REASONS FOR BEING IN SECONDARY SCHOOL

One of the major reasons why most students finished high school or high institution unqualified is due to their lack of essence of being in that particular level of formal education - be it secondary school or tertiary institution. H. B. Drake once said, “The student is like a traveler; but before a man can travel with enjoyment and profit he needs both preparation and experience. First he must understand the language of the people among whom he is to travel. Second, if he is wise, he must on arriving, find a reliable guide who can point out to him the chief features of distinction and interest. After this he will be equipped to wander by himself and make his discoveries otherwise he will be bewildered and go astray.”

When you know your needs and where they are, you will be willing to use whatever necessary to get them and acquire them. So it is in terms of knowledge acquisition; if our students know what is most important to achieve at a certain level of education, they can work it out on their own, using their own techniques and working at it within their individual capacities.

Therefore, in your secondary school days you will be compulsorily taken through the following subjects: Mathematics, Languages (English, French, etc.), Cultural and Creative arts, Religion and National Values, Basic Science and Technology, Pre-vocational Studies, Business Studies, etc. and along with other specialized subjects which you will take in Senior Classes, such as Literature, Government, etc. for Art Class; Physics, Chemistry, etc. for Science Class; Accounting, Commence, etc. for Commercial Class.

Now, note that while all these subjects are so important to be taken just as subjects, their major focus is to help you develop the following skills, minds, virtues and knowledge which will later become helpful in whatever you wish to be in future:

• Good communication skill: this concerns ability to speak and write correct English language or any other language of instructions. It is a skill that involves expressing yourself clearly both orally and in written form.

• Creative thinking skill: this is the ability to think logically in a sensible manner. This kind of thinking often turn mistakes to something new.M

•  anipulation skill: this skill, like creative thinking, is the ability to convert something from one form to another; making something new out of the old ones. It is mostly called Ability to Improvised.

•  Entrepreneurial skill: this is business skill. It is ability to provide solutions to problems through which you can generate rewards (money).

• Work skill: this has to do with practical knowledge and skill, and productive ability, such skills include: commitment, inner strength, risk taking, confidence, decision making, team spirit, honesty, etc.

• Life skill: this has to do with having some major fundamental knowledge about life reality and truth. That is, know the fact that: human beings need one another to succeed, man needs God to be successful, the importance of loving God and humanity, the spirit of patriotism, etc.

• Technological skill: this has to do with ability to effectively operate computer system and how to maximally use the internet and various social media for your and societal advantage.

These are WHYS you are in secondary school; ensure you patiently and seriously focus on how to internalize these skills and knowledge.

If you properly acquire them now, they will also help you achieve the very best from any higher institution. It is the same sets of skills, minds, virtues and knowledge that higher institution aims to imbibe in you, but in PRACTICAL forms.

Secondary school only concentrates on building the elementary aspects of these skills and knowledge for higher institution to build on. Higher institution will help you to raise them higher to become really useful – and that's why it is called HIGHER INSTITUTION.

Therefore, concentrate on any how you can acquire the elementary or basic level of the skills and knowledge now that you are in secondary school so that you will not be having problems translating them to practical aspects when you get to higher institution.

One of the major reasons there are so many jobless graduates and youths in our society is because they don't have these skills and knowledge. You have been told now!

Be wise to learn and acquire them as your school in totality will be involving you through its secondary features, and as your teachers will be taking you through all the processes and procedures necessary for the development of the skills and knowledge in form of teaching, assignments, projects of any kind and any other ways it will be convenient for you.