By Njide Ezeonyejiaku
A one-day Joint Leadership Training programme has been held for the newly elected School Prefects across the public and mission-public secondary schools in Anambra State.
The event, held at Army Day Secondary School, Army Barracks, Onitsha, was jointly organised by the Anambra State Universal Basic Education Board, ASUBEB, Awka and the Post Primary Schools Service Commission, PPSSC, Awka
According to the organisers of the event, the comprehensive leadership training is aimed at equipping the student leaders with requisite leadership skills and values that will help them in their leadership roles.
The Principal, Army Day Secondary School, Onitsha, Mrs Chinyere Okafor welcomed the guests and appreciated the State School Management Board for their desire to train the newly elected prefects.
In her address, the Executive Chairman of ASUBEB, Awka, Dr. Vera Nkiru Nwadinobi noted that students are the key beneficiaries of the huge investments in the education sector, stressing that Governor Charles Chukwuma Soludo, CFR had shown great commitment to delivering quality and free education for Anambra State children.
Dr. Nwadinobi maintained that the leadership programme would not only help the newly elected prefects to know what it takes to be a leader among ones contemporaries, but will also remind them to lead by example in exhibiting the essential values of a good leader, such as empathy, teamwork, honesty, fairness, integrity and humility.
“As a student leader, you must desist from bullying your fellow students while discharging your duties”, she cautioned.
On her part, the Chairman, PPSSC, Awka, Prof. Nkechi Ikediugwu noted that the leadership training was to prepare the newly elected prefects on how to carry out their duties responsibly so as to be worthy role models in their behaviour and service.
She stressed that values are the foundation of meaningful leadership and appealed to the school authorities to continuously monitor the Prefects and to promptly correct them when they deviate.
The event featured lectures by facilitators, including Rev. Fr. Dr. Celestine Okafor who spoke on “Values as Catalysts of Societal Transformation”; Rev. Canon Emefo Onyebuchi Uche who spoke on “Punishment and Their Uses”; Dr. Nneka Agbasianya spoke on “Prefects and Time Management”, while Obijindu Rebecca Nwannem spoke on “School Functionaries and Crisis Management”.
Responding on behalf of the student leaders, the Senior Prefect of Army Day Secondary School, Onitsha, Master Kingsley Emesie and that of Anglican Girls’ Grammar School, Onitsha, Miss Chidimma Chukwuka promised to abide by the extant rules and regulations guiding the conduct of student leadership under the State School Management Board.
The event climaxed with oath-taking by the Prefects, and welcome also featured.
