BY LEVI JOHNSON
The Thinking School education approach is new in Nigeria, but due to how it is reinforcing schools’ curriculum across the world, more Nigerian schools are adopting it. The education approach was first embraced in Nigeria in 2018 by Greensprings School, and now Grenville Schools in Lagos and Evergreen School in Enugu are also on their way to becoming certified Thinking Schools, courtesy Greensprings Training College (GTC).
Explaining the importance of Thinking School accreditation, Mr Abraham Ogunkambi, the Head of Greensprings Training College and one of the programme’s national trainers, said the aim of the programme is to help schools build a community in which their students, teachers and even parents can become pragmatic problem solvers. He said, “Becoming a Thinking School comes with lots of advantages. The modules of the training focus on teaching staff how they can become better thinkers; they also learn how they can teach students to think critically, creatively, and objectively to solve both academic and life problems.”
“Aside from that,” he continued, “the Thinking School programme helps improve students’ academic performance and reduces behavioural problems. The reason for this is that the programme teaches students to think about the consequences of their actions and inactions, thereby making them to be responsible for the outcomes.”
Mr Ogunkambi also revealed the procedure of becoming a Thinking School, stating that it is an 18-month journey. “It takes 18 months to become certified, and within that period, Thinking School national trainers would train the drive team of the school to equip them with the skills, resources and techniques that will enable them to pass this knowledge to their colleagues, for onward training of their students and in some cases, their parents are trained as well,” he remarked.
Thinking School is an initiative of the University of Exeter in collaboration with Thinking Matters. Greensprings Training College is the official training partner for Thinking School in Nigeria.