http://www.newsportng.com.ng Wife of Kaduna state Governor and Founder, Yasmin El-rufai’s Foundation (YELF) Hadiza El-rufai, has called on government at all levels to invest more on basic education rather than giving all attention to tertiary institutions. – Int’l literacy day
Hadiza made the call on thursday, during the spelling bees competition organized by the Yasmin El-rufai’s foundation to commemorate the international literacy day in kaduna.
Yasmin El-rufai’s Foundation, (YELF) is a non-political, non-profit and a non-governmental organisation, established in 2013 by Mrs Hadiza Isma El-Rufai, to assist build women and children who could not access education at early stage due to one challenge or the other.
The CEO, who said the foundation has empowered about 300 women since establishment, said university education is not for everyone, adding that the primary and secondary school level is the basis for everyone to get involved in any skill of their choice to improve their livelihood.
While lamenting over the poor performance of some Tertiary institution’ graduates, she said there is no need for schools graduating students that are not employable.
Speaking about the successes of the foundation at the commemoration of this year’s Int’l literacy day, she said “I think we are succeeding and we always want to do more. We are impacting on a number of women that had to drop out of school due to early marriage. some of them, their parents cannot pay for their school fees, so we are trying to help them to brush up on their literacy and numeracy and aftwards we make sure with the partnership with ICT HUB they can learn how to also use the computer so that they can be useful to themselves.
“Knowledge is free, all you have to know is how to access it and that is what we are trying to give them. We are happy so far and we wish we could do more. So far we have been impacted on about 300, we use to have about 10 centres and that was when we had funding from the fourth foundation, we have not scaled back, we do not have so much but we are trying to know how we can expand.”
Asked why the foundation focuses more on women, she said, “We focus on women because I think women are at the disadvantage in the society even in the family when there is scarce resources. Parents will rather educate the boy than the girl and many times in the society like ours, they are made to get married early, some after primary school and some in secondary school and the parents will just marry them off. Sometimes you find out that this marriages does not even work out, they are left with kids and they do not have anything to do to help themselves.
“Basic education is very important. I believe that basic education is much more better than tertiary education. I will have to say that really not everybody should go to the university, we all have different gift.
“I guess the government are trying their best but you know what we are facing, even the quality of graduate we have , some of that employ people you find out that somebody who have graduated on paper for him to write something for you , you will be so disappointed , there is something that is not quit right, I think the government and all stakeholders need to put their heads together get to the bottom of the problem.”
Speaking at the event, the Board Chairman, Kaduna State Universal Basic Education Board, (SUPEB) Mr. Tijjani Abdulahi, applauded the first lady for her contribution to ensure that women who are challenged academically are given the second chance to enhance their academics.
Abdulahi, who was represented by the permanent member, Kaduna State SUPEB, Mr. Samaila Leeman, added that the impact of education on the part of women can never be overemphasized, said anyone who cannot read in contemporary society.
He urged the students to remain focused and ensure they make use of the opportunity judiciously for themselves and their families.
– Int’l literacy day
