The Proprietor of Straitgate Schools, Mr Dipo Ojedeji, has said that the lack of leadership and entrepreneurship curriculum is affecting the growth of Nigeria’s economy.
He made this known during the inauguration of the Leadership and Entrepreneurship Series, which he described as an effort to prepare today’s young adults in public and private secondary schools for an advantage in individual and group leadership responsibilities.
The series, Ojedeji said, would make pupils in JSS1 through SS2 to become aware of their potential and build them for leadership.
Stating that the books one to five of the series would teach pupils how to meet their needs and sustain businesses, Ojedeji said, “We have seen the need to build leaders and entrepreneurs. More than 80 per cent of secondary schools in Nigeria do not have any programme on leadership, apart from what the curriculum provides for in Citizenship or Civics education. The curriculum, unfortunately, treats the few leadership topics as an academic exercise which makes it ineffective.
“The problem needs to be addressed in the curriculum, which Nigeria lacks. And it is more precarious when we think of the immediate future. Good leadership ensures that we have qualitative governance and they both translate to economic viability.
Adding that Nigeria has to hand over to the millennials, whether her people like it or not, Ojedeji said, “Are they ready to put on the leadership garment? I ask because as a nation we have not done anything to prepare them like the Awolowos who had the training and had the skills to take over.”
On the contents of the books and what makes them to stand out from other textbooks, Ojedeji said, “In trying to teach leadership and entrepreneurship, we realised that there was a critical part of the leadership that we had not taken cognisance of, which is the constitution. If anyone is going to lead, he needs to know the constitution, so it is included in the book.
“The idea is to prepare pupils in secondary school for the future. We want to move from just telling them they are leaders to actually preparing them. Our aim is to make pupils aware of their potential and build those potential for leadership.”
On her part, the co-author of the series, Mrs Aderonke Faseru, a Chartered Accountant and Human Resource Practitioner, said the LESs was more than just a text for pupils, it was designed to right the mindset of children.
Her words, “LESs is not just going to be dumped on teachers, they will continually be trained in teaching the pupils these ideals. There would be student and teacher communities where they share their experiences.”
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