The Lions Club International District 404B5 Nigeria has held its Lions Quest training for teachers in Lagos.
The event, held at Westerville Nursery and Primary School, Bariga, Lagos, was entitled: ‘Skills for Adolescent: Social and Emotional Learning for Adolescents Teachers,’ and had over 30 participants from five schools, is targeting 3,000 pupils. The programme’s Committee Chairperson, Olapeju Hassan, said the event ranked second most important in the club’s hierarchy after Sight First.
The District 404B5 Nigeria Governor, Phina Origho, said the initiative was designed to train teachers who would transfer the knowledge and values to their pupils and students.
She explained that the participants were selected from various schools, under the sponsorship of different Lions clubs.
‘It is designed to help young people develop life skills like good character, responsible decision-making and healthy relationships as they grow into adulthood. Overtime, we’ve had cases where it has inspired them to drop bad habits like bullying, drug addiction… We have also been able to grow leaders from among the youths. So, it’s no longer just a case of ‘youths are leaders of tomorrow’. They are leaders of today,’ he said.
One of the trainers, Deola Olatunbosun, described the programme as ‘a social and emotional learning, whereby we go into schools, train teachers, who in turn will train students in the competencies of Lions Quest social and emotional learning, such as responsible decision-making, self-awareness, good judgment, self-motivation, and enhancing the self.’
Lion Kola Oyekanmi, who has been involved in the Lions Quest training programme for over a decade, said the programme is curriculum-based and takes care of every social and emotional aspect of every human being.
Breaking it down, Oyekanmi said: ‘We have three skills that we teach – skill for growing, which is useful for primary school ages; skill for adolescence, for junior secondary school; and skill for action, which is useful for senior secondary school and above. Here in Nigeria, we implement just two – skill for growing and skill for adolescence. We try as much as possible to make an impact.’
The proprietress of the host school, Westerville Nursery and Primary School, Lion Yetunde Balogun of Ikeja Golden Lions Club, who was also a participant, described the programme as ‘one of the best initiatives’ she had witnessed and called for more of it; while her head teacher, Mr. Oladeji Shakiru Tunde described it as ‘very impactful and an eye-opener.’
‘Participants now understand what setting a target is, and how to set a goal and achieve it,’ Balogun said, while Oladeji said: ‘We’ve been made to understand that children learn at different levels and from different perspectives; and that teaching is not just about coming to class to teach, but that you need to build cordial relationships with learners in order to understand the child that you’re teaching individually.’