By Uchino Amatey
As part of efforts to promote and sustain the heritage of Mary Slessor, the Mary Slessor Memorial & Heritage Foundation is set to donate 1,000 notebooks to selected schools in the State.
This was made known by the foundation recently, during a courtesy visit on the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) in Calabar.
The Director of Programmes of the Foundation, Mr Gabriel Adim stated that the foundation, an initiative of the Slessor Family, seeks to promote and sustain the heritage of Mary Slessor through their educational flagship programme of notebook distribution.
Mr Adim explained that the flagship programme was unveiled during the 2020 Annual Memorial Lecture with a goal to distribute 1,000 notebooks to schools in the rural areas. He added that the back cover of the notebooks have a summary of Mary Slessor’s life and work in Calabar and Nigeria which will create more awareness on her legacy.
According to him “Mary Slessor has played a huge role in Nigeria, especially Calabar where she was based. It is our responsibility to secure and promote her values. We are doing this by focusing on the educational values of our children through our educational flagship programme. We want to target selected schools in Cross River State and allow our children benefit from this very important history so they can also pass down this knowledge to future generations. We know we cannot do this without SUBEB’s support as one of the stakeholders in the educational sector.”
The Executive Director, Mary Slessor Memorial Foundation, Mrs Jean Macarthur listed history as an important part of pupils’ curriculum as a means to curb criminality. “The absence of history is making our children live a negative lifestyle. History needs to be reintroduced into the pupils’ curriculum, so that when these young boys and girls read about great men and women who have contributed positively to our country, they will aspire to emulate them and be great,” she emphasized.
Responding, the Board Secretary Cross River SUBEB, Mr Cyril Itam lauded the foundation for the initiative which he says will go a long way to aid beneficiaries in the rural communities. He added that through their efforts Mary Slessor’s legacy will remain evergreen in the minds of Cross Riverians.
Mr Itam urged them to continue their good works and pledged the Board’s continuous support, noting: “Education is key, no matter what we do if we do not educate citizens there will be problems in the future. Keep doing the good work, we will work with you for the benefit of our children. ”
Comments
Post a Comment