A genius is said to be somebody who exhibits an extraordinary intellectual ability to a certain stage associated with the achievement of new advances in a domain of knowledge and Nigerian has been blessed with an armful of them. Nigeria sure got talent!
If you were to ask a six-year-old what he/she would like to do with their time, it is not far-fetched if the answers you get ranges from playing with toys to watching their favourite cartoon show on Nickelodeon or Disney.
However, the case is not the same for British -Nigerian Esther Okade who at just six years old was already taking her maths GCSE, generally undertaken by 14- to 16-year-olds in the United Kingdom.
At Ten year old, Esther Okade, one of UK’s youngest students from Nigeria, was accepted to start her maths degree at the Open University.
Esther’s mother, Efe, said the process of applying to the university was ‘an interesting one because of her age.
she said “We even had to talk to the VC and after they interviewed her, they realised that this has been her idea from the beginning. From the age of seven Esther has wanted to go to university”.
At first glance Esther Okade seems like a normal 10-year-old. She loves playing with Barbie dolls and going to the park or shopping.
But what makes the British -Nigerian youngster stand out is the fact that she was also a university undergraduate.
Esther, from Walsall, an industrial town in the UK’s West Midlands region, is one of the country’s youngest college freshmen.
She once said “I want to (finish the course) in two years. Then I’m going to do my PhD in financial maths when I’m 13. I want to have my own bank by the time I’m 15 because I like numbers and I like people and banking is a great way to help people.”
And in case people think her parents have pushed her into starting university early, Esther emphatically disagrees.
“I actually wanted to start when I was seven. But my mum was like, “you’re too young, calm down.” After three years of begging, mother Efe finally agreed to explore the idea.
Esther when she got admitted into the university at age 10.
Esther has always jumped ahead of her peers. She sat her first Math GSCE exam, a British high school qualification, at Ounsdale High School in Wolverhampton at just six, where she received a C-grade. A year later, she outdid herself and got the A-grade she wanted.
Esther’s mother noticed her daughter’s flair for figures shortly after she began homeschooling her at the age of three. Initially, Esther’s parents had enrolled her in a private school but after a few short weeks, the pair began noticing changes in the usually-vibrant youngster.
Efe says: “One day we were coming back home and she burst out in tears and she said ‘I don’t ever want to go back to that school — they don’t even let me talk!’
“In the UK, you don’t have to start school until you are five. Education is not compulsory until that age so I thought OK, we’ll be doing little things at home until then. Maybe by the time she’s five she will change her mind.”
Efe started by teaching basic number skills but Esther was miles ahead. By four, her natural aptitude for maths had seen the eager student move on to algebra and quadratic equations.
And Esther isn’t the only maths prodigy in the family. Her younger brother Isaiah, is also a bookworm and a genus. Isn’t the Family blessed to have such great kids!
