Six Nigerian schools get “Fund A Library” Grant
Six secondary schools drawn from across the county have benefited from the Invictus Foundation’s “FundALibray Grant Project’’.
At an event to present the schools with the certificate of the grant in Abuja on Thursday, Mr Obinwanne Okeke, the Chairman of the Foundation said the grant was worth N100,000 per school.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the foundation which was established in 2014, focuses on education and literacy issues in Nigeria and other African countries.
Okeke said the aim of the grant was to offer financial assistance to schools with underfunded libraries in order to facilitate learning for students and increase access to knowledge.
He said the process of selection was done, with the teachers writing a short essay of about 300 words on their schools, the state of their library and taking a picture of the library.
“We put out an advert in October to say teachers should write a short essay of about 300 words about their school, the state of their library, what is lacking and take a picture of the library.
“We picked the most passionate essays and here we are today giving these schools through their teachers the grant.
“We do not want to impose books on the students that is why we want the teachers to purchase the books themselves because they know what books interest their students.’’
Okeke said that reading culture must be imbibed in students to enable them become knowledgeable and ultimately impact society.
He said the Foundation had put measures in place to ensure the grant was used for the purpose intended.
According to him, from the agreement we made, we have asked the teachers to put the Foundation’s stamp on the books and present receipts of purchase to us.
Okeke added that visits would also be paid to the benefiting schools to check and ensure the books were bought and being used.
Mr Anthony Oliver, a teacher with Future Hope Model School Akure, who responded on behalf of other beneficiaries, commended the Foundation for the laudable project, assuring that the grant would be used to buy books for the schools.
According to him, the grant will go a long way in stoking the library with needed books and help improve the library use by students.
NAN reports that the beneficiary schools include: Citi International School, Maiduguri, Tolu Foundation, Kaduna, Ijeshatedo Senior Grammar School, Okota, Lagos.
Others are Centre For Memories, Enugu and Gateway Excel College, Odeneago, Otukpa, Benue.
