From WILLIE ATTAH, Gombe
No fewer than 400 less privileged students aspiring to further their education beyond secondary school level in Gombe State have been offered free JAMB forms to achieve their dreams.
A former state legislature and current chairman of the New Nigeria Peoples’ Party (NNPP), Rambi Ibrahim Ayala, in conjunction with Rahab Azi Inspire Initiative, organised the enrollment of the aspiring students from Billiri and Balanga Local Government Areas.
According to Ayala, who is into mentoring, social influencing and philanthropy, it is another way of giving educational support to the less privileged in the society out of his numerous programmes.
He said, “We are giving free Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) forms to less privileged children who could not afford to buy it and this is in collaboration with Rahab Azi Inspire Initiative, an Abuja based NGO.
We will also monitor and ensure they get admission. We’re desirous of giving them fully funded scholarships. This is just the beginning! We hope to have more by next year”.
Rambi also said, “I came to the realisation that hundreds of children with excellent results who would have loved to write JAMB, get admission into a tertiary institution, could not afford it because of the current biting economic hardship across the country.
“People are struggling to feed themselves, as such, most parents are not even thinking about the education of their children”, he decried.
He said, having himself gone through poverty, he feels it should not become a limitation from attaining the highest level of education.
“I’m a testimony of someone from this community who has seen, tasted, touched poverty, but that didn’t become a limitation to the height I’ve attained educationally.
“I rose from primary school to a PhD level and so I want to encourage other youths that poverty should not be a limitation to attaining the highest level of education. We want to inspire people to pursue education to whatever level, to better our society. It will also reduce social vices,” he stated.
Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Rahab Azi Inspire Initiative, Rahab Azi, told our correspondent that most of the recipients of the free JAMB forms distribution are girls on the ratio of 60 to 40% in favour of the girls.
Few of the admission seekers who spoke to our correspondent expressed their joy over the development and immensely thanked Rambi Ayala for the intervention.
Debo Kabiru, 19 years, from Balanga and Kaladi Moses, 18 years from Billiri who both completed their secondary schools in 2023 with flying colours, said they had lost hope as regard writing the JAMB examination but for the timely intervention of Rambi Ayala.
They both told our correspondent that their parents could not afford the prices for the JAMB forms which goes between N6,500 and N7,000.
The event also witnessed a paper presentation by Dr. Mohammed Bello, History Department, Gombe State University (GSU), who encouraged the young men and women to pursue education. He spoke on the topic, “Educational Development in Gombe South, Problems and Prospects”.
