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From Magnus Eze, Enugu
The Catholic Diocese of Enugu has kicked off the process of raising entrepreneurs and self-reliant Nigerians from the cradle.
To achieve this, the Primary Education Commission of Enugu Diocese, on August 29, 2021, inaugurated the St. Joseph School of Basic Skills and Development, Ugwogo-Nike, in Enugu East Local Government Area.
Secretary of the commission, Very Rev. Fr. Michael Okoh, disclosed that they will engage skilled artisans to teach primary school pupils basic and technical skills in the very practical manner that they are doing in the real-time workshops.
In his homily during the official presentation of the school, Auxiliary Bishop of Enugu Catholic Diocese, Most Rev. Ernest Obodo, said that the school will uplift education standard, noting that, in other climes, children begin from the cradle to combine learning with practical handcraft.
Obodo said that skills education creates faster employment and generates wealth and prayed to God to use the school to bring glory and advancement to the people of Ugwogo-Nike community.
“We congratulate Rev. Fr. Michael Okoh for the beautiful school, one of the best in Nigeria. It will now uplift education standard in Ugwogo,” he said.
Founder of the school and Secretary of Catholic Primary Education Commission in Enugu Diocese, Rev. Fr. Okoh, said he was motivated into establishing the school because he had been in charge of the management of the mission primary education since 2013 and found a missing gap in children’s education.
Okoh said: “My long time study of primary education shows that there are so many important subjects they do right from primary one, even up to JS3, very good to our children but those subjects are not handled very well. They are just done theoretically and not practical. Because the practical aspect is lacking, the children do not implement that, after school or even while at school. So that made me to think how we can make it possible so that a child will finish maybe primary six, even JS3 and be self-employed and become an entrepreneur, so that you don’t begin to look for work anywhere.
“That made me begin to look into those subjects that one can also practically handle such as Basic Science and Technology that covers a lot of things that one can practically do such as electrical works and solar installation is also into that and then computer is also technology and it will help our children very well. There is also the prevocational study which is vocational studies but because our children are not grounded practically they come out and there are a lot of skills related to that such as fashion and designing and so many other crafts. You can also talk about cultural and creative arts; music is there, playing of organ, recorders and others.
“Because of that, I decided to set up this school so that we can now combine basic education with skills development whereby the basic education system will be going on in basic 1, 2 and 3, children will be learning how to form syllables and words and when they get to primary four, basic 4, basic 5 and basic 6, they can then be introduced to these various workshops and various skills, from there they can now continue so that before ever they finish JS3, they would have been trained very well in one thing or the other.”
Daily Sun learnt that the highly subsidized school has skills departments such as Integrated farming, home economics, carpentry and upholstery, music, fashion and designing, electrical and solar installation, computer /internet and solution production.
“We are going to draw a curriculum and scheme of work for all these workshops. Doing that theoretically, we can be getting artisans who have knowledge, they will be coming to help the children and train them. Going through the curriculum and the scheme of work, they can now use it with what they already know practically in order to help them out.
“The teacher for upholstery and carpentry will be coming maybe once a week, the teacher will come and demonstrate practically and go and other teachers in other departments will be coming like that, so that if one is not good in woodwork, he may be good in electrical works. If he is not good there, he may be good in Home Economics or even fashion and designing or even in integrated farming.”
In a paper on “The role of education in community development: Celebrating the selflessness of a genuine soul-blessing of St. Joseph School of Basic Skills Development (SJS) Ugwogo-Nike,” Rev. Fr. Nnaemeka Udeonu said that the school was an unusual but very seriously needed type of novelty in the land, geared towards building the whole person right from the cradle of human formation.
“It offers an unbeatable solution to the serious problem of youth employment. This is a complete master-plan for the re-jigging of a society that is richly blessed but amazingly impoverished on the account the failure of resourcefulness, selflessness and meaningful creativity in leadership,” Udeonu said.
He urged government to embrace the Okoh model of leadership and tap from the manifestation of ingenuity in him.
For the House of Representatives member representing Enugu East/Isi-Uzo Federal Constituency, Cornelius Nnaji, the school came at the right time, given the scarcity of jobs for young Nigerians.
Nnaji said: “The school is good because there are no more jobs, but with a skills school such as this, a foundation for job creation is already made. Okoh had done a similar thing in Akpoga-Nike because of his passion for education of children and the youths, and we thank him for these personal efforts.”
