The proprietress of Berith Nursery and Primary School, Pastor Oduyemi Roselyn in this interview with Susan Oni and Tinuade Abe-Alimi speaks on the importance of teaching children in a Godly way and the need of a new Christian school for the church. Excerpts.
Ma, can you tell us about you and your school?
I am the proprietress of Berith Nursery and Primary School. Berith means “covenant” and the school is a Christian school with a Christian philosophy. We use Accelerated Christian Education and Montessori (ACE) curriculum which is a curriculum from the United States and it is based on scriptures from the bible and it teaches children how to think critically as well as study as individuals. We use individualized and biblically based training for the children.
Children at the primary school level get easily influenced by things around them, how do you intend to curb such bad influences?
As I said earlier on, we intend using biblically based education method. Teaching is a mandate from God as seen in the book of Deuteronomy where God instructs us to teach the children to know God. Education actually begins from home. A child properly trained from home would be able to distinguish right from wrong. Teaching which is a continuous exercise should start from homes, most parent leave the teaching jobs to the school teachers alone. Most schools of our children go to teach secular humanism that does not evolve around God but we inculcate Godly teachings in them so that by the time they grow old, they will not rebel. Children are supposed to know that whatever they are being taught has its bases in the bible which in the word of God.
We have many children from Christian homes misbehaving in tertiary institutions. Can such misbehaviour be related to lack of exposure and what factors are responsible for such act?
A child that is properly trained in the way of God would not deviate from such teachings. Being trained in the way of God does not equate to a boring life. There is no fun in seeing one’s child behaving crazy in the name of exposure.
The unruly behaviour can be due to the type of schools or training that the children have. A child from a Christian can be easily disconnected when he or she goes to secular school but the child can be easily reinforced when he or he attends a Christian school.
As a proprietor of a Christian school, do you believe in including sex education in the curriculum of primary school pupils?
In America, pupils in primary education are given condoms at their tender age in the name of sex education. There are several ways of teaching sex education for children at their stage without giving them condoms or making them to watch pornographic films. At Berith Nursery and Primary School, we are teaching teenagers to stand for the future.
Children of nowadays only go to school to memorise their books but they need to be taught how to think critically.
