556 First Class students receive scholarships from LASU.

556 First-Class students at Lagos State University (LASU) with cumulative grade point averages (CPGS) between 4.5 and 5.0 in the institution’s various faculties received scholarships yesterday.

Graduate students would receive a 50% refund of their tuition, while undergraduate students would receive a 50% fee credit.

To mark the completion of Prof. Ibiyemi Ibilola Olatunji-first Bello’s year as its ninth substantive Vice Chancellor, the university has commissioned a variety of projects.

Speaking on “The Significance of Education to the Growth of a Nation,” the guest lecturer and British Deputy High Commissioner based in Lagos, Mr. Ben Llewellyn-Jones, expressed concern that development was being hampered in Nigeria and around the world by the lack of equal opportunity for women and girls to realize their potential. He observed that many kids were not in school, especially girls.

Sad to say, but in Nigeria more than 11 million children between the ages of six and 15 were not enrolled in school in 2020, before the pandemic. The percentages are higher among females in rural areas and among the poorest people, and the vast majority are in the north, he added;

He called girls’ education a “game changer,” noting that it was among the wisest bets that could be made to help people escape poverty, develop economies, save lives, and recover from COVID-19.

“We all concur that promoting girls’ education is essential to enhancing Nigeria’s economy and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

According to Llewellyn- Jones, “it is important to developing the Nigerian country, the United Kingdom, and any nation for that matter.”

The deputy high commissioner added that children and schools should never be the target of war and conflict for kidnapping, but emphasized the necessity for all children to have access to education without fear.

He asserted that “schools need to be places of learning and joy, not of dread and violence. Recent kidnappings have demonstrated that much work has to be done in Nigeria to create enduring peace and security, make schools a secure place for kids to learn, and empower communities to defend education from harm.

Olatunji-Bello stated earlier in her remarks that the public lecture confirmed the university’s dedication to offering a forum that fosters intellectual discussions and offers practical solutions to the appalling state of education in Nigeria while keeping in mind the special role of higher education in the development of Nigeria.

In fact, no other topic would have been more urgent given the catastrophic status of higher education in the nation today. The majority of public universities have been closed during the past seven months as a result of the impasse in discussions between the federal government and the ASUU leadership.

The nation’s future is not brightened by these ongoing strikes, which also undermine universities’ special position as sources of ground-breaking concepts and solutions to society’s most pressing problems.

She expressed worry that the development would remain a pipe dream given the trivialization of research, the lack of attention given to the collaboration between academia and industry, and the gap between the gown and the town.

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