Africado foundation, Boys lead foundation in collaboration with Christian Aid and ActionAid Nigeria on Tuesday organized a national debate championship finals for secondary school students across the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to develop their thinking skills and engage them in meaningful conversations around national issues.
A Corp member and Founder/CEO Africado Foundation, Richardson Ojeka said the national debate championship finals was aimed at giving opportunities to young people so that they can develop their eloquence, thinking skills and have reasonable and meaningful conversations around national issues.
He said they believe that the students are the future of tomorrow and should begin to have meaning conversations in the country about national issues and to ensure that their future is secured.
He further said the debate is to give the students the platform to share their thoughts , their experiences while they are building their confidence at the same time.
In his words “This is a personal Community Development Service (CDS) project and we are doing it in collaboration with Africado foundation, Boys lead foundation, Africado group of companies, Christain Aid and ActionAid Nigeria (AAN) .
In selection of students, Richardson explained that invitations were sent out to schools and the schools that honored the invitation were invited.
“They were classified in different groups and at the end of the group stages, they had the knock out stages and today we had the finals.
“We have Seven schools competing, Four of them who made it to the finals are competing against each other for the First, Second and Third positions. The First place position will get a Trophy, Gold medals and N100,000 .
“The Second position will get a plaque and Silver medal, Third place position will get a plaque and Bronze medal while the best speaker will get a cash gift of N20,000. Also, the best organized schools will get a plaque. We are also giving awards to the teachers who trained their students well.
“The fact is that we have public schools who made it to the finals and says a lot about the education system in the country. A lot has been done and also still needs be done and we commend the government so far.
“There is need to strengthen the education system and we found out that most of the public schools student are not exposed to technology and it is very important.
He called on the Federal Government to strengthen the institutions that they already have and empower the youth through support programs such as this.
At the end of the debate , Junior Secondary School, JSS Alungu Lungu took the First position, JSS Kubwa III emerged the Second position, while JSS Dutse Sagwari took the Third position.