Mrs Abimbola Fashola, the Chairman of Leadership, Empowerment and Resource Network (LEARN), on Monday urged parents and guardians to encourage their children and wards to always participate in educational programmes that would build their cognitive abilities.
TBI Africa said Fashola made the call while speaking to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) at the 12th LEARN initiative held at the National Theatre, Iganmu, Lagos State.
According to her, LEARN is a non-profit organisation committed to grooming youths to be confident, self-sufficient and socially responsive.
“At LEARN, we are committed to leadership development, entrepreneurial skill acquisition, sexuality education, character development, vocational skills acquisition for young persons between the ages of nine years and 17 years.
“However, in celebrating Children’s Day, our target audience was for children between the ages of 11 years and 14 years where we had a quiz competition.
“The competition aimed at engaging their intellectual capability and developing their knowledge to what is obtainable at the international standards.
“Winners of the quiz will be given gifts but this is not the aim of the competition; the aim is to create an environment for learning in a fun way,’’ she said.
The former first lady of Lagos State told NAN that she was passionate about building strong, resilient characters in children for them to grow and become dependable future leaders of the country.
“I love children and I like to be in their midst; I try to understand what goes on in their minds and channel their energies into positive thinking.
“My passion for improved learning in children and youths led me to create an alternative platform for education in a dynamic and exciting learning environment,’’ she told NAN.
Fashola said that children engaged in too much entertainment activities and as such, need to be trained to strike a balance between entertainment and education so as to become healthy and stable individuals in future.
“I am not saying that entertainment is bad but it is not everybody that will become a superstar be it in music, sport or what have you.
“A lot of them will grow up to be doctors, lawyers and accountants and for this to become a reality, the training has to start from now; that is where we come in,” she said.
Fashola said that some of the past participants in the programme have had reasons to come back to use our library and facilities to update themselves for interviews and personal developments.
