Saratu Dan-Azumi, a brilliant 13-year-old Nigerian girl with the mathematical intellect of a computer, has been awarded a scholarship by the World Bank up to the university level.
Hailing from Kano State in Northern Nigeria, Saratu was educationally challenged due to the inability of her parents to afford proper education for her.
However, a generous Nigerian man, Bashir Ahmad, became the first person to sponsor her education through his Bashir Ahmad Foundation (BAF) after a video of her calculating numbers like a wizard went viral.
“The Bashir Ahmad Foundation has successfully concluded the enrollment of Saratu Dan-Azumi, a brilliant out-of-school girl, who effortlessly solves arithmetic without being taught, in a school in Gaya LGA. The BAF sponsors her education up to university,” the Foundation wrote on Twitter in August.
The World Bank, through its Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE), also located Saratu to award her another scholarship.
Reacting to the great news, Saratu revealed that she left school in primary four because she was bullied by her classmates. She said she is ready to return to school, but not to her former school, where she was bullied by her mates.
Her words, as quoted by Premium Times, which was, in turn, quoting the News Agency of Nigeria:
“I am good in mathematics, whether addition, subtraction, division or multiplication. I can calculate numbers in millions ‘up head’, without writing or using a calculator.
“I left school because of bullying. My peers used to call me names which I detested. I will not go back to that school. I’ll be happy to continue my studies in another school, away from them.”
