Beyond classroom: How Caleb University is communicating development

By Jerome-Mario Utomi

A university is not merely a place where lectures are delivered, examinations are written, and certificates are awarded. At its best, a university is a living institution that connects knowledge with society, responds to community needs and equips its students to become agents of positive change.

This is the story Caleb University is increasingly telling through its commitment to community engagement, and the recent free health awareness and screening exercise organised by postgraduate students of the Department of Mass Communication provides a compelling illustration.

The outreach, held on Saturday, September 12, 2026, in Ketu and adjoining communities within the Agboyi-Ketu Local Government Council Development Area of Lagos State, was tagged “Know Your Health; Check, Know and Act.” Beyond the free health checks and awareness sessions, the initiative represented something more profound: a practical demonstration of how education can be taken beyond the four walls of the university and deployed in addressing real societal challenges.

This is where the concept of Communication for Development becomes particularly significant.

Communication for Development is not communication for communication’s sake. It is the strategic use of communication to create awareness, encourage behavioural change, promote participation and support social and economic development. When properly understood and applied, it transforms communication from merely transmitting information into an instrument for improving lives.

The Ketu outreach demonstrated this principle remarkably well.

The postgraduate students did not simply study Communication for Development as an academic subject. They translated the knowledge acquired in the classroom into an intervention that placed members of a community at the centre of the communication process.

Residents were allowed to receive basic health checks, listen to practical discussions on healthy living and interact with the students. In that sense, the programme was not simply an academic exercise. It was a two-way communication process in which knowledge moved from the university to the community, while the students also encountered the realities, concerns and needs of the people they were trained to serve.

This deserves commendation.
It also deserves particular recognition for the role played by Dr. Charles Adewale, the lecturer who taught the Communication for Development course.

Some lecturers teach students what is contained in textbooks, and there are educators who challenge students to ask what can be done with what they have learnt. Dr. Adewale appears to belong to the latter category.

His contribution to the Ketu initiative illustrates the difference between teaching a subject and teaching its application.

By encouraging the students to transform a classroom concept into a community-based programme, Dr. Adewale helped demonstrate that communication studies have consequences beyond examinations and academic grades. Communication can become a tool for health promotion, social mobilisation, community participation and human development. That is a lesson worth celebrating.

The decision to organise the outreach around health was also timely. Health is one of the most fundamental components of human development, yet many people do not routinely check their health status until symptoms become serious. By providing basic checks such as blood pressure assessment, body mass and weight measurements, together with health counselling, the students created an avenue for residents to become more conscious of preventive healthcare.

The awareness sessions strengthened this intervention.

Speaking on how to live a healthy life, Omonua Isibhakhomen emphasised the importance of paying attention to diet and making healthier choices using foods that are readily available.

Her message was simple but important: healthy living does not necessarily have to be expensive.

Similarly, Fasuyi Feyisola Caroline, speaking on longevity, drew attention to adequate sleep and rest. Her message that adults should consciously make time for sufficient sleep provided another example of how development communication can address everyday behaviours that influence wellbeing.

The programme anchor, Mr. Ikpoyi Davies Ifeanyi, also encouraged residents to know their health status rather than waiting for serious symptoms before seeking medical attention.

These messages demonstrate an important characteristic of effective development communication: complex issues can be translated into simple, practical information that people can understand and apply.
This is precisely where Mass Communication can become a powerful instrument of social development.

For Caleb University, therefore, the Ketu programme represents more than a postgraduate class assignment. It reflects an institutional philosophy in which education is expected to have a social footprint.

Universities have immense intellectual resources. They have lecturers, researchers, students and access to knowledge that can be deployed to address challenges within surrounding communities. When these resources remain confined to lecture halls and academic publications, their impact can be limited.

But when universities establish meaningful relationships with communities, education assumes another dimension. It becomes service, it becomes engagement, it becomes development.

The reactions of beneficiaries further underline the relevance of the initiative. Elebiju Olalekan, a staff member of the Lagos State Neighbourhood Watch, commended the students and the university, describing the initiative as laudable and calling for similar programmes to be organised more frequently.

Another beneficiary, Mr. Moruf Ganiyu, expressed appreciation that Caleb University chose the community for the outreach, noting the importance of universities contributing directly to the welfare and development of communities around them. These reactions should not be dismissed as mere expressions of gratitude. They point to the value of universities building bridges with the communities within which they operate.

And this is where Caleb University’s contribution deserves a broader interpretation.

Giving back to society is not restricted to donating money or constructing physical infrastructure. Sometimes, giving back means giving knowledge. Sometimes, it means giving people access to information that can change their behaviour. Sometimes, it means creating an opportunity for people to ask questions, receive guidance and become more conscious of decisions that affect their lives.

The Ketu outreach did all three.
It also gave the students something that cannot be acquired entirely from textbooks: experience.

By interacting directly with residents, the students were exposed to the realities of communicating with different categories of people. They had to think about how messages should be presented, how audiences respond and how communication can be used to encourage practical action.

That is development education in its most practical form.

The initiative also demonstrates why lecturers who encourage experiential learning deserve special recognition. Dr. Charles Adewale did not allow Communication for Development to remain an abstract academic concept. His supervision and involvement helped create an environment in which students could test their knowledge against real community needs. For that, he deserves a glowing tribute.

Dr. Adewale’s contribution should be viewed within the larger responsibility of the Nigerian university teacher. The lecturer’s role is not merely to prepare students for examinations or professional employment.

The lecturer also has a responsibility to nurture critical thinkers, socially conscious citizens and professionals capable of contributing meaningfully to society.

The Ketu project provides evidence of what can happen when teaching is connected to that broader responsibility. It is particularly commendable that the programme was undertaken peacefully and collectively by the postgraduate students.

The coordinator, Mr. Olayemi Samuel, described the exercise as “symbolic, historic, exemplary and legendary,” while appreciating Dr. Adewale for his commitment to making the course practical and engaging.

Such words may sound celebratory, but behind them is a serious educational principle: students learn differently when they are allowed to practise what they have been taught. Caleb University should therefore be encouraged to sustain and expand this culture of community engagement.

The Ketu experience can become a model for similar interventions involving other departments and communities. Mass Communication students can undertake development communication projects around sanitation, education, environmental awareness, maternal and child health, digital literacy, civic awareness and other areas of community need.

Other departments can equally identify social problems within their areas of expertise and develop practical interventions.

Such programmes will not only benefit communities. They will also strengthen the university’s identity as an institution that communicates development rather than merely discussing it. Ultimately, the true measure of education is not only what graduates know but what they can do with what they know.

The Ketu health outreach offers a refreshing example of that philosophy in action. It showed that a lesson taught in a university classroom can travel into a community and become awareness, interaction, screening and potentially healthier behaviour. That is the essence of development communication. That is also the essence of giving back.

And in making the Communication for Development course practical, community-focused and socially relevant, Dr. Charles Adewale has offered his students a lesson that extends far beyond the semester. He has reminded them that communication is not merely about speaking, writing, broadcasting or producing messages. At its most meaningful, communication is about people. It is about understanding society, engaging communities and using knowledge to make a difference.

Caleb University, through initiatives such as the Ketu outreach, is showing that a university can communicate development not only through what it teaches, but through what its students and lecturers do with that knowledge.

The challenge now is to sustain the momentum. Because when universities give knowledge back to society, society gives them something equally valuable in return: the opportunity to prove that education can improve lives.