Keep Form Fours occupied
Yemi Alade listens to Form Four girls at Daraja Academy in Nanyuki when she visited the school as Africa's Shell Make The Future ambassador on November 22, 2016.
What you need to know:
- These are fresh school leavers; if not moderated, they’ll spend all their time on gadgets.
- Various schools have designed a programme to engage and keep the Form Four leavers to avoid having them get lost or be absorbed by the world.
Every day, we lose very many young souls in ways we can’t really comprehend. All this dates back to when the Form Four students are done with examinations and have nobody to give them direction. They are left to loiter and wander without focus and are, hence, vulnerable to any danger.
Most high school leavers stay idle and waste a lot of time. They then fall into the temptation of drug and substance abuse, unsafe sex and pornography. There is a need for a programme to keep this lot engaged until they join college or university.
We live in a world that is fast growing in all sectors, specifically technology. These are fresh school leavers; if not moderated, they’ll spend all their time on gadgets. Everybody wants to go digital but do they know the harm the gadgets can cause?
Various schools have designed a programme to engage and keep the Form Four leavers to avoid having them get lost or be absorbed by the world. For example, Daraja Academy, in Nanyuki, Laikipia County, has one of the best. With the Transition Program, the girls get back to school for five months.
Drug and substance use
The first three months are spent working on theory topics in mental health, career guidance and choice, personal branding, entrepreneurship, employment and self-sufficiency. The special programme focuses on giving them a chance to realise and develop themselves.
To be able to know what’s right and wrong, be in a position to make those informed decisions that are of benefit later. With such enough ideas and information, the girls go out to college different and see the world in a new light.
With such a programme, would we really have cases of drug and substance use among teens? Where would one get the chance to be up till midnight watching bad videos? The Ministry of Education should consider launching such a programme.
Mr Makokha is a communication and public relations practitioner. [email protected]
