...As teachers urge govt to introduce entrepreneurship at the secondary school level 
Bishop Monday Chukwuma Nkwoagu of Anglican Communion, Abakaliki Diocese.
Bishop Monday Chukwuma Nkwoagu of Anglican Communion, Abakaliki Diocese.BY VICTOR NWEGEDE
The Anglican Bishop of Abakaliki Diocese, Rt. Rev. Monday Chukwuma Nkwoagu has called on the government authorities and other relevant stakeholders in the educational sector to review the educational curriculum to reflect the contemporary demands in the system.
Bishop Nkwoagu also recommended that the review of the educational curriculum should be made in such a way it can blend formal education, skills acquisition and entrepreneurship development.
The Cleric who made the call on Friday during the annual founder's day harvest and bazaar ceremony at Transfiguration Seminary Abakaliki (TANSA), observed that in China, Japan and other advanced countries where formal education is embedded in skills acquisition and entrepreneurship development are extremely doing well in their economies.
He noted that the students after being exposed to such a composite training where formal education and skills drills are obtainable, can't be idle but begin invention on their own, creating wealth and becoming employers of labour in the society.
His words: "To achieve this kind of thing in Nigeria this time, we need to review our educational curriculum, where both formal and the skill aspects of it, will be combined to ensure as you are coming out from school, even if you don't want to practice your skill, you know it because it's said, no knowledge is a waste," Bishop Nkwoagu hinted.
"If our educational system now will be reviewed to balance this well, you will discover that Nigeria will be great again. Today we are crying that we have thousands of unemployed youths looking for white-collar jobs, and if you call some of them to work in a place that requires skills, many can't do anything. They will just be looking at you because they were not trained in that field.
"But if one has a skill, he can develop it, groom other people on it and becomes an employer of labour and still be a responsible citizen. Nigerian educational curriculum needs to be reviewed, where the end part, should blend formal education and skills acquisition because they are all important. Our educational system should not only be based on theory, we need to acquire skills."
He advised schools that are not yet doing skills acquisition development to venture into it, saying a student can still become self-reliant even if his or her parents have no money to train him/her in a high institution.
On ways to curtail social vices in the society, Bishop Nkwogau urged parents to embrace moral education while bringing up their children.
He said the majority of people who were brought up in a background of moral uprightness cannot think of stealing, cheating or engaging themselves in any other social vice.
Earlier, the Principal of the
Transfiguration Seminary Abakaliki (TRANSA), Mr Gideon Ikechukwu Ituma said the school was established as a place of mental sanitization, moral sanctification and extreme academic training for boys of all Christian denominations.
He said the school has been progressing tremendously in compliance and total maintenance of her reason for the establishment and reaffirmed the readiness of the school management to deliver effective and as well solicited the support of the guests for the desired improvement of the institution.
Mr Ituma observed that a school as an agent of socialization is next in importance to the family, emphasizing the need for every child to have the right place of learning as he maintained that,
"Failure to do this results in serious child abuse, waste of talent and, may God forbid ruining the child entirely."
He, therefore, encouraged parents to consider the content of the school, its mission and vision, not just the physical structures, before enrolling a child into any school.
He also recalled that "over the years Transfiguration Seminary Abakaliki has maintained a very high tempo in the holistic training of male teenagers. Individuals who graduate from TRANSA leave the school in full readiness for any life situation, little wonder, alumni of the school are found in various prestigious universities both within and outside the country, in various fields of life and are serving as the lights through which others see.
"Any child after passing through the total transformation going on here in TRANS is a great asset both to the family and society. This feat however is not and of course, cannot be achieved by mere wishes. Money specifically must be involved."
On her part, the Vice Principal of TANSA, Mrs Happiness Eze urged the government to bring entrepreneurship to the Secondary School level.
Mrs Eze said "though in the high institutions we have courses for entrepreneurship encouraging youth so that after their graduation they can't stay without jobs," opined that "the government should bring entrepreneurship down because some people don't have the opportunity to attend high institutions, to acquire such skills to reduce unemployment; encourage productivity and give rise to the economy."
She urged school management to encourage pupils/students to learn skills by collecting handicrafts instead of replacing them with money nowadays.
On the moral upbringing of the children, the Vice Principal charged parents especially the mothers to uphold a culture of morality and discipline.
"They say charity begins at home and as such if a mother is morally sound, such a mother will bring up a sound child, a sound youth in our society. I encourage mothers to be sound because if you sound moral, definitely everybody around you will be sound. It's very difficult to expect a mother who is not morally sound to bring up a sound child morally. So, everything falls back on the family because if the parents are morally sound, their children will follow in their footsteps. You can convert someone by the way you behave. Attitude is everything," he recommended.
