This year's annual Mohammed Dele Belgore Solidarity Team (MDBST)'s Free Extra mural lessons for secondary school students in Kwara state has come and gone but the sweet memories of this programme linger on in the minds of the organizers, teachers and students. On all counts, it has been a huge success! The initiative confirms the commitment of Mohammed Dele Belgore (SAN) to education, which he believes should be given to every child.

The beneficiaries of the programme - mainly teenagers whose growing up requires careful attention - are now better for it. The programme ensured that they spent their long holiday purposefully, instead of roaming the streets, joining bad gangs and sowing the seed of failure.

The 2013 edition is the third in the series of such programmes run by the MDBST. Last year, as in the year before it, it was held only in Kwara Central Senatorial district. Impressed by the successes recorded so far, the sponsor directed that the programme be spread to the other two Senatorial Districts of Kwara. So, in addition to the 10 centres in Ilorin metropolis and one each in Otte and Afon, the programme also took place in three other centres in Offa, Oro and Ajasse in Kwara South while students in Kwara North were tutored in Kaiama, Lafiagi, Pategi and Moro. These centres were swarming with students within the first one week of takeoff.

Our initial budget was for roughly 2,850 but by the time we were rounding off, we had a total of 5000 students taking part in the programme across the state. The initial plan was to restrict the programme to Senior Secondary students because of challenges of security but we ended up accommodating junior secondary students because we could not afford to turn down our parents who requested everyday that we should also accommodate their children. We are impressed by parents who not only entrusted us with their children but also volunteered to form some sort of vigilante group to ward anyone who may want to shut the tutorial centres. The parents were apprehensive, and genuinely so, that some persons might want to do so as they did in 2102. And some persons claiming to be agents of government indeed made efforts to shut down the centres especially in one of the centres in Ilorin South. We prefer anonymity here to protect the wonderful school administrator who received all kinds of threat messages from intolerant agents and pseudo-agents of government just for permitting holiday coaching for future leaders!

Apart from the attendance being hugely impressive, the 2013 edition of the programme was unique! Not only did we extend the tutorial to other senatorial districts, MDB, through a Computer Software Company in Lagos, formally introduced e-learning techniques to our students as The Personal Education Tablet for Secondary Schools (PETSS) was introduced in the third week of the programme.

This learning device for Senior Secondary Schools was launched on 19th August 2013. The tablet contains comprehensive textbooks on 17 core subjects which include English Language, Mathematics, Geography, Physics, Biology, Chemistry, History, Technical Drawing, and Economics. The curriculum for developing these textbooks was taken from the National Education Resource Council (NERC). Apart from the textbooks, the device also has video tapes of certified teachers handling each topic. The tablet is internet-enabled. Loaded on this device are past questions for the WAEC and the UTME for the past 20 years. Students can, on a Do It Yourself (DIY) basis, go through the process of testing themselves on these questions, score and evaluate their performance. In this era of computer-based exams, the PETSS presents to the students a unique opportunity to prepare themselves for these exams. It is the first time anyone has done so in Kwara State – and the first time an individual has done so nationwide. The Osun State Government's Opon Imo, an initiative of the innovative Rauf Aregbesola administration, is a public project. It is on this basis that we laud the foresight of Mohammed Dele Belgore, SAN as well thank the management of Mobile Knowledge Solutions, providers of the technology.

Tunji Ajanaku is the State Coordinator, MDB Solidarity Team, Kwara State