By Maryam Garba Hassan
President of the American University of Nigeria (AUN), Dr. Margee Ensign, has said for Nigeria to get education right it must ensure that every deserving or qualified student in the society is given the chance to be educated.
She said public and private universities in Nigeria should provide scholarships for bright students who are not well- off to get qualitative education in their institutions.
Ensign gave the recommendation yesterday in Abuja when she and the University’s Director of Communications, Mr. Daniel Okereke, paid a courtesy call to the head office of Peoples Media Limited, publishers of Peoples Daily, in Abuja.
She said to help in providing a university education to qualified students who were not well-off to get qualitative education in Nigeria, the founder of AUN, former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, is providing scholarships for such students.
She said presently, the number of students receiving financial aid from Atiku Abubakar has grown over the years, representing 15% of the university students’ population.
She said its newest scholarship program, in addition to those the school has been offering, provides a special scholarship to one worthy applicant from every state in Nigeria.
“It is our goal that no talented applicant would ever be turned away from AUN for lack of funds. We haven’t reached that goal yet, but we are getting there. It is also very important to understand that the very same education in the United States would cost 4 times what we charge at AUN”, Ensign added.
She said if all universities in Nigeria will intervene in giving qualified students the chance to go to school, the 10.5million out of school children in Nigeria which make it the country with the highest number of out- school children in the world, as recently revealed by the UNESCO, will significantly reduce.
She said to produce problems solvers in future, every AUN student must involve in community projects.
She said the American University of Nigeria (AUN), which is Africa’s first development university and the only private, co- educational American-style institution in sub- Saharan Africa has developed Community Service which is part of the school’s first-year development seminar required of all entering students which she said is line with US practice where students are sent into the local community to actively participate in, and reflect upon real development projects with the intention of creating problem solvers in Nigeria.
Never miss a moment! Get the stories shaping Nigeria, delivered straight to your phone. Follow Peoplesdaily Newspaper on WhatsApp for breaking news, exclusive reports, and the headlines everyone will be talking about, before anyone else.
