ICC Charges Parents To Prioritise Girl Child Education

The Ilobu Concerned Citizens (ICC) in Irepodun local government area of Osun State, has called on parents to prioritise the education of girl child for development of the nation.

According to ICC, it is high time for parents to be more concerned about the education of their female children, declaring that ‘when you train a girl, you train a nation’.

Speaking on Monday at the Second Edition of the Jare Adebisi-Balogun Education Grant (JABEG), organised by the ICC, the Chairman of the group, Dr. Kamarudeen Oladosu, emphasised the importance of education in every community, state and nation.

Oladosu decried what he observed as lackadaisical attitude of some parents to educating their female children, especially in the rural areas.

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He charged parents not to give preference to male children at the expense of female children on education, saying both genders deserved and should be given quality education.

The Chairman said the ICC rolled out education grants to three indigent students of higher institutions in honour of late Barr. Jare Adebisi-Balogun, a former Special Adviser to the Governor on Governor’s Office who was a founding member of the group before he died.

According to him, “Parents should be more concerned about the education of the girl child. When you pay attention to train a girl child, you have trained a nation.

“The ICC is concerned with anything that will advance the course of Ilobu. We were at a time students and we passed through difficulties before we graduated and got to where we are today.

“As a club, we started to expend our ways of giving back to our society (Ilobu), by providing education grants. After series of discussion, we unanimously named the group after one of our members, Barr. Jare Adebisi-Balogun, who is now late.

“This is second edition of the education grant for indigent students. We invited application from indigent students through a link which was circulated, and we got responses across the country. 

In his remarks, the ICC Secretary, Dr Nurein Abioye, disclosed that 19 students applied for the scholarship programme, six got to interview stage, while three students finally made the list.   

Abioye said a law student of Ado Bayero University, Salahundeen Ridwanlahi, a Medicine and Surgery student from the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Adedigba Ismael, and a Radiography student of the Federal University, Oye-Ekiti, Odewale Mubinat won the 2024 education grants of the group.

Speaking on behalf of others, one of the beneficiaries of the grant, Ismail Adedigba, appreciated the group for its support, promising to be a good ambassador of the community anywhere in the world.