A non-profit organisation, Tope Dare Foundation, has donated a multi-million naira ultra modern 100-bed hostel facility, to the St. Peter’s Unity Secondary School, Akure, the Ondo State capital.
Also, friends of the foundation also donated writing materials such as exercise books and pen to the 1,100 pupils of the school while drugs were supplied to the school clinic. Best female and male students of various schools also received laptops.
Speaking at the presentation of the building to the Ondo State Government, the founder of the foundation, Mr. Tope Dare, said the gesture was aimed at creating more conducive learning environments for the pupils of the school.
Dare, who was among the 1992 set of old students of the school , disclosed that more than 300 corporate entities from Nigeria and all over the world had made contributions to the successful completion of the hostel.
According to him, the hostel built within the premises of the school has IP CCTV cameras with night vision for perimeter security surveillance, fire extinguishers, fire alarm systems with 12 smoke detectors, three units of emergency call points and three sounders as well as renewable power supply (solar system).
He said, “The project started with Tope Dare Foundation, with primary aims of providing quality education to the less privileged students in our society and providing the basic needs such as medicals for those that are challenged and unable to pay their bills and the last leg of our foundation is empowerment.
“We believe that these three objectives are needed in the Nigeria of today. Education is very critical and we can not leave it all to the government to do for us. We must all give back to our society and alma mater and the foundation believes that providing this facilities will go a long way to help the students.”
Lamenting the poor state of primary and secondary education in the country, Dare submitted that the government had failed in the education sector.
He said, “It is painful that the facilities we had 30 years ago are all rotten. Be it power, health care, security and that same thing is reflecting in all public schools.
“We know that government has failed. The government would not have funds to maintain or expand the facilities and that is the reason foundations, philanthropists are coming out to give back to the society.
“Government can no longer maintain schools. As we talking, teachers’ salary is being funded by the PTA. Government doesn’t have enough teachers. Government has so much responsibilities that it has neglected education. We believe that more donations should be made by the private sector.”
Receiving and inaugurating the new hostel on behalf of the state government, the Ondo State Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Mr Femi Agagu, appreciated the foundation for all its efforts to promote education in the state .
The commissioner urged other stakeholders to emulate the gesture of the foundation as government alone could not fund education with the current realities in the country.
