By; MATTHEW UKACHUNWA, Lagos.
A scheme of education that will create equal learning opportunities and dismantle inequalities between children of the rich and the poor has been founded by a university don.
Professor Pat Utomi, a Professor of Political Economy and Management who initiated the project has predicted that 30 years from now the best prepared people for leadership in Nigeria will emerge from the schools.
“We have begun designing and implementing a privately-funded free primary education scheme that will give the children of the poorest of the poor the quality of higher education only available to the richest of the rich with additional value-add of values training, design and the technology for primary schools and the approach of the “pedagogy of the determined,” Utomi disclosed.
He said the scheme will also develop youth centres to empower and prepare youths for leadership.
He stressed that education is a major key in grooming future leaders; but regretted that “the socially better off pay a fortune for where it matters most – quality education – while the poor are abandoned to their own fate.
Utomi said: “We have been exploring a few areas . One is based on the need to prevent socio-economic classes to calcify by offering pathways to escape the poverty trap.”
The educationist pointed out that his team is developing the idea of youth centres which will give young people a chance to create hubs for socializing the youth into appropriate cultures.
In addition, the youth centres will be centres of top notch equipment for laboratories and vocational skills training that poorly equipped neighbourhood schools can share.
According to the professor, even though their targets are urban areas, the first two schools in development are located in Ikorodu and Ibusa which are suburban parts of state capital territories.
“We look forward to the support of all as we struggle to change our world; one mind at a time,” Utomi beckoned with optimism.
