What exactly should outstanding students receive as presents to appreciate and make them put more effort in their studies?
A photo recently took over the internet and got Nigerians talking about the kind of present school children deserve to get as a reward for their academic performance.
Last week was the end of the term for most schools. And those students who performed well in their first term exam went home with gifts from schools management and some from their teachers to appreciate them.
Before delving into the unique gifts in the viral photo, let's ask ourselves a question.
What exactly should outstanding students receive as presents to appreciate and make them put more effort in their studies?
I think the list is endless. I guess anything that will make them happy and everything that will help them in their studies should be ideal enough as gifts for them.
So, parents can buy them computers, new school uniforms, textbooks new sandals of their choice, take them out, in fact, anything that will make your child happy and facilitate their learnings
This sounds beautiful, right? But since the list of what you can do to make your school kids happy is endless, the government of Katsina and a school in Anambra state have shown us that giving them goats too is a good incentive for academic performance.
Goat or what? Yes, healthy life goats .
Okay, back to the viral photo that brought goats into the picture.
A school in Anambra state in a bid to celebrate its students' performance after their first term examinations reportedly gave out goats to the pupils.
It was a one pupil one goat affair, the school kids stood with their goat gifts, struck a pose before the camera and the moment was photographically recorded with no happiness registered on some of the pupils' faces.
Maybe the pupils were not expecting goats as their end of the year gifts.
Similarly, the Katsina government in November impressed female secondary school students in the state by giving them life goats in the name of empowerment.
While commissioning the project on Saturday, November 11, at Government Girls Arabic Secondary School, Dutsinma, the state's commissioner for Education Professor Halimatu Idris said the program is aimed at empowering students to be self-reliant.
Meanwhile, an anonymous citizen of Katsina state told Pulse that the goats were given to the students to rear for a year. He added that the students are expected to return the mother goats to the government and have the kids for themselves.
The interesting thing in this goat gifts is that the Anambra school and Katsina government have creatively demonstrated that outstanding students can get more than books, uniforms, money prize and other academic incentives for their efforts.
Someone definitely thought out of the box and said, what if we start giving students goats. The idea struck and goats became the new academic incentives in Anambra and Katsina.
But come to think of it, isn't goat award a good idea in a country where a piece of meat is a luxury so many families can not afford?
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Besides, Christmas is here and the goat gifts can be put to a good and delicious use for the family whose children's academic brilliance won a goat reward.
The goats in the Katsina government empowerment project would certainly give birth to many kids and the students apart from having few books would also become goat owners.
So who says this newly found means of rewarding academic excellence isn't proper?
Shout out to the pupils that received goats for their academic performance and all Katsina female students who will have to rely on their goat gifts to become self-reliant.
These leaders of tomorrow will have a funny story to tell the next generation about how Nigerian leaders used to reward their academic performance.
Finally, I will like to congratulate the management of the Anambra school for recognizing these students hard work and determination to top their respective classes.
And on behalf of the students, I congratulate the Katsina state government for empowering students with goats. The students and the citizens of Katsina state will not forget governor Aminu Masari's initiative to empower students in the state.