As part of our ongoing efforts to equip and prepare youths and teenagers to be resilient and productive leaders of their lives and society, the EQ2Homes team deployed to Community Secondary School, Okochiri, under the supervision of Success Nwoko, focused on two key areas of need for the 2023/2024 academic session (Second term), identified through the initial evaluation metrics of our Teenagers’ Index Quotient (TIQ): Peer Pressure and Academics.
Commencing on the 2nd of February and spanning 8 weeks of weekly meetings with the SS1 students, the project, which concluded on the 22nd of March, had 4 mentors working with a total of 104 students using stories, games, and discussions to help the students build new mindsets around their identity, self-leadership, and responsibility. The impact of these sessions was already becoming evident towards the end of the academic year. As the project supervisor, Success Nwoko reported, “We recorded a 20 to 30 percent increase in academic performance. There have been many improvements in the attitude of the students. This led to 70% of the school’s new prefects from the academy.”
Some of the key areas where changes were observed in the lives of the students include:
Communication: Many of the students who were not so expressive at the start of the sessions have become so much more expressive and more confident in communication.
Character: So many character issues were evident when the team came into the school. Students abused teachers, walked away from the sessions, and disregarded authority. All that has drastically reduced as the students are picking vital lessons on responsible social connections, honor, and respect as vital virtues that help them in life.
Leadership: Our students now make up part of the school leadership system. We recorded 70% of the school prefects having been part of our sessions before being found competent for the positions of responsibility they now handle.
Academics: Two of our students went in for the Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination, just to try it out, one of them said she would not have had the courage to do so if not for reading the story Sit down and Read from one of our project books.
As we continue our ongoing efforts to ensure we prepare the next generation for responsibility and excellence in life, we celebrate our mentors and supervisors at the grassroots ensuring that our goals and vision are becoming a reality.
