The Stephen Oluwole Awokoya Foundation for Science Education is a charitable, non-profit making organisation, with a primary objective of promoting science education in Nigerian Institutions of higher learning.

The Foundation was set up in the year 1995 in honour of the Late Professor Stephen Oluwole Awokoya.Professor Awokoya was the first (1946) Nigerian graduate in Chemistry. He was the first (1952) Minister of Education in Western Nigeria, and he later became the Federal Permanent Secretary and Chief Federal Adviser on Education. He was also a Director at the United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in Paris for many years.

The Foundation inaugurated an annual lecture in the area of Science and Science Education at its inception in March 1995. March 1995 was chosen for the inauguration of the Foundation as it marked the 10th anniversary of Professor Awokoya’s peaceful transition to the great beyond on 15th March 1985. A number of renowned and brilliant scholars and academicians have used the medium of the annual lecture to deliver and address topical issues relevant to the Nigerian Educational System and its impact on Science Education.

The various lectures delivered since inception have been collated and published in a book titled,“Essays on Science Education: S. O. Awokoya Foundation Lecture Series, Volume 1”, Edited by A. K. Fasina (ISBN 978 2165 998, March 2000).

The Foundation has also been awarding post graduate scholarships in science related disciplines to qualified candidates since 1996.

The process for the award of the scholarship starts with the application by the candidates. Each application has to be supported or nominated by a dean of one of the various faculties or a head of department, related to Science or Science Education at a tertiary institution in Nigeria. The scholarship awardees are chosen based on excellence in educational performance and stated long-term objectives.

A total of Ninety eight (98) students have benefited from this scholarship program as of March 2017.

The postgraduate scholarship award covers tuition and board, and it is currently Three Hundred Thousand (=N=300,000) per year as at March 2017.

It is renewable each year, for a maximum of three years for a Ph.D. programme and two years for a Masters level programme, provided the awardee maintains a good record of academic performance as attested to by the authorities of the University he or she attends.