The Executive Secretary of National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO), Dr. Barclays Foubiri Ayakoroma, has urged Theatre Arts lecturers in Nigerian Universities to always include seminar presentations for students in undergraduate classes, saying it will boost students’ research potentials and confidence.
Stating this at the Roundtable Session of the 26th Annual Conference of Society of Nigeria Theatre Artists (SONTA), at the Arts Theatre Complex of Benue State University, Makurdi, Benue State, Ayakoroma said seminars were invaluable because in preparing for such presentations, students are bound to carry out researches, which will build them intellectually.
He recalled that in the Department of Theatre Arts, University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, such seminar presentations were always the talk of the Department, and among students in the Faculty, and that he had introduced same at the Department of Theatre and Cultural Studies, Nasarawa State University, Keffi.
According to him, his approach is such that the seminar presentations are very interesting and the students love to be part of the experience, especially those who will present their own seminar in the next academic session, thus, students prepare very well so that they will not o be humiliated by the junior ones, who could ask unpredictable questions.
“After the seminar, some of the students came to me and thanked me, saying that I had really boosted their confidence; they had faced the crowd and presented their papers; and they never knew that they could do that. Some said it was an eye-opener for them, intellectually, and that it had given them the guts to face their contemporaries anywhere. The exercise is good for better prospects in theatre scholarship,” he disclosed.
Nwagbo Pat Obi
Corporate Affairs