Book Review and World Education Day 2022 Report
- Itsekiri NextGen Project: 2022 Session 3 Report
- Date: Saturday 29/01/2022
- Volunteers Present: 7
- Total Number of Attendees: 81
- Timings: 11am – 1pm
- Venue: Former Caravan 4, Aji Pessu, Warri
- Main Topic/Activity: Book Review / World Education Day 2022
- Resource Person: Itsekiri NextGen Team
SUMMARY OF THE SESSION
The session aligns with the theme of literacy skills, and was designed to promote reading culture amongst our participants. The session was anchored on the international day for education, our volunteers sharing and discussing the important role various forms of education played in the positive development of their lives, book review by the participants and a case study review of the life and achievement of Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh. Some of the other benefits of reading discussed with the participants include;
- Helping to reduce stress, improving concentration and memory,
- Expanding vocabulary and strengthening writing abilities,
- Enhancing knowledge and increasing imagination and creativity.
As an organization, we believe strongly in helping our participants reach their potential with the instruments of various forms of education. As a result of this, we have made available a variety of books which our participants can borrow on a weekly basis after the sessions. This is to help achieve one of our core missions; Mandate of Literary Mission, which focuses on inspiring the love for reading, writing and comprehension in Warri Kingdom, and opening doors of opportunities through the pages of books.
Participant at the third session of Itsekiri NextGen
Session Delivery
The session started with the World Education Day 2022 celebration and introduction of what this year’s theme: “changing course, transforming education” means to us as a community project. Though it was marked on the 24th of January, It was celebrated and discussed during our third session of 2022 on 29th January. This year’s theme “changing course, transforming education” focused on five key points;
- How to strengthen education as a public goal and common good
- How to steer the digital transformation.
- How to support teachers
- How to safeguard the planet
- How to unlock the potential in every person.
Itsekiri Nextgen core value encompasses these focus points as we are set to bring to full manifestation the potential in every child. The participants reflected and discussed how they all stayed at home and their formal education was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. It was a good time to reflect on what could have been without the pandemic and what the opportunities are to improve on education in our local community for our participants. Miss Tsolaye Edun (volunteer) and Miss Uwala Tedeye (Project Coordinator) took the time to encourage the participants to ensure they get basic formal education as a minimum, as this has helped them in their small scale businesses and made them stand out from others.
Our next activity for the day was the review of the books the teams borrowed during the last session by their representatives. The representatives for each of the four teams came out to present to the rest of the participants. The review focused on the names of the authors, the key story in the book, the lessons learnt, what they liked about the book, what they didn’t like about the book and any new words or vocabularies they learnt from the book. The participants were further encouraged to make sentences with the new words. From their reviews, it was easy to visualize the stories from the books. After the review, an opportunity was given for other participants to repeat what they had heard during the review session and the volunteers were pleasantly surprised to see these youngsters give the stories verbatim.
The last activity during the session was us going back into the archives to talk about our culture and history. As an organization that values and holds in high esteem the Itsekiri social and cultural heritage, one of our core missions is the Mandate of Social and Cultural Mission. This was reflected in us teaching the participants about a strong promoter of Itsekiri traditions in the person of Chief Festus Samuel Okotie-Eboh. His achievements were highlighted in business, politics, entrepreneurship and as a promoter of Itsekiri culture.
Other key activities during the session
Participants were excited to use the library. Some of them borrowed books from the library and promised to read them.
