LRF Inspires Young Minds at Abadina Primary Schools in Ibadan

On Tuesday, 11 June 2024, the LRF paid a courtesy visit to Abadina Primary School 1 and 3, University of Ibadan, Nigeria, to sensitize the pupils on the benefits of reading. Representing the Foundation were Olabisi Olasupo, Funmilayo Makinde, Chinyere Nwokike, Timileyin Adeleke, and Abraham Akinyemi.

The Headmistress of Abadina Primary School 1, Mrs. Amuda, welcomed them and the programme commenced at 9:20 am in the school hall with 210 pupils and 9 staff members in attendance.

Olabisi engaged the students in some minutes of singing and clapping to pique their interest. Then she explained that the purpose of the LRF’s visit to their school was to groom them to be better readers who would eventually become better leaders in future. She also stated that Nigeria is currently lagging behind because we have elected leaders who are not readers.

Abraham then gave a detailed explanation regarding the mission and vision of the Foundation, explaining why it is important for Nigerians to make books begin to trend again in our nation. Timileyin then took over and educated the pupils on the benefits of reading. Thereafter, Chinyere introduced the books that would be read during the session.

Pupils from different classes were chosen to read excerpts from the books Robert the Artist, A Seed of Kindness, and The King’s Flowers by Folakemi Onabanjo. Mrs. Olabisi also taught the pupils how to read, using the book The New Queen Primer. All the students who read were allowed to keep the books that they had read as gifts.

A question-and-answer session followed, and many of the pupils were eager to give responses to the questions. Gifts were given to pupils who got the answers correctly in the form of pens, pencils and erasers. 12 pencils, 12 pens and 9 erasers were given in total.

At the end of the outreach, Mrs. Amuda appreciated the representatives of the LRF on behalf of the two schools. She emphasized that the play-way method used by the representatives made the session more interesting, and that the pupils learnt important lessons from it. Three books were donated to each of the two primary schools for their mobile libraries. The visit came to an end at 10:30am.