The Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), General Assembly, Lagos Province 58, Ginti Ikorodu Lagos celebrates her 10th anniversary with the donation of some classroom furniture to Local Government Education Authority Primary School, Igbe-Laara, Ikorodu.
Presenting the furniture, the province pastor, Godwin Obadan, said the church setup a fact finding committee to look at schools in her environment with critical needs and discovered the school.
“The children were all sitting on the floor to learn. I felt compassion for the children when I saw them sitting on the ground to learn, I have heard that children sit on the floor to learn in far areas in the Northern part of Nigeria but not in Lagos. Some of the pupils aged from four to 10 were looking very dirty and their school uniforms torn; in some classrooms, the only chair to be found was the teacher’s which is also not the best,” he said.
Sighting the chairs and tables, the children jumped for joy. But when they learnt it would not go round, their countenance fell.
This moved Obadan, who promised that the church would return soon with more furniture.
‘I think it will be good to come back since the needs of the school are much more than what we did, and make learning more convenient for the students. Structures, writing materials and other needs are needed in the school.
We cannot preach the word of God to people, who actually need physical things that we can provide for them,’ Pastor Obadan lamented.
In her response, the general manager of the school, Mrs Oyetunji Mujidat Moyosore, thanked the church for the kind gesture, describing it as “very timely” and charge the general public, ‘the government cannot do everything for us, we are calling on philanthropies, nongovernmental organisation and religious bodies like RCCG, province 58, Ikorodu to come to our aid as we have numerous needs, our children sits on the floor to learn, we cannot leave everything to be done by the government, we thank and pray that God will bless the church, their leaders and the ministry,’ the head of the school said.
The chairman of the parent’s teachers association, Titilola Abiodun was overwhelmed with excitement, ‘we have tried our best but it is not enough, the school is a local school and we are poor in this area, our income cannot provide for the school needs’ Abiodun said.
The minister of education Malam Adamu Adamu had asked for a state of emergency at the education sector. He said ‘nobody than government has the moral and resource capacity to intervene promptly, substantially and sustainably in all areas of education’. Standard of learning, facilities and learning conditions have fallen and schools are producing half backed graduates and leaders. “Indeed, even among Sub-Saharan African countries, we are trailing far behind smaller and less endowed nations in terms of our investment in education. There is need for a major investment in education in the national interest,” he said.
Pastor Olufemi Kalejaiye, who accompanied the providence pastor, said his children attend a private school that has state of the art facilities including air-condition in the classroom, school bus from home to school, Library, science laboratory, sports and music equipments. ‘When I came in here, I cried and imagined if this is happening in Lagos, we as a body will come back here to support this school’, the clergyman said.
The church donated 20 chairs and 20 tables to the school and promised to come back with more donations to the school. The children expressed happiness and asked for more like Oliver Twist.
