Jacob BABALOLA (Staff Writer)

The celebration of the Jubilee of Educators that started on the 10th of October with a Holy Mass and a Lecturer on “Education, Common Belonging and Shared Destiny: The Role of Catholic Schools in the Saving Mission of Christ” delivered by Prof Isaac E. Ukpokolo at Church of the Ascension, Bodija, Ibadan continued on Friday 24th October, 2025 where the Priests, Managements, Members of Staff and Students of Catholic Schools in the Archdiocese of Ibadan gathered together to learn more about the newly reviewed curriculum for Basic Education and Secondary School Education in the country and were also lectured on how to teach entrepreneurship in both primary and secondary schools.

The event, which was organized by the Archdiocesan Education Committee took place at St. Gabriel Catholic Church, Mokola, Ibadan with two resource persons: Mr Charles Akinwolere and Rev. Fr. Kingsley Obialo in attendance to open the eyes of the participants on the effective use of the newly reviewed curricular as well as how to teach entrepreneurship in both primary and secondary schools.

Setting the ball rolling, Mr Charles Akinwolere displayed the new Basic Education Curriculum and that of Secondary School Curriculum and offered some suggestions to the stakeholders in the education sector. He advised: the government to always involve regular stakeholders in the process of reviewing and not just single-handedly review and impose on the schools; examination body to comply to the government content directives by taking realistic stand: education commission of the Archdiocese to put in place local implementation strategies by having a meeting point, regular monitoring on compliance and having harmonized scheme.

Mr Akinwolere also advised: the Schools’ Management to have regular collaboration with relevant government agencies, commence compliance and proper utilization of personnel; students to ensure they go out of the school with skill, put in extra efforts and contribution and be open to change for the future; while also enjoining the teachers to be open to new reality, or else, the students may start challenging them as well as to be creative in the job.

The second lecture was on entrepreneurship, which the Guest Lecturer, Rev. Fr. Kingsley Obialo said the government now starts focusing on as a result of the economic challenges in the country. He pointed out that in Africa, government is the larger employers of workers unlike in the developed countries, hence the need for Needs Assessments to bring about reforms in all spheres of life.

Fr. Obialo explained that entrepreneurship is beyond the skill one acquires as he stated that some universities have no workshops, yet many people go there to learn skills; hence he added that it is the brain that is entrepreneurship. The priest went further to analyze different definitions of entrepreneurship and at the end defined same in his own words as “the process of identifying opportunities from where you create value and people are ready to pay for the value, thereby creating wealth for oneself and others.”

He placed some emphasis on innovation, risk-bearing, opportunity seeking as primary drivers of positive economic changes.

The session also went into groups’ formation to identify opportunities in different schools for the possibility of making money. The guest lecturer condemned lack of observational attitude in the society and thus admonished the teachers to teach their students the skills of observation in order to identify a gap to explore, even as he enjoined the teachers to be creative too, in their respective fields by teaching in a unique way such that the students will not want to miss their classes.

Other suggestions Fr. Obialo gave to the teachers included: teaching students to identify unmet needs, translate students’ idea (by not always rejecting the students’ answers), ensuring they teach practicable things, avail their students financial literacy to enhance their culture of saving and teaching the students how to take advantage of social media to create wealth.

Fr. Obialo, who gave the two types of entrepreneurship as innovative and repetitive/replicative entrepreneurship urged that students should learn to generate ideas and must not be afraid of failure but rather be happy and try again.

The Archdiocesan Education Committee Secretary, Very Rev. Fr. Julius Akinyode in his vote of thanks explained that huge amount of money went into organizing the training as he appreciated the guest speakers for sharing with others from their wells of knowledge, the participating schools, organizing team members and further enjoined all on the need to improve more on time management. He thereafter declared the celebration of the Jubilee of Educators closed.