The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in partnership with GirlUp Africa, a Nongovernmental Organisation, has commenced the training of 1,111 teachers in Ebonyi State.
The training is aimed at building the capacity of the teachers to adequately communicate and inculcate in the pupils and students who are mainly adolescents healthy behaviours to safeguard their future.
The training was flagged off Wednesday in Abakaliki, the Ebonyi State capital.
The Executive Director of the anchor organisation, GirlUp Africa, Chikodi Omokide, explained that participants were selected from both primary and secondary schools in pilot 10 out of the 13 local government areas of the state.
Omokide said: “We are partnering with UNESCO to train 1,111 teachers in Ebonyi who will further train the students on how to manage their wellbeing physically, emotionally and mentally, especially in the area of their social interaction with the outside world.
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“The whole essence is to equip adolescents with the knowledge on how to manage their health and wellbeing, and equip the teachers by strengthening their capacity to give factual, accurate and appropriate information to the adolescents.”
Omokide added that part of the training was aimed at getting policy makers in the state own the initiative, budget for its sustainability and enlargement, without foreclosing an opportunity for a scale-up intervention either from the state, the UNESCO or other good spirited individuals.
She further disclosed: “The trainees are picked according to clusters.
“Each cluster is made up of 40 participants.
“One cluster has about 12 primary schools and about 15 junior secondary schools.
“The rest is made up of senior secondary schools.
“We factored in secondary schools because under the Education for Health and Wellbeing Initiative, the Family Life and HIV Education Curriculum already provided for curricular and extracurricular approach to promoting Adolescents’ health and wellbeing.
“We want to build the capacities of these teachers on how to leverage assembly talks, moral instructions sessions, among other extracurricular activities to deliver the right information to the students on issues of their sexual, reproductive health and general wellbeing.”
Declaring open the training, the State Commissioner for Education, Prof. Paul Awo Nwobasi, said it would help the teachers mould adolescent school children to take charge of their health and future through proper information delivered in a friendly manner.
Nwobasi, represented by a Director in the Ministry and the FLHE Desk Officer, Chinyere Eziulo, commended UNESCO and her partner for the initiative and admonished participants not to allow the knowledge die in their hands.
In their separate goodwill messages, the Chairman, State Universal Basic Education Board, Patience Ogodo, and his Secondary Education counterpart, Lillian Nwankwo, described the training as apt and a critical mission of empowering and shaping the minds and future of youths and adolescents in the present highly dynamic generation.
Ogodo, represented by the SUBEB Secretary, Livinus Ezeuwa, assured that the training would be sustained by the SUBEB, adding that Governor Lucky Nwifuru’s positive disposition to education and wellbeing of Ebonyi people knows no bounds.
Nwankwo added: “To my teachers who are privileged to participate in this all-important training, I urge you to embrace this opportunity with a ready mind for an inclusive education that will deliver rights, life and future to our youth.”
Some of the participants: Friday Ogah of Community Secondary School, Nwakpu-Alike in Ikwo and Virginia Opoke of Azuiyiokwu Urban Primary school, Abakaliki described the training as rewarding, and pledged to utilise the gained capacity in shaping the future of their students and pupils.
They also pledged to step down the training in their various schools.
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