The Wife of the Ekiti State Governor, Dr Olayemi Oyebanji, has directed the management of the public secondary schools in the state to document challenges facing adolescent children, especially the girls in schools, for government action.
The wife of the governor made the call today in Ado-Ekiti, while delivering a keynote address at a day out with Principals and Teachers of Public Secondary Schools, tagged : “Keeping Schools Safer for Quality Education of Our Adolescents. ”
Dr Oyebanji said that there was need for the government to have a documentary occurrences of the challenges confronting the adolescents, including incidences of sexual violence, kidnappings, teenage pregnancy, harmful traditional practices, which makes it difficult for girls to focus on their education.
According to the First Lady,
the ongoing Adolescent Girls Initiative For Learning and Empowerment (AGILE) project covers the provision for perimeter fencing of a nineteen schools to foster security in the affected institutions.
“The National and State Government are committed to enduring the safety of both teachers and students. The AGILE project is one of the interventions deployed to ensure that adolescents attendance retention and completion of school program is guaranteed.
“I enjoyed all you principal and teachers to kindly support this initiative and maximize it’s capacity to inform, educate, mentor and prevent adverse occurrences in and around our schools,” she said.
Dr Oyebanji therefore pledged the commitment of the government to the strengthening of the Ministry of Education, Teaching Service Commission , State Universal Basic Education Board for Technical and Vocational Education for effective delivery of quality education.
“I want to challenge us to identify our specific roles as individuals and institutions in ensuring safe school spaces and excellent learning outcomes for a wealthier and more productive Society”.
She called on teachers to be an agent of change by creating a safe and violence free learning Environment where our boys and girls will have equal opportunities to learn.
Earlier in a remark, the State Coordinator of AGILE, Mrs Yemisi Alokan, enumerated several achievements of the intervention to include, disbursement of school improvement grants to public secondary schools in Ekiti State, Renovation of dilapidated buildings in 202 public secondary schools across the state, Training for Students and Teachers for Digital Literacy Skills acquisition program, among others.
She said that AGILE is committed to the needs of the younger generation, creative thinkers, problem solvers, and critical thinkers to navigate the current challenges they face and prepare them for the future.
In their Separate lectures, one of the guest speakers Professor, Joseph Ayodele from the Faculty of Education, Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti, in his paper titled, ‘ Safe Psychosocial School Environment And Effective Adolescent Learning,’ said that students do better in school when the Psychosocial environment is safe.
” Psychosocially safe school Environment are related to more positive identity development , better learning experience and grater feelings of worth ,it helps teachers to manage discussions on sensitive issues to gain confidence and trust of the students” he said.
Another speaker, Professor Clement Kolawole, a professor of English Education, Reading, Curriculum and Instruction from the Department of Arts and Social Sciences Education, University of Ibadan, in his own paper, titles ‘Safe Schools, Quality Education and Sustainable Future for Adolescent ‘ stressed the need for Stakeholders to ensure that schools were safe for quality education.