The Southwest edition of the first academic reality show initiated by Dr Stella Ebutse, CEO of Sastoma Empowerment Foundation ( STEFO) kicked off in Lagos with different schools participating at the Ikotun Local Government Development hall.
The selected schools that participated included, Mercy Hall of fame, Ejigbo senior high school, El- Crystal Star College, Igando, Ijegun senior Comprehensive high school and Veeky international school.
Rape, Female Genital Mutilation, Violence Against women, depression, child marriage, The pandemic Drug abuse, and education as a weapon for success were some of the themes discussed by the students using poetry, good diction, presentation and dramatic skills to articulate the subject matter in ways they thrilled, reawakened as well as discover the talents of the young competitors.
They were judged according to their physical appearance, composure and overall performance. A group drama depicting the importance of hard work, tolerance and patriotism also brought to the fore the opportunities and challenges and the different things that can be done to create a better atmosphere for citizens.
According to Èbutse, the show was born to promote issues about education in Africa, support the educational drive for the less privileged, widows, orphans and missionary children.” She explained that: “It has been an intense five months of preparation across the six states. Finally, to the glory of God, history is made today in the South West region of Nigeria. We are setting the pace for Academic reality shows in Nigeria and Africa. An experiment we hope other tutors will emulate “.
The vision, she explained is to draw the government’s attention to the dearth of English language teachers in our schools. This is an urgent challenge that needs immediate attention. In our previous activities in some states out of over a hundred schools visited, only five can boost competent language and literature teachers. This seriously has an adverse impact on students turn out and performances during our audition”.
She added that: “Awakening reading culture among our youths is very important. Cheating to pass the examination has become the order of the day. Unfortunately, Social media activities have replaced the traditional reading habit. We, therefore, need to revitalize literary activities in our secondary schools. It is our desire that the winners and all the participants will go back to their various schools after the camping to propagate the goals and objectives of this noble venture “.
Hon. Mojisola Badmus, the Vice Chairman of Ikotun LCDA in Alimosho local government area informed that: “The event to awaken the giant in our youths today is a very laudable event. It is one thing that we need to make Nigeria better, to make us find our feet better. It seems that in the economy today, we have lost track. Somehow we lost the target and the target is education. We derailed from education and as we have seen today, without a knowledge blend of the educational system, we cannot go anywhere. Education cuts across all phases of life and it is through education that we know how to grow our economy. All aspects of life are affected by the level of education but we have derailed. I think that with this program we would be able to find our trackback.”
She added: “I thank God for the life of the children that are here. It gladdens my heart that we still have very good products. In fact, all the judges have been hitting our heads together and we say all these children are good. We still have very good products that can compete across the world and I pray that we would be able to develop the skills in them. On the part of the government, we need to invest more in education. In fact, we need to sensitise our children our youths that with education there is nowhere they cannot get in the world. Unfortunately, a lot of our youths engage in a lot of negative activities in the name of getting rich. So, we need the government to intervene properly, invest in education and let the young ones know that with the education their hope is not dashed”.