Ado-Ekiti | Saturday, 1st August, 2026.
By Mature Minds Digital Radio & TV
As schools across Nigeria conclude the 2025/2026 academic session and students begin the long vacation, education advocate and broadcaster Ambassador Yasir Abiola has called on students, parents, teachers, and other stakeholders to see the holiday as an opportunity for learning, character building, and personal development rather than a break from education.
Speaking during the maiden edition of the BACK-TO-SCHOOL HOLIDAY SPECIAL on Mature Minds Digital Radio & TV, Ambassador Yasir Abiola unveiled a special series themed “Building Smarter, Safer, and More Purposeful Learners,” with the inaugural episode focusing on “Holiday Without Learning Loss: Making Every Day Count.”
He explained that while schools may close their gates during holidays, education itself should never stop. According to him, the way students spend their holidays often determines whether they return to school academically stronger or weaker than before.
To illustrate his point, he shared the story of two friends, Tunde and David, who finished the same class with almost identical academic results. While Tunde devoted his holiday entirely to entertainment and social media, David balanced relaxation with daily reading, skill acquisition, newspaper reading, and meaningful responsibilities at home. By the time school resumed, David demonstrated greater confidence, stronger academic performance, and better leadership qualities, while Tunde struggled to remember previous lessons. “The difference was not intelligence,” Ambassador Yasir Abiola noted. “The difference was how each student invested his time.”
He further explained the concept of learning loss, describing it as the gradual decline in knowledge and academic skills when learners remain disconnected from educational activities for an extended period. Drawing a comparison with athletes, he observed that just as physical fitness declines without regular exercise, students also lose academic sharpness when they completely abandon learning during holidays.
To help students remain productive, Ambassador Abiola outlined five practical strategies for making every day count during the vacation. He encouraged students to develop a daily reading habit, revise previous lessons, acquire practical skills such as computer appreciation, graphic design, coding, public speaking, photography, baking, agriculture, and video editing, while also making responsible use of technology by consuming educational content instead of spending excessive time on social media.
He equally stressed the importance of developing good character, reminding students that integrity, discipline, honesty, and service to others remain as valuable as academic excellence.
Addressing parents, he urged families to become active partners in their children’s educational journey by creating simple daily routines, encouraging reading, discussing current affairs, assigning meaningful responsibilities at home, and celebrating effort alongside examination success.”The home remains the child’s first classroom,” he emphasized.
As part of the programme, Ambassador Yasir Abiola also introduced a 30-Day Learning Challenge, encouraging students to read for at least thirty minutes daily, learn one new vocabulary word each day, solve five Mathematics questions daily, write about what they learned, engage in physical exercise, pray, and intentionally help someone within their community. He expressed confidence that students who consistently follow the challenge would resume school more confident, knowledgeable, and better prepared for academic success.
Concluding the programme, Ambassador Yasir Abiola reminded listeners that holidays should not be measured by the number of movies watched or hours spent online, but by the books read, skills acquired, positive values developed, and lives impacted.
“Schools may close for holidays, but education should never go on holiday,” he stated.
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