Sir: Whatever needs to be done, Nigeria’s state governments should begin a programme aimed at discovering and assisting the highly brilliant students in public secondary schools especially in the area of scholarships as done in the distant past.
There are many instances where very brilliant students in public secondary schools continually drop by the wayside owing to parental incapabilities.
Most of the girls who belong to such category get easily distracted and misled until they become early mothers while the boys join bad gangs, go into drugs and have their enviable talents truncated quite sadly.
There is a lot the government can do to assist such calibre of special students. Principals of schools may be asked to compile the list of such highly endowed learners whose parents or guardians are incapacitated owing to a reason or another. All those who made the list can then be made to sit for qualifying exams to ascertain their true abilities and qualities, and then the government can pick them up from there by either awarding them scholarships that will see them through their education to any level directly or by assisting them to solicit for kind sponsors from members of the public.
It must, however, be emphasised that in order for the programme to achieve its aims and prevent it from being hijacked, the government should search out for people of indubitable integrity to be in charge possibly from retired seasoned administrators. Such arrangement will in no small way help to build a new generation of progressive youths who will jumpstart the process of restoring Nigeria’s lost academic glory.
Moreover, as it takes effect, many students hoping to catch in and enjoy such facilities will be forced to draw closer to their studies and with that, serious academic activities will return to our schools with a renewed vigour.
Jide Oyewusi is the coordinator of Ethics Watch International, Lagos.
