Sam Philip
As the May 27 Children’s Day celebration approaches, Ondo State government has announced the resuscitation of the moribund Children Parliament in commemoration of the celebration.
Oratory skills and cultural competitions are also organised by the state government to identify intellectual and knowledge capacity of the children.
Briefing journalists on the programmes line up for the 2025 Children’s Day celebration with the theme: “Stand Up, Building A Bully Free Generation,” Special Adviser(Women Affairs and Social Development), Dr. Oluwaseun Osamaye disclosed that about 2500 pupils of primary and secondary schools from 100 schools selected from the 18 local government areas of the state would participate in the competitions.
She revealed that the moribound Children Parliament would be resuscitated, saying the children would be taken to the state House of Assembly to observe the plenary session of the Assembly on Wednesday and Thursday.
According to Dr. Osamaye, the pupils would be exposed the proceedings and how lawmakers operate and make demands for their constituencies.
She said the children parliament had been moribund for 12 years, emphasising that the Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa-led administration is determined to encourage the children in exploring and exploiting their potentials.
Dr. Osamaye explained that a student would represent each school that would represent each local government that would participate in the oratory skills competition.
She said there are prizes to be won by the winners of the competitions.
The first runner-up would receive N500,000, the second, N200,000 and the third winner would receive N100,000.
Explaining the cultural competition, Osamaye said each participating school would be expected to display cultural heritage peculiar to their host communities.
She said the state is focusing on identifying intellectual and knowledge capacity of the participants.
To achieve the goals of the competitions and other programmes, a One-day workshop for strategic stakeholders was organised by the Ministry on Monday to take through the modalities of the competitions and how the theme of the year could be achieved after the celebration in all schools across the 18 local government areas of the state.
The grand finale is the march past would hold at Gani Fawehinmi Freedom Arcade at Alagbaka, Akure on May 27, 2025.
Principals, headteachers, Education officers, students and other stakeholders were invited to the workshop to be addressed by the Chairman of State Universal Basic Education Board(SUBEB), Victor Olabittan, who also represented Governor Aiyedatiwa at the event.