Portsbridge Educational Services in collaboration with St John College, Portmouth, United Kingdom has organised an exposure event in Abuja on 17th of October with the theme “Behavioural Management, Pastoral Care and Safeguarding in Schools: An Implications for the 21st Century Educators”.
The event which comprised Abuja School Proprietors and Head of Schools was aimed at enlightening educators on developments in managing children’s behaviours in schools and how to prepare them to adequately face the challenges of post-secondary education locally and abroad.
According to Dr Stella Adagiri, Director of Portsbridge, “Portsbrigde Educational Services, in its mission is committed to bridging
educational resource gaps by ensuring that quality education becomes part and parcel of schools in Nigeria. Since its inception in the UK, Portsbridge has been committed to providing professional development programs for educators to enhance their skills, broaden their knowledge and understanding towards their career development and organisational effectiveness.
She noted that the theme of the event which borders on behavioural management of the students and safeguarding in schools is quite germane and relevant in today’s education system across the world. This is as a result of generational gap and the children’s exposure to current development and happenings around them, including undue access to social media, unregulated access to inappropriate contents via conventional and digital media amongst others.
“Nowadays children are becoming aware of their rights which often make them more interrogative and inquisitive in the way they perceive things even in the schools, therefore teachers and educators need to understand different approaches in managing these behavioural issues among students and safeguarding them from physical social and emotional abuse in their various schools” said Dr Adagiri.
Mr Andrew Towse, Head of Boarding from St John’s College, Portmouth UK , who was also the major facilitator at the event said the pastoral care method when applied appropriately in schools helps create a common ground for better understanding between the teachers and students thereby making learning more attractive to the students. He however emphasised the safeguarding is one of the most prominent and pertinent issues in every school in the UK, in the recent years
He also stated, while citing UK teaching models, that teachers must strive to learn to move beyond using traditional methods of teaching to more effective teaching and learning approach in their profession.
“It is quite imperative for the educators to endeavour to look beyond using only traditional methods of teaching in schools as to make learning more attractive to students in schools. This is one method we have adopted in the UK and it is working” said Towse.
Mr Agara a clinical psychologist of Reconnect Health Development Initiative gave some useful tips from his experience, on how they have worked with schools to manage different cases of behaviour and addiction issues which is very prevalent amongst youth of today.
The President of National Association of Proprietors of Private School (NAPPS) Abuja Chapter, Hajiya Samira who also graced the event, stated that the theme for the exposure event which sought to address the behavioural management and safeguarding in any academic environment has been one major area of concern for both the teachers and parents alike in Nigeria.
While commending the effort of the Dr Stella Adagiri, the convener of the event, she expressed her excitement that such an exposure event in being put together by a Nigerian and for the Nigerian educators.
“I really feel so delighted to be part of this life-changing event tailored for the School proprietors in Abuja, and I must also commend Stella Adagiri for deeming fit to bring an exposure event of this sort to our doorsteps in Nigeria” said Hajiya Samira.
Mrs Ngozi Afam, the Principal RABERTO Secondary School was amongst the participants at the seminar, stated that the key take home lesson for her at the event was how teachers can equally safeguard themselves while helping other people children learn better.
“One key lesson for me here today was that, as a teacher you need to also protect yourselves even as you strive to help a child learn in a more effective way so that you are not implicated at the end of the day”.