By Aminata Phidelia Allie
A pilot school project, which aims at raising “agents of change”, will be officially launched by the Attitudinal and Behavioral Change (ABC) secretariat today, February 13, at the Atlantic Hall, National Stadium Hostel in Freetown. It will follow a two-day training of over one hundred pupils in four secondary schools to become “agents of change or peer educators in schools and society”.
The training, which is in line with the ABC Secretariat’s theme for the year 2014; “Your Altitude depends on your Attitude and Aptitude”, has already been done in all districts across the country.
Speaking at the start of the training on Tuesday, executive director of ABC, Dr. Ivan Ajibola Thomas explained that the main purpose of the training was to enable the pupils become ambassadors of attitude and behavioural change to their colleagues, families and the country as a whole.
He said there was a high concentration of negative attitude within the school system “like gangsterism, especially with the boys”. He added that “the change agents within our society have failed us, they are weak”.
Dr. Thomas said it was time for discussions about what was affecting the school system “thus making it impossible for us to reach our altitude. We should think about what makes our pupils perform poorly in schools and eventually drop out”.
A representative from the Freetown Secondary School for Girls, Lucia Mambu, said that no matter the level of education one attained, without a good character, attitude and a right approach in life “you will be wasting your time and will never be able to make it in life”.
She encouraged the ABC to continue collaborating with schools to promote change of attitude in Sierra Leone.
Principal of the Ahmadiya Muslim Secondary School, Abdul Karim Sesay, emphasised the importance of attitude change, saying that the secretariat had taken the right steps towards the promotion of social change and progress by targeting the school-going kids across the country. He said the secretariat’s theme was “explicit and inspiring, describing altitude as dreams, aspirations and aims in life whiles aptitude was the ability to do something quickly".
Statements were also delivered by representative and principal of the Prince of Whales and the Methodist Girls’ High School.
(C) Politico 13/02/14
