The principal of St Joseph Catholic Secondary School, Opere, Ibadan, Rev Fr Francis Afolabi, says parents are their children’s greatest motivators and first role models in life, hence they have major roles to play in bringing out the best in them.
He added that children look up to their parents for moral support as they struggle to find their footing in life.
Rev Fr Afolabi said this in his address at the opening of the three-day programme marking the school’s second edition of the Literary and Debating Week themed: “The Role of the Media in the Quest for National Development” held on the school’s premises on Thursday last week.
While he emphasised the importance of the various means of communication to disseminate information in this jet age, he charged the students of the school and others from the invited schools to exercise caution when making use of the modern means of communication.
“Though in this jet age, tools of communication are indispensable in learning activities as we have come to see during the pandemic that led to the lockdown, still there is need for caution and guidance,” he said.
Speaking on the rationale behind organising a Literary and Debating Week in the school, he said, “this is geared towards improving the students speaking skill and articulation; sharpening their power of reasoning and creating room for healthy interaction with students from other schools.
The guest speaker, Mrs Modupe George of the African Newspaper of the Nigeria Plc, Publishers of the Nigerian Tribune titles, while delivering a lecture on the theme of the programme said the relevance of media in almost all spheres of human endeavour could not be overemphasised, moreso in the area of national development.
She added that “the role of information in national development is no longer a matter of dispute, it is needed to build relationship between the state and the media; leadership and the led, and elite and the people at the grassroots level.”
Some of the activities marking the event were debating competition among the host school and other invited schools on the topic, “Media censors, a breach of democracy;’ quiz competition and a seminar on sexual abuse which was anchored by Mrs Esther E. Ominiyi of the Threshing House Mission.
At the end of the debate, St Joseph Catholic Secondary School took the first position, Pace Comprehensive College Ashipa the second position and the United Missionary Comprehensive College, Molete, the third position, while consolation went to Hallmark School, Odo-Ona.
While at the quiz competition segment, the first position went to Handmaids Catholic School, Idi-Ayunre, the second position to the host school and while St Anne’s Comprehensive College, Idi-Iroko, came third.
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