Education can be described as a process of development through the careful dissemination of knowledge. By educating an individual, the goal is to pass on some desirable information, skills, attitudes, interests, and frames of mind best for personal development.
Etymologically, the term ‘education’, stems from the Latin word Educare, which means to train or bring out. Given that the term education is not just a concept, but a process that does not come to an end – an activity that goes on through a person’s lifetime with no definitive timeframe, the idea of education encompasses a lot more than merely training. It leaves a formative effect on the minds of individuals which leaves them enlightened and improved than they were.
According to the UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report and Education Commission’s Learning Generation Report:
- 171 million people could be lifted out of extreme poverty if all children left school with basic reading skills. That’s equivalent to a 12% drop in the world total.
- Education increases earnings by roughly 10% per additional year of schooling.
- If workers from poor and rich backgrounds received the same education, the disparity between the two in working poverty could decrease by 39%.
- Educational attainment explains about half of the difference in growth rates between East Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa between 1965 and 2010.
- In 2050, GDP per capita in low-income countries would be almost 70% lower than it would be if all children were learning.
It is without a doubt highly imperative that we pay attention to education, especially for the younger generation. At Babban Gona, our goal to reduce the rate of unemployment in Nigeria is being tackled on different fronts, education being one of them.
In line with SDG 4 (Quality education), we have continued to provide scholarships to the children of our TGEs. In 2020, we granted 129 scholarships to the wards of our smallholder farmer members to finance their secondary school education for a period of 3 years. In 2021, we also granted more scholarships to 108 the wards of our farmer members for a period of 3 years.
Going forward, Babban Gona intends to expand the scholarships to participants of the WEDI program and Field Officers.
With the support of our partners, we recently granted 114 scholarships to the wards of our farmer members to finance their secondary school education for a period of 3 years.
In an interview with a parent of one of the 2020 scholarship recipients, he expressed his joy saying “I felt so happy to an extent that I shed tears when I learned that I had been successful with the scholarship. The reason being that I had a daughter that was schooling at Jos and because I could not afford to pay for all my children’s school fees she was sent back home but now BG has given me hope that my daughter will surely have a better education.”
For Mallam Murtala, he believes that the scholarship would enhance quality education, in his words “Because of the development BG had brought to us, the education of our children had started developing, but with this extra scholarship opportunity we are more grateful to BG for the tremendous effort towards developing our lives.”
Anthonia Mark, another 2020 scholarship recipient is grateful that she can pursue her dreams; in her words “the scholarship will help my family to pay school fees for my younger ones comfortably especially now that my own schooling had been taken care of by BG”
Now, Nasiru can pursue his dream to be an Agriculturist; this will enable him to improve my father’s livelihood and also to be part of the BG family. Saidu can become a Lawyer to help her community and to prevent the poor from being cheated. Nuhu can achieve his dreams of becoming a Medical Doctor to help his community and his family members.
In line with the Sustainable Development Goals, we believe that education is an imperative tool for development in every nation. Everyone deserves an equal chance at achieving their dreams and with the little resources available it can be difficult to do this. Babban Gona is grateful for the support and unrelenting efforts of our partners and investors in helping to improve the living standards of our farmer members on all fronts, thereby staying true to our mantra “Better your life”.
