This project was executed between April 2021 and July 2021. The project was organized, supervised, executed by Renaissance Foundation for Peacebuilders and Jointly funded by Renaissance foundation for Peacebuilders and Hon. Maito Suleiman (A member of Ondo state House of Assembly). This report is an appraisal, evaluation and narration of the successes of the project with a view to providing credible template for future projects with similar objectives. The Renaissance Foundation for Peacebuilders 2021 Educational Project for underprivileged students was intended to fulfill the promise affirmed in Nelson Mandela Words that Education is the only powerful Weapon which can be used to change the world and also to improve on teacher’s effort of raising tomorrow champions and future leaders for nation building. The project was conceived and initiated for intending UTME candidates, disadvantaged or underprivileged students whose parent are not financially buoyant enough to enroll them for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination. The project was divided into two sections. The first section is the first phase of the program which connote registration and sharing of UTME Forms to some selected indigent students. The second phase of the program focuses on free tutorial/coaching centres which was opened to all student including those whose parent are capable of taking care of their lessons fee. The program was launched in 15th of April 2021, attendees were informed about the modus operandi of the program and general information concerning eligibility for the free UTME form and tutorial centres. Emphasis was drawn to things the students need to know concerning their registration and when, how and what (time and subjects) of the tutorial program. It was expressly stated that 110 candidates will be benefiting from the free Jamb form.

Registration of UTME Candidates

On 19th of April 2021, registration of selected intending UTME candidate began at Opeoluwa CBT centre Alapata, along Local Government Secretariat, Ikare Akoko. The programme commenced with the registration of the first batch of UTME candidates who had successfully generated their profile code as were informed and physically present at the registration center. No student was given Cash equivalent of the UTME form, all the selected students were all registered and given their registration details. They were all formerly informed that the registration will take place at Opeoluwa CBT centre because that is the only designated CBT centre accredited and designated for UTME registration in Akoko North west where the beneficiaries were drawn from. After the initial list containing the names of the Beneficiaries, another list was made available where the names of the students and their profile code were recorded. This was done to generate accurate data as those who had successfully generated their profile code were considered eligible for registration according to UTME registration guidelines. Those who couldn’t generate their profile code couldn’t be registered because registration cannot be done without the generation of profile code. The process which began 19th of April 2021 was brought to a close on 17th of May 2021. A total number of 106 students were successfully registered out of 110 estimated beneficiaries. 4 candidates could not generate their profile code until the deadline for registration. Registration cost per person which is also the monetary value of a single form is 4700, so a sum of 4700 naira was paid to registered each students. In total, 498, 200 (Four Hundred and Ninety-Eight thousand, two hundred naira only) was expended for the purchase of 106 UTME forms for 106 candidates. 18800 (Eighteen thousand Eight Hundred) naira which is the value for four unclaimed forms is to be remitted by the coordinator of this program. The names of successful registered candidates are recorded in an excel sheet attached to this document. The excel sheet contain: 1} Names of the successfully registered candidates, 2} Phone number and 3} profile code of the successfully registered candidates. The three column in the excel sheet were considered necessary for easy identification, verification and confirmation. The profile code was added because it was expected that only those who generated their profile code were registered. The phone number did not take a zero because zero cannot start a list of number on excel sheet, so it should be assumed that each number begin with a zero even if zero are not physically attached. However, candidates from Okeagbe community do not have phone number attached to their names because their phone numbers were not provided in the primary list generated by the ward leaders (Ward 3 and ward 4).

Registration of UTME Candidates

The tutorial began on 19th of April 2021. It took place in four designated centres within Akoko North West constituency one. The centers are Akoko Anglican Grammar School, community High school Ikaram, Okeagbe High School, and Comprehensive High Ajowa. Each centre has a coordinator who report daily to the supervisor of the program on the unfolding of event at the various centers, discussing challenges, needs, want and serves as channel of feedback. the need for coordinator was considered necessary because the supervisor cannot possibly be stable at all the designated centers (physically present at the same time in all the centers). The supervisor visits each of the center twice a week on rotational basis, the supervisor also appoint an assistance who help with the overall supervision when the supervisor is not around. During the first four weeks of the program, there were impressive turnout in Ako Grams, Okeagbe High school and Ikaram Community High school but there was low turnout in Ajowa High School. A total of 60-70 students attend the tutorial centre at Akoko Anglican grammar school on daily basis. The population of student at Okeagbe High school range between 60-70, sometimes during general class like English, class is divided into two because a single class room couldn’t contain the students. At Community High school, the population of students range between 30-59, while at Ajowa Population of students do not exceed 40. The activities that commenced in 19th of April 2021 lasted for two months as it was rightly stated in the proposal that guided the execution of this project. The tutorial came to an end on 12th of June 2021, at the scheduled time and date earmark for the program.

CHALLENGES/SHORTCOMING

There were not much challenges except the few ones that shall be mentioned here. Some of the challenges encountered are: Lackadaisical and Lackluster Attitude of Some Student Towards Learning: The inertia and loathsomeness exhibited by some of the students (though expected but not in the magnitude of what was experienced) weakened their level of assimilation. Students are becoming nonchalant towards education and many are becoming indolent to learning, the reason for this couldn’t be separated from the conditions that somewhat makes education worthless, worthless relatively to those who couldn’t see education as a guarantor of something more important than money. Apparently a larger percentage of our population suffer from this selective bias and prejudice. This situation actually reduces the cognitive ability of the students which practically made the teachers to be emphatic and their work tedious. Poor Academic Foundation: it was discovered during the cause of this program that most of the secondary schools in Akoko lack teachers, most of the school don’t have teachers in core subjects. For instance, Akoko Anglican Grammar school do not have mathematics teacher, English Teachers, Physics and the list continues. There were nine PTA teachers in Akoko Anglican Grammar school, their remuneration is just 20,000 thousand naira Monthly. They work with little or no motivation, they lament lack of job as one of the reason they took the job. At Okeagbe High school, there were no physics teacher, Chemistry teachers, literature teachers, English teachers etc, the school also has nine PTA teachers who do their work with little or no supervision. Community High school Ikaram and Comprehensive High school Ajowa, Ajuwa High schools, all these school lack a minimum of Nine teachers and rely solely on PTA teachers to meet up with the shortage of manpower. This malady actually impacted the student negatively as most of them exhibit a complete oblivion to new topic. There was nothing to improve or build on but we have to start from the scratch, building the foundation of new topic from the very beginning. We got jamb syllabus on all subjects for the teachers and stretch the topics within two months of four weeks to make sure no stone was left on turn. Materials were also made available to the teachers and they lack nothing necessary for their work except that their remuneration were delayed. Delay of Teachers’ fee. Delay of teacher’s fees weakened the teachers’ morale, it took a lot of effort to motivate them and keep them on the job throughout the duration of the program. Lack of Adequate Finance to Run the Project.