From Chuks Onuoha, Umuahia
The second induction ceremony of Kappa Delta Pi (KDP), a society which aims at fostering excellence in education and promotion of fellowship among those dedicated to teaching, was recently held at the Postgraduate Lecture Hall ll of the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike (MOUAU), Abia State.
About 22 persons were inducted as members of International Honour Society in Education for their outstanding performances in their various fields of endeavour. The KDP Nigeria President, Prof. Uche Grace Emetarom, said that KDP as a society inducts only persons who have exhibited the ideals of scholarship, integrity in service and commitment to excellence in teaching and its allied professions.
She said KDP was founded to recognize and promote excellence in education, promote fellowship among those dedicated to teaching, provide a reasoned voice for significant issues and link learning communities of educators.
She reminded the new members that the mission of KDP was to sustain and honour community of diverse educators by promoting excellence and advancing scholarship, leadership and service, while its vision was to help committed educators to become leaders in improving education for global citizenship.
The Dean College of Education of the university, Prof Nneka .A. Umezulike, who represented the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Francis Otunta, said with the advancement of globalisation, internationalisation and commercialisation, training individuals to become global citizens has become imperative.
He informed the KDP members that “the onus of transforming the young ones, who are brought to us as raw clay falls on us. We cannot succeed working from our different shelves. We have to come together to isolate issues relevant to achieving success and to collectively chart a new path.”
Otunta harped on the urgent need to make people who have made outstanding contributions to the development of professional education to lead the society.
He described KDP as a society of intelligent strong leaders who if selected to be in the helm of affairs would think around problems and every problem would become easy.
The MOUAU VC expressed readiness of the institution to associate with KDP and further expressed gratitude for having them at the institution.
Head of Department of Educational Management, Dr. Charles N. Agbaegbu, who was also an inductee, commended Prof. Uche Emetarom who single-handedly brought KDP from USA to Nigeria to foster excellence in education and promote fellowship among members.
The Committee Chairperson, Dr. Angela C. Ekoh-Nweke, charged the new members to see themselves as servants to humanity, adding that “as teachers and educators, we should strive to deliver effective learning to our students.”
Earlier in a lecture entitled: “Culturally responsive teaching and leading”, chairman/facilitator, Prof. Mkpa Agu Mkpa advised teachers to respect the right of the child in conformity with the social norms.
He called on those who draw the curriculum to be sensitive and re-orientate themselves both in writing textbooks and illustrations so as to change the practice, assumptions and belief that one gender is superior to the other.
“Curricular practices sometimes seem to be biased in the sense that through their illustrations, they designed certain professions for the male child and others for the female, which should not be so”, he said.
Earlier, during a courtesy call on the vice chancellor by members of KDP, the Chairman, Abia State Scholarship Board, Prof. Samuel Okoronkwo Igwe, said there was nothing like falling standard of education in Nigeria as widely believed, saying that the problem with the system was the negative approach to it.
Igwe, who is former vice chancellor of Abia State University, Uturu (ABSU) said due to bad attitude of Nigerians towards education, “university certificates can now be bought for our children, people sat for JAMB, WASSCE etc for our children and our children come out with certificates they cannot defend.”