Following the report of poor performance of candidates in the 2024 Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, stating that seventy percent (70%) of students who wrote the University Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) this year scored below fifty percent (50%)! In other words, only thirty percent (30%) scored above 200. Thirty percent! A group of veteran Nollywood Actors have decided to profer solution to part of the underlying causes of the mass failure, through a live stage performance.
It is against this background that a team of creatives have come together to deploy their talents in helping students better understand the various Literature-in-English texts in the syllabus, under the Theatre For Education project aka TEE-EF-EE.
In it’s press release, signed by TEE-EF-EE Project Coordinator, Ugo Obiayo, Esq
and made available to Ikorodu Oga Radio, the group under the aegis of Theatre for Education, a.k.a. TEE-EF-EE noted that ‘this woeful result calls for all hands to be on deck to re-invigorate our students in the pursuit of academic excellence. It is not a task for governments alone. It is not a task for the schools alone. Everyone who has a stake in the future of our nation, must lend a hand’.
The TEE-EF-EE project will enable students to experience consummate theatre performances of these plays. They will equally have the opportunity to interact with the stellar actors and actresses who will bring the characters to life.
‘We believe this accentuates the aphorism that plays are meant to be seen and not merely read.
Additionally, there will be Career Talks for the students, to be delivered by specially chosen professionals and counselors, to help channel the dynamic minds and energies of our present day youths’, the statement added.
The maiden text of the TEE-EF-EE Project plays is “The Lion and The Jewel” by Wole Soyinka, the Nobel Laureate who, only months ago, clocked 90 years with worldwide celebrations. The choice of the play, we gathered was informed by the necessity to join in owning our own WS, the literary icon of our time.
The live stage performances of “The Lion and The Jewel” are scheduled to run from Monday 4th — Friday 8th November 2024, at Golden Kharis Event Centre, Akasolori, along Itoikin Road, Ikorodu.
The stellar cast of actors to achieve part of TEE-EF-EE essential goals include: Edmond Enaibe (Teacher Chike, Friday Bello), a veteran with over 44 years active professional practice will play Baroka; veteran Bukky Ogunnote as Sadiku; Victor Oyebode (aka Boy Alinco) as Lakunle; screen diva Sola Kosoko as Favourite and Oluwadamilola Abisola Edward (aka Agbeke Eko) as Sidi. Babs Ademoye brings his many years of splendid interpretation of theatre concepts into this timeless drama as Director.
TEE-EF-EE will be based in Ikorodu with Golden Kharis, Ikorodu as the performance venue.
The statement reads further, ‘We have chosen this venue not just for the conducive atmosphere it provides but also for the safety and security it offers for intellectual activities’.
The consortium of creatives backing the purpose driven TEE-EF-EE project include; PROMOCOM, TEEConsult, JIIMBAY, DEITRIX, IRAWO OSERE, NAPPS, NANTAP, GONDP, TAMPAN and GOLDEN KHARIS.
‘Finally, the task to shoot up the educational performances of our next generation is a collective responsibility. Like the saying, the taste of the pudding is in the eating; drama is better seen than read’, the statement concluded.
