbers of people they will take with more supports.
He said their school is highly disciplined which is one major distinctive feature that separates it from others.
“We take children once in a year and they write common entrance because we do not want a situation where there is breakdown of the law. We teach French, Chinese, baking skills, and computer, etc. We try our best to see that what we do here is quality despite the fact that it’s free. Most people thinks that once it’s free it will be substandard, no, it is not, so.
“We pay our teachers good salary of N50,000 which is far above what is obtainable within the community. We do not want volunteer teachers because if we employ them on volunteer basis, we will not have control over them.
“We believe that in paying them well, they will be able to bring out the best in them which will inturn reflect on the quality of education being given to the children,”
The philanthropist posited that the school was born out of his personal experience as a child, “All children no matter where they live have the right to quality education.”
Education he said, is the key to personal growth and progress, but, the cost could often be a significant impediment to assessing knowledge and opportunities.
He commended Obafemi Awolowo for introducing free education in the Western Nigeria but the numbers dropped with the introduction of certain fees; hence the need for initiating Kingston Nursery and Primary school.
“The initiative was born out my experience in life as a child. Then I didn’t know it’s called ‘out-of-school’. I was chased out from school because of school fees. Then they will flog you and still send you home. I know what it means to be out of school. The pain did not leave me. So, I said, no child deserves to go through this.
“We didn’t thought of making it absolutely free. We were looking at giving scholarships, but, God intervened and we made it absolutely free. Kingston Nursery and Primary school started functioning in September 8, 2021. We had just 35 pupils then, but, now we have 60 pupils.”
He noted that the cost of ruining the school is about N6 million per term and N18 million annually. He called on stakeholders, government and well- meaning Nigerians to support the initiative to see that no child is being deprived of education.
“We are seeking support so that the initiative can accommodate more ‘out-of-school children’ he implored.
Commissioner for Women Affairs, Ogun State, Mrs Adijat Adeleye pledged her commitment to support the initiative.
Adeleye who was represented by her personal assistant, Mrs. Adebisi Ojo used the medium to call for support to help provide quality education for ‘out-of-school children’ in the state.
