The latest batch of 60 children
from the Niger Delta have been awarded the special secondary school scholarship
of the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) Joint Venture, under its Cradle
to Career which covers tuition and all other bills for six years in four of the
topmost private secondary schools in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, reports
ITRealms.
The 60 benefiting students drawn
from Brookstone Secondary School, Jephthah Comprehensive College, Archdeacon
Brown Educational Centre (ABEC) and Bloombreed High School in Port Harcourt
were placed on full scholarship for their secondary education, after a two-week
orientation programme with introductory courses in academics, character and
psychology.
ITRealms also reports that the students
are the seventh set of beneficiaries and they bring the total number of
beneficiaries since inception of the Cradle to Career programme to 410.
The Managing Director of SPDC and
Chairman, Shell Companies in Nigeria, Osagie Okunbor, said, this year, the
first set of beneficiaries completed their secondary education and the report available
indicated that about all of them recorded excellent performance in the school
certificate and unified tertiary matriculation examinations.
“It means the aims of the programme
are being achieved,” said Okunbor who was represented by the General Manager,
External Relations SPDC, Mr. Igo Weli, at the award
ceremony in Port Harcourt at the weekend, the MD said SPDC and its joint
venture partners have sustained the scholarship initiative despite the current
economic challenges because they see education as a right for every child and
not a privilege.
Dr Patricia Ogbonnaya, Mrs
Elizabeth Alagoa and Dr Moses Onoriode Bragiwa, representatives of the Rivers,
Bayelsa and Delta states Commissioners for Education respectively, extolled the
Cradle to Career scholarship scheme for complementing their governments’
investments in education. They praised the transparent selection process and
the human capital development benefits of the programme to the region.
“SPDC has a passion for investing
in people and we are happy to report that students in the programme have over
the years been on the top of their classes in their respective schools. We
thank Shell and their joint venture partners for helping to ameliorate the
problems of the Niger Delta,” said Dame Christie Toby, the proprietress of one
of the implementing schools.
The SPDC JV launched the Cradle to
Career initiative in 2010 to provide for bright indigent students and improve
on the positive results of its other portfolio of scholarship schemes for local
and international undergraduate and postgraduate studies.
Shell Companies in Nigeria have a
long history of supporting education through scholarships and other
initiatives. In 2015, a total of $10.1 million was invested in scholarships by
the SPDC Joint Venture and Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company
(SNEPCo.) Grants were awarded to 930 secondary school students and 638
university undergraduates in 2015, with a total of 10,401 (secondary) and 3,532
(university) grants given over the last five years.
Pix: L-R: General Manager, External Relations of SPDC, Mr. Igo Weli; Master Anioki Godfirst (Bayelsa State Beneficiary); Master Ibojoh Godwin (Delta state beneficiary); Miss Blessing Chioma Eric (Rivers State beneficiary); Mrs. Elizabeth E. Alagoa, Director for Secondary Education – Bayelsa State Ministry of Education and Dr. Moses Bragiwa, Director for Basic and Secondary Education – Delta State Ministry of Education, In Port Harcourt.
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