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By Abuchi Onwumelu
The member representing Onitsha South I Constituency in the Anambra State House of Assembly, Hon. Patrick Paddy Aniunoh, has flagged off a one month free holiday lesson for over 900 students of the constituency, to enhance their academic pursuit.
The holiday lesson which would hold at Urban Girls’ Secondary school, Fegge, Onitsha, was flagged off in the area last Monday.
Declaring the holiday lesson open, the benefactor, Hon. Aniunoh, who is the House Committee Chairman on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), explained that the aim of the academic exercise which had lasted for three years was to keep the students busy and prevent them from engaging in anti-social behaviour.
The legislator disclosed that the participants were junior secondary school students drawn from various schools in Onitsha South I Constituency and that the exercise was his own way of complementing the efforts of their parents in giving them quality education.
For her part, the Centre Coordinator, Mr. Patrick Aniuno Holiday Lesson Programme, Mrs Anthonia Okonkwo, disclosed that the lawmaker engaged 20 qualified teachers who would teach the students Science and Arts subjects with secondary school scheme of work for one month, followed by an examination.
According to her, 150 students that would excel would be offered scholarship by Hon. Aniunoh for one academic year, even as she adding that the programme had helped the beneficiaries to advance in their studies in the past three years.
She thanked Hon. Aniunoh for the opportunity to coordinate the lesson, which she said, had been on since 2015, noting that Urban Girls, was at the center of Fegge Community hence the reason to use Urban Girls, Secondary School Premises for lectures.
‘We’ve not seen this in Fegge since the creation of Fegge as a constituency until Paddy Aniunoh became a legislator and we are grateful and thankful to God for giving us APGA whose products, Paddy, and Gov Willie Obiano, are working in Onitsha South 1 and Anambra State simultaneously,’ she said.
Continuing, the lesson coordinator said no registration fees were charged, saying that the materials for the lesson were free.
She reminded those present that the holiday lessons started with only English and Mathematics in 2015 but other subjects were added in subsequent lessons.
Expressing his gratitude to the lawmaker, the chairman, Anambra State Universal Basic Education Board, Chief Nzemeka Olisa, noted that the programme would take the students off the streets and inculcate the reading culture in them and called on others to emulate Hon. Aniunoh.
Speaking, the Onitsha South Education Secretary, Dr. Mrs. Kanayo Chukwurah, charged the students to be attentive and maximize the opportunity given to them to increase in knowledge.