Ogun Education Commissioner identifies mechanism for public speaking skills
By: Adémólá Òrúnbon
Reading habit has been described as a tool tailored towards helping pupils boost their spellings, vocabulary, story telling as well as mastering public speaking skills that would helped to developed and prepared them for future challenges.
The Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Prof. Abayomi Arigbabu made this known at the opening ceremony of the Annual Children Story Telling Hour/Reading Activities, Skill Acquisition and Related Programme tagged: “Inculcating Reading Habits in Children” held at the Simeon Adebo Library, Abeokuta.
Arigbabu emphasised that the state government would continue to create enabling environment, organised programme that would thrive the education sector.
“The storytelling programme is in tandem with the vision of the present administration, in order to prepare them for future challenges, I want to implore you to pay more attention to every detail as no skill is useless, the skills you learn today at the makerspace will become useful to you later in life”, the Commissioner said.
He revealed that apart from the reading activities, children would be trained in various skills, such as, financial literacy, oral skill presentation, music, drawing and art work, computer appreciation and many more. He therefore enjoined them to take active participation in all the programmes in order to be well rounded individual, academically, technically and socially at the end of the programme.
In his remarks, the Chairman of the occasion, Dr. Taofeek Salisu emphasised that reading is as important as life, also education is an important tool in achieving one’s life’s goals because readers do not only read to pass or obtained a degree but to be enlightened and exposed to things going on around the world.
Dr. Salisu advised children to join book clubs in their various schools, stressing that reading would helped to sharpened their mental abilities and increased their thinking capacities.
In their goodwill messages, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Technical Education and Vocational Training, Prof. Joseph Odemuyiwa, The ANCOPSS President, Dr. (Mrs.) Ayodele Womiloju and Dr. (Mrs.) Oyinade Tomori submitted that effective reading sharpens mental ability, develop people’s skills, gives a lot of exposures, adding that anyone who stops reading may not excel in life.
Earlier in his welcome address, the Director of the Library Board, Mr. Vincent Giwa, said that library activities has evolved to meet the information needs of the 21st century, he pointed out that reading helps to acquire knowledge, keeps brain active and engaged and also helped to developed stronger analytical skills for critical thinking and analysis.
