Angel UzochukwuThe Chris Oyakhilome Foundation International in partnership with Inner City Mission for Children has built a tuition-free Nursery and Primary school in the Atali community, Obio-Akpor Local Government Area, Rivers State.
The school which held its groundbreaking ceremony on Wednesday, is poised to fulfil the Foundation’s goal of providing free education for underprivileged children.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelThe school, which will become fully operational in the next academic session (2024/2025 academic year) starting September, is expected to provide educational facilities and free meals to five hundred indigent children in the host community.
According to a report in PUNCH, the Director of the Inner City Mission for Children, Pastor Omo Alabi stated: “This is the 16th school globally, but our 13th in Nigeria, strategically located in most of the geo-political zones of the country.”
“We are here today to break grounds for this school in Rivers State under the auspices of Chris Oyakhilome Foundation International, a non-governmental, apolitical development organization, committed to helping people and nations live purposeful lives.”
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“The school is early years, nursery to primary and it is free, what the children get here is high-quality educational services in terms of academics, we also provide extra-curricular activities like the ‘school me’ programme, we provide skills acquisition, the play and learn, it’s a robust programme.”
“We are targeting 500 or more pupils for this school, but the host institutional partner mentioned that this is the first, which means he has a vision working under the auspices of the Chris Oyakhilome Foundation International to build more schools. So, we are building more schools.”
The zonal director of Christ Embassy, Port Harcourt zone 1, Pastor Amaechi Udeaku said that the school will not discriminate against pupils in terms of their different religions rather their educational needs will be catered for. He further stated “Pastor Chris has said every child is his child, so this opportunity is open to every child. This initiative would have tremendous and multifaceted impacts on the society.
“We know that there are many reasons why children are out of school. We have children that are out of school because of economic reasons and we know that when a child is not in school, that child would be susceptible to all kinds of vices in society.’’
“So we know that as we bring the children out of the streets and put them in the school, families who could not pay for their children’s school fees and meals, that would be taken care of because the school would be providing not just free education but also free meals every day.”
Represented by the Director of Education, Ministry of Education, the Rivers State Commissioner for Education, Prof. Mmom thanked the foundation and urged the management of the school to abide by the guidelines of the government in its operations.
Speaking at the event, the Chairman of the Obio-Akpor local government area of the state, Hon. George Ariolu expressed his delight over the tremendous work. Being represented by his vice, Dame Chinyere, the Chairman added that “The entire council loves education and we have so much passion for education, we have given grants to 311 masters and PhD scholars.”
“On that note, we are very happy that Inner-city Mission is here working in synergy with Chris Oyakhilome Foundation.
“We are saying a big thank you because you have come to relieve us in this local government, people believe it is the government that would do everything, but you have stood out to show people that it is not only the government that would give our people education, the church has also taken it upon themselves to do this.” He expressed his joy over the relieved burden of providing education for the people of the Atali community.
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