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From Magnus Eze, Enugu
Every year, a non-governmental youth and faith-based organisation, Pleasant Gathering, hosts a mega convention of secondary school students in Enugu State, in partnership with the Post-Primary Schools Management Board (PPSMB), under the state Ministry of Education. The 10th edition of the event, which held recently at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium, Enugu, attracted over 5,000 participants.
Established in 2006, the group, with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) consultative status of the United Nations, aims at empowering and equipping the next generation to fulfil their destinies and become people with high ethical standards. In order to empower the next generation, the organization instituted the Pleasant Gathering Reading Club with a view to enhancing the reading culture of secondary school students in Enugu State. The club is also restoring moral values which are gradually and steadily ebbing amongst students.
Daily Sun gathered that the reading club has been inaugurated in over 90 secondary schools (public, private and missions) within the Enugu metropolis and beyond. A team of volunteer facilitators go to these schools every school day to mentor the students.
One of the education officers in Enugu told us that the reading club has consistently, systematically and positively affected the students within the state capital through its weekly club activities and moral instructions. Aside the convention, which remains the flagship programme of the group; other of its activities include competitions, quizzes, sit-down and read campaigns, academic teachings, mentoring, skills acquisitions, promotion of Igbo language and culture.
Addressing participants at this year’s edition, which lasted for three days, international president of the Pleasant Gathering, Mrs. Joy Ogbonna, noted that no nation can experience true national transformation and positive change unless the students were fully equipped and empowered for the process.
On the theme, “The Nigerian students as change agents,” Ogbonna emphasized the need to guide students at their prime to make the right decisions of life, identifying distraction as a major tool of destruction in the 21st century.
“I want to let you know that all over the world, everyone is clamouring for a change. Nations are clamouring for a change. Nigeria presently is clamouring for a change and hear me well: there can be no change in this nation until all the participants in the house will arise as agents of change for this nation. That is the only time we are going to have a change,” she admonished.
She disclosed that it had been 10 years of vigorous impact amongst the students and their schools through the annual convention, the reading club and other educational programmes of the organisation. She bemoaned that the capital-intensive project had run without support from any state, national or international organisation.
Ogbonna, however, assured that the group was poised to do much more except they were hampered by lack of funds. She, then, listed the challenges confronting the organization to include, land for convention ground, project vehicles, monthly stipends for facilitators, as well as inclusion of their developed moral scheme in the schools’ curriculum.
She commended the PPSMB, Enugu State Ministry of Education, school proprietors, among others, for their support and contributions towards the project.
In an interview with our correspondent, Ogbonna explained: “The organization over the past 10 years, has helped to redirect the students to sitting down to read with understanding, and inculcate discipline and focus, helped to reduce truancy and students’ bullying, be in the vanguard against cultism among students; hard drugs intake and drug abuse.”
She added that it has helped to increase the awareness of the implications of premarital sex, teenage pregnancy, and sexually transmitted infections such as HIV/AIDS, syphilis, herpes etc.
“The convention has always been a platform to gather the students from their various schools in order to reach them widely at once with programmes which are not usually completely held/taught in the schools due to time constraint. Also, the essence is to allow the students to be challenged by the presentations of other schools and students,” Ogbonna stated.
For participants, the theme of this year’s convention was apt considering the burning determination of youths to actualize positive change come 2023.
Chizoba Udemba, an SS1 student who said it was her second time of participating in the convention, lavished praises on the organisers. She described the programme as interesting and educative, saying that she looks forward to being part of the next edition.
There were special presentations by various participating schools, including an expository talk on the importance of skill acquisition to national development.
Students were presented with awards and cash gifts for outstanding performances in their education.
