Vera Wisdom-Bassey

The  2nd edition of Mayen Adetiba Technical Boot Camp for Girls was held recently at Rotary Club Ikeja, Lagos, with the theme “Creativity, the Pivot for Sustainable Development”.

The camp was attended by students from 13 schools in Lagos and they are from  Mende Junior High School, Maryland, Immaculate Heart Junior High School, Maryland, Wesley Girls School, Yaba, Onikan Girls Junior High School, Yaba. Bolande Junior High School, Oshodi, Government Junior College, Agege, among others.  Also present was the Director, Ministry of Education, Mrs. Oyinkunsole Ogu.

Some schools received prizes for their performance during the events and are from Ikeja Junior High School, came 1st and received N50,000 with a trophy. Wesley Girls Junior Secondary School took 2nd position while Ikeja Junior High school took 3rd position.

One of the founders of Association of  Professional Women Engineers in Nigeria  (APWEN), Mrs. Mayen  Adetiba, a fellow of Nigerian Academy of Engineers, revealed that many young girls are afraid of Mathematics and Physics because there is no one to encourage them.

Related News

Adetiba,  a former student of Reagan  Memorial Baptist School, Lagos,  recalled that they had teachers from America, during her school days, arguing ‘’we were afraid  and scared of Mathematics but there was a young teacher then, who made us understand that there is nothing in it.’’

According to her, the boot camp attracted  150 school girls from public schools and they had no Mathematical set, which will enable them to get the angles and be able to build their bridges, so it was a problem.  The whole idea was to make them use geometry exposure, using their Maths set to get an angle but the students couldn’t do it because they have not been exposed.

“We need to critically look at the issues in the public schools, they are not well funded. This is what is being experienced in public secondary schools.  We give scholarship so that those who learn can teach others, I don’t subscribe to the government paying school fees for everybody,’’ she explained.

In her remarks, the President of Association of Professional Women Engineers in Nigeria (APWEN), Mrs. Felicia Agubata said the body was launched six years ago with the aim to create awareness on girl-child education in engineering.

She disclosed that the association has trained many girls in engineering in the universities through scholarship and that the initiative is a 10-year development plan.