By Stephen Adeleye.
The Kogi Government on Friday said it had concluded plans to organise a two-week ‘summer vocational camp for adolescents, to promote and encourage vocational skills in the state.
Mrs Rosemary Osikoya, the state Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, disclosed this in Lokoja, at the stakeholders meeting she held with the Home Economics (HE) Teachers across the state.
Osikoya said that the piloting phase of the two-week state summer vocational camp would commence in Lokoja on Aug. 19, and urged parents to take advantage of the opportunity to enrol their wards.
According to her, the expected participants at the camp would be adolescents, stressing that the best time to teach a child a vocational skill is at adolescents age.
The commissioner reiterated the need for everyone to start promoting and encouraging vocational skills especially for adolescents, in order to reduce the high rate of school dropouts and teenage pregnancy.
Osikoya opined that Home Economics centres should majorly be for mass literacy, adding that the adolescents, youths, women, nomadics and seasonal farmers should be the users of those centres.
Osikoya noted that all the HE centres in the state were operating below their normal capacity, stressing that there were breach of policies in their operations.
She enjoined the participants to go back to their respective communities and ensure effective utilization of HE centres in schools to focus on access for students in secondary school and community members.
She added that the ministry was reviewing instructions and activities in schools and HE centres to focus on practical skills.
”We need to sensitize and advocate for vocational skills; every child must be proactive and develop a skill. Everyone must have a skill if we must have a developed country.
”We must do a lot of integration in this sector and home economics centres are to spearhead the integration; we must all agree we can make education very interesting.
”There must be something that you can do with your hand; you must have a skill,” she restated.
The commissioner urged parents to release their wards to partake in the two-week pilot phase of the summer vocational camp, to commence on August 19, in Lokoja.
On her part, Mrs Olabisi Oshagbemi, Director, Inclusive and Non-Formal Education (INFE), urged the participants to go back to their various centres to ensure that the right thing was done.
She assured the teachers of the commitment of the ministry through her department to give the necessary support in achieving the desired results.
Some of the participants, who spoke at the meeting commended the state government for the initiative, and expressed their readiness to support the program.
A participant, Mrs Margaret Ibinaiye, said the meeting was the first of its kind in the state, but advised the ministry to involve community and religious leaders for effective sensitisation.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the program, tagged: ”State Summer Vocational Camp,” is a sensitisation campaign on ”Vocational Education in Formal and Informal Institutions”.
The skills and trade to be learnt at the camp includes: baking, garment making, bag and hat craft, among others.
