By Foday Moriba Conteh
In a bid to complement the Government’s Free Quality Education flagship Program in the country, the Fullah Progressive Union (FPU) has on Thursday August 19th 2021 unveiled a Five Hundred Million Leones Scholarship Scheme for one thousand (1000) early childhood pupils in four Districts in the country which include Falaba, Karene, Port Loko.
In addition to the 1000 children that will benefit twenty scholarships will also be allotted to students in tertiary institutions who are studying highly specialized courses. This disclosure was made during the launching ceremony of the education initiative which took place at FPU’s Headquarters on Aberdeen Road in Freetown.
In his address on the Education Initiative Project, the FPU Education Secretary, Hasmieu Barrie, intimated that members of the organization deemed it fit to come up with such an initiative as part of their efforts in complementing the Government’s commitment towards enhancing human capital development in the country.
He added that the launch of the Five Hundred Million Leones Scholarship Scheme is a pilot phase which he said is perfectly aligned with the national agenda, stating that the scheme will fill a lot of gaps within the education sector in the country continuing that the scholarship scheme will be mainly targeting the Girl Child and the scholarships for students pursuing courses at tertiary institutions will target female students who are in the STEM that is those pursuing course in the Sciences, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.
In his statement, the President of the Fullah Progressive Union (FPU), Alhaji Umaru Sanu Barrie, said he is very happy to launch the scholarship scheme which, he said, will not only be implemented during his administration as President of the organization but even after his tenure .
He assured all that as the President of the Fullah Progressive Union (FPU) he will work assiduously to ensure that he delivers on his campaign promises.
Alhaji Umaru Sanu Barrie noted that they consider education as the key to success underscoring how they want to ensure that all children that dropped out of school as a result of one reason or the other are given another opportunity to continue their schooling which, according to him is part of their contribution to complement the Government’s Free Quality Education initiative.
He stated the need for unity towards the rolling out of the scholarship scheme, adding that there is going to be an upscaling of the scheme targeting every region in the country of which he said such cannot be achieved without the support from members.
Unveiling the scholarship scheme, the Minster of Technical and Higher Education, Prof. Alpha Tejan Wurie, expressed profound gratitude to the current leadership of the Fullah Progressive Union (FPU) for the laudable venture and their strides to bring the Fullahs under one umbrella.
He maintained that the latest move by FPU will complement the efforts of the Ministry of Basic and Senior School Education with regards enhancing early childhood education stating how he is particularly impressed as the scholarship scheme is targeting pre-school pupils adding that catching them young will shape them for the future.
Prof. Alpha Tejan Wurie said the negative issues impinging girls’ education like early marriage is common among the Fullah ethnic group but stated that the FPU is now trying to change the narrative as it has really demonstrated commitment towards the development of the girl child further admonishing those belonging to the ethnic group to desist from allowing their female children to be married at an early age.
He noted that Fullahs have always been at the apogee of education in the country as they have been dolling out brilliant graduates who have etched their names in every tertiary institution in the country.
Prof. Wurie concluded by doing the official launching of the education initiative and the launching of the Western Area Membership Card for the Fullah Progressive Union (FPU).
Climaxing the ceremony was the pouring of donations coming from members which include the Financial Secretary of the FPU who donated One Hundred Million Leones (Le 100,000,000) to the scheme, the President and his family donated a whooping Three Hundred Million Leones (Le300, 000,000).
At the end of the donations from members the targeted five hundred million was passed and the need for all to sign up for the membership card was emphasized which is now available at the FPU Headquarters on Aberdeen Road with members put into different categories.
