Health: UNESCO, GirlUp Africa Train over 1000 Teachers in Ebonyi

By Oswald Agwu

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, in Partnership with GirlUp Africa, a Nongovernmental Organization, has commenced the training of One thousand, one hundred and eleven 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 in Abakaliki, 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 ten 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.

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.

“We factored in secondary schools because under the Education for Health and Wellbeing Initiative, the Family Life and HIV Education Curriculum (FLHE) 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 instruction 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, 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, Mrs Chinyere Eziulo, commended UNESCO and her partner for the initiative and admonished participants not to allow the knowledge to die in their hands.

In their separate goodwill messages, the Chairman, State Universal Basic Education Board, Patience Ogodo and his Secondary Education counterpart, Mrs Lillian Nwankwo, respectively 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 Francis 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 utilize the gained capacity in shaping the future of their students and pupils.