Public school pupils in Adamawa State have given a good account of themselves in an inter-school debate held at the state capital, Yola.
Pupils in government schools in three local government areas in the three senatorial zones who participated in the debate made the audience marvel at their fluency despite being from supposedly neglected public schools.
The participants were all girls in the debate organised by pro-girl-education NGO, African Centre for Leadership Strategy and Development (Centre LSD), which has for two years been promoting girl-child education in the state with particular focus on the three local government areas of Maiha (Adamawa North), Song (Adamawa Central) and Numan (Adamawa South).
The secondary school girls proved in the debate the superiority of education over illiteracy as they marshalled their points on the topic, “Investing in Girl-child Education – A waste or a worthy investment”.
The three girls represented each LGA – with Team Numan and Team Song speaking for girl-child education; and Team Maiha arguing against it.
At the end of the competition, Team Numan won the trophy for the debate while Team Song came second.
In addition to the three-man panel of judges who scored the girls on time management, expression and voice projection, comportment and self-confidence, many in the audience expressed high regards for the debaters.
Chairman of Shelleng Local Government Area, Danjuma Abdullahi, said he was proud as a public official to behold such high quality in students attending public schools.
“The government of the day and development agencies such as the Centre LSD have been working hard to put quality in the delivery of education in our schools, but I did not quite expect such eloquence and knowledge in these girls. I am in deed proud of you,” he told the girls.
Senior Project Manager, Centre LSD, Amodu Lawal, said the debate was meant for the girls to express their ideas around girl-child education while developing their capacity for public speaking.
Additional to the debate was a Spelling Bee among pupils from Yola North and Girei LGAs, as well as a vocational skills display by out-of-school girls learning skills in centres established by the Centre LSD and operated as safe spaces for such category of girls to make the best of themselves, all with support from Malala Fund.
Amodu said the safe spaces, 16 of them in Adamawa State, were established essentially to engage girls of school age who are for some reason not in school, and to also feature in-school girls so that both can learn from and share experiences with each other.
Source: The Nations newspaper.