… presents bank drafts to beneficiaries
Lagos State First Lady, Dr. Ibijoke Sanwo-Olu, has presented bank drafts to beneficiaries of the Y2021 edition of the annual Lagos Exams Support, an initiative of her office targeted at paying West African Examination Council (WAEC) candidates’ outstanding school fees.
The initiative, according to the First Lady, is designed to support students in low-cost schools from the five administrative divisions of the State, namely Ikeja, Badagry, Ikorodu, Lagos and Epe, with payment of outstanding fees that may prevent them from writing the ongoing Senior Secondary School WAEC examinations.
“The initiative is in line with the T.H.E.M.E.S. Agenda of the Babajide Sanwo-Olu-led administration, especially the ‘E’ pillar that stands for Education and Technology. It is also in furtherance of the vision of the Office of the First Lady to impact lives and build legacies”, she said.
Dr. Sanwo-Olu noted that the Lagos Exams Support Scheme is geared towards increasing the quota of students, who have successfully completed WASSCE or JSCE, in order to attain the goal of free education until Secondary School, as well as ensure that the social capital in Lagos is not depleted bearing in mind that SSCE is the constitutional requirement for leadership in Nigeria.
Her words: “We also believe that we can share in the responsibility of mitigating the economic hardships that most residents, whose children or wards attend private schools, face due to the unexpected events brought by the COVID-19 pandemic; we also ensure that the vulnerable children benefit from this sort of initiative without taking over the responsibility of parents”.
“We don’t want them to play the role of the parents. We understand that the parents have a role to play. We just don’t want to leave any child behind. We want all the children to sit for their examinations and become successful people in future. This initiative will also help to provide statistics for the State to further plan service delivery and also reduce the number of idle adolescents, both boys and girls, by engaging them to prepare for their bright future”, she averred.
The First Lady admonished the beneficiaries to reciprocate the gesture of her office by studying hard and coming through with flying colours in the exams, saying “This is important to guarantee success and move to the next level in your academic pursuits”.
Responding, the beneficiaries and their parents commended the First Lady for the gesture, noting that it would go a long way to alleviate their plight of paying outstanding schools fees in order to participate in the WAEC exams.
Five students, Miss Medese Oluwayigamika Ogun (Badagry Grammar School – Female); Miss Temiloluwa Adelekan (Badagry Grammar School – Female); Master Quadri Sulaimon (Lagos State Model College Igbokuta – Male); Master Elijah Oyenuga (Command Day Secondary School Oshodi – Male) and Miss Faizat Toyosi Sulaimon (Government Senior Model College Owutu, Ikorodu – Female) were selected for symbolic presentation of bank drafts.
Beneficiaries were selected from over 70 secondary schools across the State, with pre-conditions of being students who live and school in any private or public school in Lagos and registration for WASSCE or JSCE but have outstanding fees.
During the first edition last year, a total of 48 students benefitted from 46 schools across the State.
