In the pursuit of their mandate to return vulnerable children to school and to raise socially responsible children, FlexiSAF Foundation in partnership with Illmi Children’s Fund (ICF) is organizing a children’s sports event tagged the Education Marathon 1.0. The event which is slated to hold on Saturday the 11th of June 2022 is in commemoration of this year’s Children’s Day and geared towards creating an avenue for primary and secondary school students to showcase their talent in a fun and recreational atmosphere, whilst using the opportunity to emphasize the importance of qualitative and inclusive basic education.
According to a report by UNICEF(2022), 70 percent of children in Nigerian schools are in school but not learning. Globally, Nigeria also faces the biggest shortage of teachers, accounting for 12% of the global total. It is pertinent to note that many of these challenges, including teacher capacity, are linked to public as opposed to private schools, and if not properly tackled, will put millions of Nigerian children at risk of poor quality of life in future. Following these widening disparities between the private and public schools and its attendant effects on the access to education and proper education management, there is a need to pursue every legitimate and logical means to bridge this lacuna. Furthermore, beyond the policy-cum-intellectual solutions to fixing these issues, and the advocacy currently in place to push for the enrollment of more out of school children in Nigeria, there is an obvious demand to look at other means (including recreation) to bring these rather nagging matters to the fore. This is the rationale for the conception of the Marathon!
The event, which is scheduled to have notable public officials like the Minister of Youth and Sports and the Minister for Humanitarian Affairs in attendance, has gained widespread acceptance from Public and Primary schools in Abuja, as they have registered to participate in their numbers. Schools like Funtaj International School, Esteem International School, Sunrise International School (but to mention a few) have all signed up for their participation. Furthermore, the event is sponsored by notable brands and businesses which includes the prime sponsor BAM properties and a host of others.
One of the highlights of the event is the expected presence of the National Football sensation, and Super Eagles’ talented skipper Ahmed Musa, and award winning actress Rahama Sadau. It is a conspicuous fact that events like the Education Marathon are not just breeding grounds for talented children, but a haven for the harvest of talents. The children surely are in for a surreal lifetime experience of participating in all the track and field events and networking with stars that will be present.
It is the conviction of the organizers that children need to be aware of the realities of the times in their nascent years, and also learn quite practically the virtues of mutual respect and peaceful co-existence with their peers. FlexiSAF Foundation and Illmi Children’s Fund (through the Education Marathon 1.0 and other innovations) are continually poised to be at the vanguard of promoting, advocating and continually working to see that the huge number of out of school children in our country is reduced to the minimum.
Would you like to also lend a voice or contribute a token towards ensuring quality education for every child? Would you like to participate and attend the Education Marathon 1.0? Please contact the foundation on: +2348063996730 or email us at info@flexisaf.org.
–Olubunmi Ayantunji is a legal Practitioner and Legislative Consultant. He writes from Abuja.
