Rochas Okorocha, founder of the Rochas Foundation and former governor of Imo State, has established a Teach a Child/Sponsor a Child Project with the goal of enrolling one million out-of-school children.
Okorocha made this known at the project’s unveiling in Abuja on Tuesday, according to a statement made available to our correspondent by the foundation on Wednesday.
During the event, the former governor stated that the government owed it to every Nigerian child and unborn child the right education for their independence.
“In Africa, we have over 50 million out-of-school children and Nigeria has 13.5 million out of this figure; if we have one million people who can actually teach or sponsor a child, we will be better for it.
“In Nigeria, we have built political parties, hotels, churches and mosques but we have not built factories that manufacture dreams and aspirations.
” When I look back some 20 years ago, my thought is that education should be better by now.
“We have over 200 million people in Nigeria, out of this figure, if we can have one million Nigerians who can actually teach and sponsor children, then we will not be having the problem of out-of-school children,” he said.
He, therefore, said that the project would be a volunteering and mentorship programme that would take all out-of-school children back to school by 2050.
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Meanwhile, the Director-General of the foundation, Uchechi Rochas, said the greatest investment any nation could give was investing in the people to make other sectors productive.
Rochas said that with the unveiling of the TAC-SAC project, it would gain the involvement of stakeholders in all sectors to tackle the out-of-school children menace.
“As a nation, we have lost the spirit of volunteerism which has brought about 13.5 million children not to be in school.
“An uneducated child is one who showed up at your door step for a robbery attack, an uneducated child is one used for terrorism .
“The entre problem of this country can be stopped with education because if we empower these 13. 5 million children, we have empowered 13.5 million families.
” If you look at these numbers, female children have the large part of it. Therefore, it is important we get the children into the classrooms because if you empower the girl child, you empower the nation,” she said.
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