The education of young girls should not just be a top priority, Nigerian children must also be taught the highest standards of honesty, piety, and hard work, to build a healthier, happier and more prosperous society.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo expressed these views, yesterday, at the virtual inauguration of the school-based Management Board of Adawiyya Girls Academy, Minannata community, in Sokoto State.
Acknowledging the brainchild of the Academy, Hajia Rabiatu Adawiyya, from whose name the school is endowed, Osinbajo noted that despite the fact that she did not undergo formal education, she “understood a reality that even the best minds are only just realising, that when you educate a girl, you educate a whole society.”
The Academy, established in collaboration with Text Foundation (a digital and foundational literacy nonprofit organisation), is a state-of-the-art school designed to provide high-quality education to young girls from less privileged backgrounds using advanced teaching tools.
A section of the school, which combines science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) in its teaching curriculum, is dedicated to training women in entrepreneurship.
According to the Vice President, “ignorance has no benefit. Ignorance is darkness but education is the bright light of knowledge that can help us to live healthier, happier and more prosperous lives.”
However, he added: “Education is dangerous without morals and uprightness,” emphasising: “We must teach our children the highest standards of honesty, piety and hard work.”
He said: “I am glad that the students of Adawiyya Girls Academy Sokoto have this great opportunity of being offered both conventional and religious education, using the most advanced modern teaching tools available in our time.”
Speaking further, Osinbajo noted that Rabiatu Adawiyya was passionate about the education of girls from less-privileged families.
According to him, “her dream is today a reality and has started a movement that will bring about the education of millions of girls from poor families across Nigeria.”
