Foundation reaches out to school pupils in Cross River
… shares books, bags, uniforms other educational materials
… pledges yearly outreach
Coco-Bassey Foundation has pledged annual outreach to students of Primary and Secondary schools in Cross River State in order to assist parents and encourage the students to achieve life goals.
The foundation pledge was made known during an outreach to schools on Valentine’s day across the three senatorial zones of the state whenover 5,000 pupils and students in the State recieved
The Foundation is doing this as part of its numerous empowerment programmes to ameliorate school children and parents of the challenges they face in pursuing their academics in the state, the representatives said.
The benefiting schools from the empowerment programme that was done simultaneously on February 14, 2022, in the three senatorial districts (Cross River South, Central, and North) of the state are: Model Comprehensive Secondary School Begiaba, Obudu LGA (Northern Senatorial); Community Primary School Unimukong Ukwel, Obudu LGA (Northern Senatorial); Velos Secondary Commercial School, Four Corners, Ikom LGA (Central Senatorial)’ PCN Primary School, Four Corners, Ikom LGA (Central Senatorial), Presbyterian Primary School, Ishie Town, Calabar Municipality (South Senatorial) and Estate Secondary School, Ikot Ansa, Calabar Municipality (South Senatorial).
In a speech that was read in the three senatorial districts by his representatives, the Chairman of the Foundation, Engr Mkpang Coco-Bassey said, “it is valuable to educate children for they are the future of a Nation. A well-educated generation will produce Engineers, Teachers, Doctors scientists, Political leaders, etc that will develop a sustainable society where Job opportunities created will be utilized and proceeds used to take care of our fathers and mothers when they are old while putting bread and butter on the table of each family and their households”.
The speech in Cross River South Senatorial district which was presented by Mr. Patrick Coco-Bassey in Calabar, the Foundation Chairman said, ” this is the vision that has motivated this foundation to reach out to you on this faithful day with the goal of conducting a yearly empowerment programmes which will include:
“Presentations of scholarships. Payment of Exams fees and school fees for primary and secondary schools respectively. Payment for school uniforms as part of scholarships Presentation of exercise books and other writing materials including biros, pencils, rulers to all students. Presentation to Teachers (Teacher’s Notes) to support their schedule towards teaching and presentation of school bags to all the students”.
The young engineer stated that “this initiative has come to stay, and it will be at the forefront of the foundation’s activities. Our next initiative will include the presentation of Desktop computers and laptops to each public school since E-learning has become even more pertinent for diversified learning, owing to the constant evolution and the recent pandemic that rocked the world.
“Education, be it in the four walls of an institution or a skill acquisition centre, facilitates learning to kick-start a life of relevance which is a much-needed survival tool in today’s world. The Coco-Bassey Foundation is a major proponent of education and has deemed fit to award scholarships and educational empowerments to the three senatorial districts of Cross River State.
Coco-Bassey who is a product of public school pledged “to involve local and foreign support in developing the educational sector in Cross-River State”, saying, “I will also expand the program to accommodate the rehabilitation of existing classroom structures and subsequently build new ones in the coming future”.
The deputy head Teacher of Ishie Primary School, Roseline Sunday Okon who represented the Head Teacher, Mrs. Inyang Edem sincerely thanked God “for selecting my school to benefit. It is wonderful and amazing because I have been telling God to send helpers to these children because so many of them here do not have exercise books, writing materials, no textbooks, no one sandals and they have been coming to school like that and we thank that God for using Coco-Bassey Foundation to support us.
She commended the Foundation for its kind gesture, charged other groups to emulate Coco-Bassey Foundation by coming to our aide. Go to the classrooms things are bad and we are believing God Engineer Mkpang Coco-Bassey through the Foundation will touch the buildings and others”
A teacher of Estate Secondary School, Calabar Dr. Gladys Agbor who represented the Principal, Mrs. Theresa Ekuri also expressed delight with the empowerment programme from the Foundation saying, “our school is highly populated with over 2,000 students and most of the students live with people as house helps and most of them have been unable to pay their fees so this Foundation has really come to help us alleviate these our students from what they are suffering”.
On her part, the Headmistress Government Primary School, Obudu, Mrs. Victoria Ogar, said they are not used to this kind of empowerment and “this is the first time an organization or a foundation has given meaningful items to the school. Before now we always received salts, fish, Maggi and food items” hence commended the Foundation for its kind gesture.
She stated that the school has been left unattended to for a long time and pleaded with the Foundation for intervention as the school has a very poor learning environment, the class block has nothing to write home about, and “there is no examination hall, Laboratory equipment, ICT hall/Computers, no seats, Library and no good toilet for students, etc”.
In Central Senatorial district, Mr. Paul Alesi, a School Teacher of Valos Secondary school, said he is happy that his school was selected to benefit from the Coco-Bassey Foundation’s donation and prayed that God will continue to bless the Foundation and that they need him to do more
A Junior Secondary School (JSS 3) student of Valos Secondary school,
Oyebuchi Joy Bernard was also thrilled with the benevolence of the Foundation saying, “I am happy to get the school bag, exercise books, and others and I pray that God will continue to bless the Coco-Bassey Foundation”.
Memuna Sulieman Jibril a primary four pupil of PCN Primary School, Ikom, said, she was not expecting much to happen and it took her by surprise and also prayed for the Foundation to have the capacity to do more and as God will bless the Chief Executive Officer of the foundation.