Sunday, February 7, 2010

The Rationale of our involvement in Education





The last few decades have witnessed a declining role of the State in service provision and consequently a significant increase in private sector, faith based and civil society involvement in providing basic education services to the public.

The 1990s was declared to be the decade of Education for All (EFA). The World Declaration on Education for All envisioned that “Every person - child, youth and adult - shall be able to benefit from educational opportunities designed to meet their basic learning needs”.

In developing countries like Nigeria for instance, a growing number of national and multinational business corporations, private foundations, faith based organizations (FBOs) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are becoming increasingly active in the education sector. As a church, we are also called to impact our society by addressing the social needs of the people. This is just one way of preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God.

Children represent our society’s future. Many will grow to become tomorrow’s leaders. However, a significant number of them still lack access to quality, basic education. Children are natural learners, but this capacity to learn can be undermined and sometimes destroyed due to the absence of an enabling environment. Spending directed at children should therefore be viewed as a long-term investment as they are as a natural resource representing the future of the country... Pastor Poju Oyemade