Mentorship: Hon. Paddy Iyamu counsels students on being steadfast to their career paths ...Gives roadmap on skills acquisition in schools curriculum

Edo State Commissioner of Education, Hon. Dr. Paddy Emmanuel Iyamu mentoring secondary school students at the Purposeful Teen Conference.

By Bernadette Idalu
The Edo State Commissioner of Education, Hon. Dr. Paddy Emmanuel Iyamu on Saturday, March 8, at the "Purposeful teen conference" hosted by Mrs. Uzezi Uduefe-Ideho at Imaguero Girls College Hall, mentored one thousand two hundred (1200) participants drawn mostly from public secondary schools in Benin City. He counseled them to avoid the fast lane life with its attendant focus on beauty and immediate gains as glamorised by modern social media buzz, noting that if such acts remained unchecked, there is a potential danger of crash landing.

Dealing with the theme of the conference, "Recalibrate,".Dr. Iyamu challenged students to refocus and recalibrate on reading and learning in order to break barriers. He said the quest for beauty is "ephemeral," it fades in a blink. 

Based on societal experience, he encouraged students not to loose focus in a manner that could alter their destiny based on wrong associations and peer pressure. He mentored them on keeping true to their career paths as they had to "Learn in order to earn" good incomes in future.

Giving insight on activities of government to build Edo youths of our dream, the commissioner stated that the Edo state government has ran some mentorship programmes for public secondary schools and are billed to do more. This, he said, is a continuous process for it takes a whole village to raise a child.

He pointed out, "We will be doing more of mind re-engineering. That is what we are working on. We encourage our culture and make our people think in a particular direction. It is time for us to renew our minds. We need to speak differently. We need to renew the norm. We need to shift from what has been existing before. There is going to be a lot of calibration even in the syllabus. We need to have skill acquisition in the overall skill and learning process. A lot is going to happen in the academic life of the Edo child."

Speaking with participants to determine the impact and relevance of this conference, brought out diverse opinions. The Assistant Senior Prefect, Western Boys High School, Master Emmanuel Osasere Egberanwem and winner "Business Pitch" segment (Grants given to students based on abilities to sell and defend innovative business ideas which affect their immediate community) stated, "I have learnt a lot from the conference. Various speakers have been speaking to us on various challenges we encounter in school and how to navigate them. It is "Res ipsa loquitur," meaning "the thing speaks for itself.

"We were happy to have the Commissioner of Education in our midst today. And, I was surprised. Under his teaching, he impacted us a lot." Emmanuel therefore called for more programmes as he affirmed a  "Change of heart and mindset towards the way I view things. Students need to be mentored by qualified professionals to guide youths in decision making," he insisted.

An SS3 student from the "Special Unit" Ihogbe College, (Students with special needs) Abdulrasheed Shagari, thanked organizer of the conference for paying attention to skills acquisition. Based on his prior residual knowledge of welding, he expressed interest at acquiring more skills in this same direction. 

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