The Lagos State Government has been charged to include creative writing and emotional intelligence in the State's school curriculum for primary, secondary and tertiary institutions.
The advice was given by the Director of Platform Schools, Ipaja Lagos, Mr Bola Obe during the presentation of two books and the end-of-year party of the school.
The two books, which were edited by Mr Olusegun Akinsanya have short stories written by 20 students in the primary school session.
The books were titled, ‘Travails of Beauty and Kossi the Houseboy, as well as ‘Ogunsola, a Selfish Hunter and Other Short Stories.’
According to him “It will be good if the government can develop a curriculum on creative writing and emotional intelligence for primary, secondary even to tertiary and it should be made compulsory. Many people have good ideas, but they can’t write it down,” Obe said.
He lamented the poor writing skills of most social media users.
“When we look at the social media you will see the way they write and they are losing the value of writing. In Platform Schools, we are trying to bring back the values of writing.”
A grade 5 pupil, Eunice Akinsanya, who wrote a story on, ‘Ogunsola the Selfish Hunter’ said she decide to pick the title so as to create awareness about farming.
Akinsanya said “i chose the title because of its cultural theme. Writing is fun, it is a way of learning more and I will like to tell people that they should engage in writing. It will help them learn more because education never stops".
Similarly, another author, eight-year-old Amir Obe, a grade four pupil who wrote, ‘’A good bad man’ said, “I didn’t want to keep things to myself and I want to show the world the passion I have for writing. I want to advise every child to think and write more.”
Neehama Adekanye who is in JSS 1 wrote a story titled, ‘Úbong.’ She also called on the government to create more opportunities for school children to write.
“Government can create writing competitions and train school children on how to write because writing is fun and you learn new things when you write,” she said.
Another author, Asopesoluwa Popoola, a grade 4 student who wrote a story titled, "The poor girl who became rich" said she wrote the book as a form of inspiration for every individual to never give up.
The Chairman of the Parents Teachers Association ,PTA, Mr Abiola Popoola also supported the idea to include both emotional intelligence and creative writing in the school curriculum.
He said this, in no small measure, will enhance the emotional intelligence and capacity of the children thereby resulting in their general development.
