The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) on Wednesday commenced a capacity building workshop on entrepreneurship for primary and secondary school teachers.

Dr Dikko Radda, Director-General of SMEDAN, said that the agency was introducing entrepreneurship in primary and secondary schools across Nigeria under the National Schools Entrepreneurship Programme known as Mind Shift.

Radda, who was represented by Mr Egbuna Iloba, South-South Zonal Coordinator of SMEDAN said that the agency was collaborating with State Ministries of Education in the benefitting states to prepare teachers in primary and secondary schools to teach entrepreneurship.

According to him, inculcating entrepreneurship into the school curriculum from the basic levels was key to redirecting the mindset of school leavers and graduates from being job seekers to entrepreneurs who seize available opportunities to dove problems and create jobs.

“The children are expected to unleash their innate wealth creating potentials by exploiting opportunities that abound in their respective communities as well as engage themselves in productive economic endeavours while in the elementary schools.

“What we are doing at this stage is to enhance the capacity of the teacher who will in turn prepare the pupil and student and convert them entrepreneurs in addition, after the training schools are expected to create entrepreneurship clubs and school enterprises.

“The clubs will then compete for laurels at the regional and national levels where cash prizes would be awarded to the best three schools who will represent the country at global youth entrepreneurship events outside the country in 2022,” he said.

Speaking also, Mr Gentle Emela, Commissioner of Education in Bayelsa, urged the teachers to take advantage of the opportunity to pioneer the programme to lay a solid foundation for youths.

Emela who was represented by a Director in charge of Secondary Education Rev Osusu Jacob urged the teachers to look beyond the immediate benefit of the workshop to embrace entrepreneurship and propagate same to their pupils and students.

He noted that the benefit of the training was a lifelong one that would also prepare them for retirement life outside the classroom.

A total of 100 teachers drawn from private and public schools across the eight local government areas in Bayelsa are participating in the ongoing three day workshop in Yenagoa, Bayelsa capital.

Also speaking, Mr Tiamilu Ibrahim, a SMEDAN resource person explained that the curriculum which had 12 modules was developed by the agency and the state Ministry of Education which is expected to take the programme to all schools in the state.

Mrs Lilian Kakiri, a participant and Head Teacher at Ebisam Group of Schools at Akenfa area of Yenagoa applauded the policy for involving both private and public schools and hoped the programme would tackle youth unemployment.

Also Mr Singabelle David, a teacher at Government Model School, Ekeremor local government, said the programme was long overdue and would lay a foundation for refocusing the schools system beyond issuing certificates.

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