Category: Features

The infiltration of communities in Nkanu East and Nkanu West local government areas of Enugu State by gun-wielding hoodlums who operate in Keke, tipper trucks and motorcycles, has caused deaths and destruction in the communities. DAMIAN DURUIHEOMA reports that transport unions in the areas have vowed to bring back peace by fishing out the hoodlums who maim and kill.

For some time now, communities in Nkanu East and Nkanu West local government areas, as well as a few other rural communities in Enugu South council area of Enugu State, have been battling in vain to ward off youths who have turned their guns towards their own people. They gruesomely maim and kill innocent people in the areas.

Fundamentally, the miscreants, who hide under the Biafra agitation to take control of the communities, have forests as their havens. These attacks, it was learned, became intensified since the leadership of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) declared sit-at-home every Monday in solidarity with its leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, who is being tried for alleged treasonable offences by the federal government.

According to security sources, before Kanu was incarcerated, the vast boundary forests in the area had been known for criminals’ hiding grounds. Though IPOB had, since last year, announced a cancellation of the sit-at-home order, The Nation learned that some hoodlums, in conjunction with miscreants from neighbouring Ebonyi State who had used the vast forests in Nkanu East and West as operational camps, hid under the cloak of Biafra agitation to perpetrate havoc around the areas.

A visit to the areas showed that the communities in the area have an economy that is driven by people who engage in trading, cassava and rice farming, and milling. For the reason that its strategic location, and the borders it shares with neighbouring Ebonyi State, people from other parts of Enugu and Ebonyi States come to Nkanu land to trade at their main markets, which are variously opened for businesses every day.

A recent attack before, during and after the recently-conducted local government elections in Enugu State even resulted in the death of some who are indigenous to the areas, as well as the destruction of properties. Before the February 23 local government elections, there had been spontaneous attacks and killing of policemen at checkpoints in the area, killing of the chieftains of the All Progressives Congress (APC) at a reconciliation meeting as well as kidnappings in the areas.

However, observers are of the belief that the recent killings have turned to premeditated campaigns in which marauders often take villages by surprise and kill or kidnap village leaders for ransom. This has often been done using IPOB or Biafra agitation as a cover.

 

Efforts by the state government

 

Worried by the frequency of the attacks in recent times in communities such as Amechi Awkunanaw, Obeagu Amechi, Akwuke, Ozalla, Agbani Ugbawka, Akpugo, Amagunze, Akpawfu, and Oruku among others, Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi summoned an emergency security meeting of critical stakeholders of Nkanu West, Nkanu East, Enugu South, Enugu North, Enugu East local council recently.

A statement on February 24 by the Special Adviser to the Governor on Information, Steve Oruruo, listed the stakeholders invited for the security meeting at the Government House to include chairmen of the above mentioned local government areas. Others invited were all members of Enugu State House of Assembly, representing the people of Nkanu West, Nkanu East, Enugu South, Enugu North and Enugu East constituencies, all traditional rulers and presidents-general of autonomous communities in the five affected areas.

From the meeting, it was learned that the hoodlums, in order to evade suspicion, used tipper lorries to convey their weapons covered with sand to their preferred destination from where they launched attacks. The tippers were also discovered to be used in conveying bodies of victims away from where they were killed since security operatives were not used to checking such trucks on the road. It was equally discovered that the hoodlums were also using Keke and okada for easy reach to their camps in the forests.

To this end, our correspondent learnt that during the security meeting, the stakeholders were unanimous in urging the state government to ban tipper lorries, Keke and okada in the communities, at least, for the moment to enable security operatives to continue their manhunt of the hoodlums.

Following the frightening revelations and the decision of the stakeholders that commercial transport operations be banned, the state government announced the ban forthwith of the operation of tricycle (Keke), motorcycle (okada) and tipper-trucks in all communities in Nkanu East and Nkanu West local government areas. The state government also banned the operation of tricycle, motorcycle and tipper-trucks in the following communities/neighbourhoods in Enugu South; Amechi Uno, Amechi Awkunanaw, Amechi Uwani, Obeagu Main, Obeagu Uno, Centenary City/Obunagu, Obeagu, One day, Garki, Akwuke, Ugwuaji, Ndiagu Onunyo, Maryland and Ikiriki.

A statement by the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Prof Simon Uchenna Ortuanya, said the decision was sequel to an emergency security council meeting held in the state on Thursday, February 24, “on the heels of the recent spike in insecurity in parts of the state and Executive Order No.1: 2022 dated February 24, 2022.” The statement enjoined members of the public “to comply with this order as the security agencies have been directed to enforce it.”

Transporters stepped in  Expectedly, four days after the ban, the three transport unions in the affected local government areas appealed to Governor Ugwuanyi to lift the ban.

At a security meeting with Governor Ugwuanyi at the Government House, Enugu on March 1, following the recent ban on the operations of tricycles, motorcycles and tipper-trucks in all the communities in Nkanu East and Nkanu West local government areas and selected areas in Enugu South councils, the leaderships of the Association of Tricycle Riders Transport Union (ATRTU), Enugu State, Motorcycle Transport Union of Enugu State, Nkanu East/West branches and the Enugu State Tipper Union of Nigeria revealed that hoodlums have infiltrated their associations to perpetrate criminal activities in the state to tarnish their image.

They also said that there are some criminal elements among them who are using their means of livelihood for criminal activities to the detriment of their image. The Chairman of ATRTU, Comrade Benjamin Ikah, said: “The association will not fold its arms and watch our long-built reputation in Enugu State damaged by some criminals.” He added that “the association will, as usual, support the efforts of the security agencies to fish out bad eggs in our association.”

Ikah, therefore, condemned “in its entirety, the activities of those who use tricycles and other motorists for criminal activities in Enugu State.” He promised that the unions will do everything possible to ensure that the hoodlums using tricycles for criminal activities are fished out. He appealed to Governor Ugwuanyi to “temper justice with mercy.”

On behalf of the Enugu State Tipper Union of Nigeria, the President, Mr Andrew Nweke, pointed out that “it has been established that our revered union, which we had jealously shielded from scandals for decades, has been infiltrated by criminal elements masquerading as drivers.” Mr Nweke assured Ugwuanyi, “This union reputed for high moral standing of the members shall no longer allow unscrupulous characters to drag the name of the association to the mud.

“Our union assures the government of Enugu State and the security agencies of our support and requisite information to unravel any act of criminality within our fold. Our union condemns the criminal activities of drivers who collude with bandits under the cloak of Tipper Union to unleash mayhem on innocent citizens.”

The leaders of Nkanu East/Nkanu West branches of Motorcycle Transport Union of Enugu State pledged that “the association shall rise to the occasion by ensuring that criminals do not succeed in dragging the image and reputation of our union to the mud,” adding that they will work closely with the security agencies and relevant state authorities to fish out the bad eggs among them.

The Nkanu West Chairman of the association, Mr Okwudiri Eze said: “Our association shall come up with measures that will ensure sanity in its membership, activities and operations; that no bona fide member of this association shall make himself or his services available for any criminal activity. We passionately appeal to you as our father to temper justice with mercy.”

In a communiqué issued at the end of a joint meeting prior to the meeting with the governor, the three associations adopted measures to actualise their mandate of enhancing the security of the state, appealing to the security agencies and the chairmen of local government areas to co-operate with them in their efforts to fish out the bad eggs among them.

Lifting the ban, Governor Ugwuanyi urged the leaders of the associations to do all they can to fulfil their promises so that they will restore the security and confidence of their passengers. He, therefore, directed the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Chief Miletus Eze, to immediately prepare an Executive Order vacating the ban, saying to members of the associations: “when you leave here, go straight and resume your businesses.”

Present at the meeting were the Director, State Security Services, Habu Daluwa, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Operations), DCP Ahmed Garba, the Secretary to the State Government, Prof.  Simon Uchenna Otuanya, the Chief of Staff to the Governor, Dr Festus Uzor, the Deputy Chief of Staff, Prof. Malachy Okwueze, the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Chief Miletus Eze, and the Special Adviser to the Governor on Information, Steve Oruruo.

Education is generally agreed to be a weapon that unlocks the innate potential of every individual. However, this truism may not hold good for the Nigerian girl child whose access to education still remains limited. GRACE OBIKE takes a look at efforts to enhance the education of the girl child.

Azare Community in Hawul Local Government Area of Borno State was known for its relative peace. Parents were happy and excited to watch their children go to school. That was then.

When the Boko Haram insurgency began, school activities were disrupted. For years the insurgency has lasted, 13-year-old Mziyakwa and her younger sister, Mziyakwi have been unable to attend school because of insecurity. As a result of the insecurity situation, millions of families have been displaced from their ancestral homes, even as thousands of people have lost their lives.

Mziyakwa was nine when she and her family fled from their home and went to Maiduguri, Borno State. Her parents had spent the little money they had on food and shelter, leaving little for Mziyakwa’s or her little sister’s education. This means Mziyakwa’s dream of returning to school seemed impossible. Not only had she lost her home, she had also lost two years of schooling.

At her old school in the village, the language of instruction was Bura, a language that is not widely spoken in Maiduguri. English, Hausa, and Kanuri are among the languages used in schools in Maiduguri.

As a teen, she was able to acquire the current mode of teaching and learning. Today, however, the young girl declares, “I can now read, write, and even speak English.” It has always been my dream to be able to communicate fluently in English.

Mziyakwa was introduced to the Accelerated Education Programme (AEP) in 2020, which was organised by a consortium led by Plan International and funded by the European Union (EU) for vulnerable girls and boys who had forcibly dropped out of school but had wanted to return to school.

The Federal Government, in partnership with non-governmental organisations (NGOs), has been implementing various interventions to increase participation in basic and secondary education, including adapting alternative education models to provide literacy and numeracy skills to out-of-school children. The AEP programme is one of such that has been implemented in other countries, according to the International Development Research Centre’s (IDRC) study of accelerated education programmes and girls-focused education models in Ghana, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone.

It reported that the programme had also been implemented in Congo, Mali and Burkina Faso. The flexible, non-formal AEP programme is designed for out-of-school children and adults who can later mainstream into formal education or who want to learn new skills. They are taught subjects such as Mathematics, English, Basic Science and Technology, History, and national values.

The study estimated that girls are the majority of over 10.3 million out-of-school children in Nigeria. States in the Northeast and Northwest of the country have the highest per cent of children who are not in school. Conservative estimates placed the per cent of out-of-school children 47.7 per cent in the Northeast and 47.3 per cent in the Northwest.

According to the Deputy Representative of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Rushnan Murzata, over 1.3 million girls like Miyazkwa drop out of school every year. He urged the government to implement measures to reduce this number and improve retention rates.

 

Factors influencing student enrollment

 

In most African countries and Nigeria in particular, girls’ school attendance is low. Records show that fewer girls are enrolled in schools than boys. This is despite the provisions of the Universal Basic Education Act and the Child Rights Act, which aimed at ensuring the right of all children to education.

In Nigeria, the patriarchal nature and perceptions regarding the girl-child have created gender stereotypes fuelled by socio-cultural beliefs and practices, which tend to limit the girl-child’s rights to education and expectations of herself. While the education crisis in Nigeria affects children across the country, UNICEF believes that some children, such as girls, children with disabilities, children from the poorest households, children on the streets, or affected by displacement or emergencies, and children in geographically distant areas, are more likely to be affected than others.

In 2021 alone, Northern Nigeria witnessed 25 school attacks with 1,440 kidnapped children and 16 killed. In March 2021, 618 schools in six northern states (Sokoto, Zamfara, Kano, Katsina, Niger, and Yobe) were closed due to the threat of attack or abduction of students and members of staff, for more than two months, the school closures in these states contributed significantly to learning losses.

According to Stefania Giannini, Assistant Director-General for Education at the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), COVID-19 forced school closures in 185 countries, potentially increasing drop-out rates that will disproportionately affect adolescent girls and further entrench gender gaps in education, as well as increasing the risk of sexual exploitation, early pregnancy, and early and forced marriage.

 

Returning them to the classroom

 

Mziyakwa is one of 6,974 school dropouts who want to return to school and are using the AEP programme to do so. Yunus Abdulhamid, Communication Advisor at Plan International Nigeria, explained that students in the programme are those who have been absent from school for an extended period of time; making it difficult to reassign them to their former classes or place them in classes ahead of their age.

“For a child who dropped out of school, say, in primary one four years ago, returning him to that same class may not be beneficial because he may be bullied, become a bully, or become frustrated trying to catch up. They will eventually be able to join their peers in mainstream schools or take the necessary examinations when they are ready.”

In a bid to close the education gap, the Federal Government, in collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in 2017, established the Girls for Girls Project (G4G), with funds from the Department for International Development (DFID), to encourage girls in Northern Nigeria to remain in school and transit from lower to upper levels of education.

The initiative is designed to work with girls to improve support and mentoring in schools, empower girls to appreciate who they are, why they should remain in school, enhance self-appreciation and self-esteem in targeted communities in Bauchi, Niger, Katsina, Sokoto, and Zamfara states, in 90 per cent of schools in rural communities and 10 per cent in semi-urban areas.

Apart from the G4G and AEP programmes, there is also the World Bank-approved Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE), whose goal is to improve secondary education opportunities among girls in targeted areas. The project, which commenced in 2020, supports access to secondary education and empowerment for adolescent girls in seven states such as Kano, Kebbi, Kaduna, Katsina, Borno, Plateau and Ekiti. It aims at benefiting about 6.7 million adolescents and 15.5 million direct project beneficiaries.

A rapid assessment report released by UNICEF last year noted that girls’ retention rate to Junior Secondary School three (JSS3) increased from 89.2 per cent to 91.8 per cent over the years; while girls’ dropout rate at JSS3 decreased from 10.8 per cent to 8.2 per cent. It also stated that the transition rate for girls from JSS1 increased from 32.6 per cent to 62.9 per cent over the years.

To ensure that children in the North-eastern states of Yobe, Borno, and Adamawa who did not have access to computers for virtual learning did not miss out on their education during the COVID-19 lockdown, Plan International, in collaboration with DFID, devised alternative plans to reach out to school pupils via radio, which is the most widely used method of disseminating information in Northern Nigeria.

The reading circle community-based schooling programme was aired daily, and tutors trained by Plan International on the Right Level Teaching Methodology helps children develop basic reading and Mathematics skills. The programme targeted learners from primary four to six. During the seven months the programme was implemented, an estimated 14,000 children attended the reading circles. Among the challenges faced during the implementation were finding a venue for the children to congregate for the reading circles, convincing doubtful parents of the need to allow their children to attend the sessions and getting instructors to understand how to present the material in the proper sequence.

The Plan International Education Officer based in Maiduguri David Oke said they engaged local leaders and community champions to create awareness and mobilise families to send their children to the reading circles. Some community leaders hosted some of the reading circles in their compounds while primary school compounds, which were accessible to the communities, also offered a place for the children to congregate and catch up with their lessons. And to ensure the instructors understood how to deliver the training, Plan International held training sessions through WhatsApp.

Father of four and resident of Gamboru Community in Borno State, Ibrahim Yakubu praised the programme. “Before the reading circle, my children were at home for weeks doing nothing. But now, they are studying again and catching up with their peers, which is good,” he said.

Laban Onisimus, Acting Head of Social Development at Plan International Nigeria, explained that the reading circles brought together no more than 20 pupils in communities, out in the open, and mostly under trees, as a tutor assisted them to understand what was being taught over the radio. “UNICEF assisted in broadcasting learning tools for about seven months, and we reached out to approximately 14,000 children in upper primary grades 4, 5, 6, and Junior Secondary 1 and 2 in the Northeast,” Onisimus stated.

With a continuous rise in out-of-school children in the country due to insecurity in different states and constant shutdown of education activities, Oke explains that reading circles can still be used to supplement education in such situations as long as all stakeholders are committed.

He said although UNICEF was responsible for airing the radio programmes, it would not have been possible if the state government was not in partnership with them. “The programme was aired by the Borno State Radio Corporation,” he said.

The education officer also said in situations where the use of radio will not be possible, instructors can be trained virtually and will need a small board, exercise and textbooks and a curriculum. Churches and mosques can also be used as locations, while under trees will be used as a last option.

Other states such as Lagos and Edo had similar projects in which children were taught remotely through state-sponsored programmes, either over the radio such as in Lagos or using the internet such as in Edo, which saved all the study materials on a website that was accessible to its students.

To encourage girls, the Federal Government and several state governments used role-play techniques such as allowing girls to become governors or ministers for a day or a few hours. This is what happened to three girls who served as Ministers of Women Affairs, Minister of State for Education, and Universal Basic Education Council (UBEC) Minister for one hour last year.

Although the girls were not expected to make any significant decisions within the period they ‘served’ as ministers, they got the opportunity to sit in the ministers’ offices, received briefings from department heads who reported to them the functions and activities of their departments and the programmes they were implementing. The girls also got a chance to address the media and have their photos taken, just like the ministers they were shadowing for the day would do.

Twelve-year-old Nana Bashir from Kebbi State, who served as Minister of Women Affairs for one hour during the commemoration of the day of the Girl Child in October last year stated: “This opportunity has shown me possibilities that I never imagined before. I come from an environment where girls drop out of school early for marriage. Now, I know that I can dream bigger and better!”

Dr Asabe Bashir, Director-General of the National Centre for Women Development (NCWD), explained that the one-hour-as-a-minister event is expected to show girls from economically disadvantaged communities how far they could dream.

Plan International, for example, takes a slightly different but similar approach. Yunus Abdulhamid explained that for them, older women who have achieved a level of success in communities are used to show parents in such communities the possibilities of what their daughters can be. This is because, in these communities, many parents fear their unmarried daughters might be tempted into immoral activities if they have nothing better to do. The women are presented to the parents and the communities as role models of what their daughters can be.

 

• This report was supported by the Africa Women’s Journalism Project (AWJP) in partnership with The ONE Campaign and the International Centre for Journalists (ICFJ).

Plastic waste is a menace that must be curbed. A 12-year-old pupil is leading a campaign to reduce it, writes ROSEMARY NWISI.

Ambassador David Pepple, 12, is a Junior Secondary School student of Victory Christian College in Elelenwo, Port Harcourt, Rivers State. He has commenced a neighborhood-to-neighborhood plastic hunt/campaign to curb the menace of plastic waste in the environment.

Pepple began his campaign at his alma mater, Sovina Model Primary School, Elelenwo, where he challenged pupils of the school to support him in the campaign by simply donating their plastic waste to him for recycling.

He told his former colleagues that plastic wastes were the greatest waste challenge in the world and as his contribution to tackling the challenge, he began a series of charity waste to wealth artistic creations, exhibitions, inventions, animations, campaigns and roadshows.

He said he had worked with local and international organisations which had hosted, collaborated and partnered with him and his foundations, Ambassador David Pepple and Ayomide and Ibitamuno Children Foundation to solve this challenge.

He listed some of the organisations to include Society of Nigerian Artist (SNA), Wider Perspective Limited, Salvation Ministry, Alliance Francaise Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt Chambers of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture ( PHCCIMA), Centre for Creative Development Strategies (CCDS) in collaboration with the embassy of France in Nigeria.

“I am developing an app to help curb the indiscriminate dumping of plastic waste material in the environment and to enable people to donate plastic waste to me.

“Another app I am developing is an emergency response app to curb incidents of child abuse in society.

“I am an African mathematics ambassador, a charter class graduate of The Emerging Africa (THE) leadership and entrepreneurship academy; I was also selected for the Cadbury Bournvita Tech Boot Camp 2021 edition.

“A few years ago I discovered that plastic waste is the greatest waste challenge in the world. To tackle the challenge, I started a series of charity waste to wealth artistic creations, exhibitions, inventions, animations, campaigns and roadshows”.

“I am here for my special programme tagged Neighborhood 2 Neighborhood Plastic Hunt/Campaign.

“The essence of this project is to create awareness, educate, inform and sensitise people on the importance of proper plastic waste management.

“I am also collecting plastic waste for recycling to enable me to fund my charity initiatives, so far I have recycled over 3.5 tonnes of plastic waste and still counting.”

He reeled out to the pupils several statistics on plastic wastes and why they should support him in his fight to curb the global challenge of the proliferation of plastic waste.

“Plastic waste, Pepple said, constitutes the greatest environmental waste challenge in the world today as only 9% of all plastic produced is recycled. Plastic waste is one of the major causes of global warming,” he told the pupils.

He continued: “Every year up to 5 trillion disposable plastic bags are used, with 50% of the total in single-use.

“We throw away enough plastic to circle the earth four times every year. Plastic waste is responsible for killing over 1 million sea birds and other sea creatures.

“Over 8.3 billion metric tonnes of plastic waste has gone into the oceans since 1950s, most of this was generated in the last 20 years and only 23% has been recycled.”

He proposed waste segregation as a veritable method, explaining that it would make for easy recycling at the appropriate place and with the right method.

He also proposed what he called the 3 Rs in plastic waste management entailing reuse, reduce and recycle.

He explained that reuse involves where plastics can be used severally, reduce means reducing consumption of a thing or using an environmentally friendly alternative, “as recycle means turning what you have to other useful things.”

The Head of Administration, Sovina Model School, Elelenwo, the private school that hosted Pepple, Miss Queeneth Nwanekezie, described Pepple as very brave, adding that it was this bravery that caught her admiration for the young inventor, entrepreneur.

“He’s still a young child and at this age already looking at life this way and having this perception is very impressive and we are glad that he is doing this.

“Just like he said, he was our student who graduated from the primary section and through the years he was with us, he was an exceptional child so I’m not surprised that he is doing this; trying to find a need and to solve it. To me, this is a pure, raw success, and we are proud of him.”

Nwanekezie recalled that the single-use plastic waste management project is not the first campaign Pepple is involved with.

“Some years ago, he did something with Indomie that helped to raise money for the medical assistance for his brother abroad and we were very impressed and happy with him. His younger brother had a health challenge and as a result of his campaign and several things he did, the boy received some help. And today he is looking at plastics.

“And we all know that proliferation of plastic waste is a major problem because it doesn’t decompose and so constitutes a lot of nuisance everywhere and then for him to go into this campaign, getting the plastics and sending them for recycling is helping to solve a global challenge.

“We really commend him for that and we pray for him as well that he will only continue to increase in his endeavour, make huge success and make a change in the world make a change for himself and his family, as well. So we are very glad and we will continue to support him in any way can,” she said.

Educational infrastructure cultivates a learning environment that prepares children for a new world that demands creativity, intuition and critical thinking. Babajide Sanwo-Olu recognised this truism and ensured that technology is integrated into the Lagos State school curriculum in order to empower youths with the much-needed skills in the EKOEXCEL education initiative which has received wide acclamation. CHINAKA OKORO reports.

As the world focuses on re-building after COVID-19 and mitigating learning loss, the impact of the transformational education intervention is being assessed, and commended, worldwide.

Dr Joanna Härmä, a Research Associate at the University of Sussex, the United Kingdom had, in a 2011 paper entitled “Private Responses to State Failure: The Growth in Private Education (and why) in Lagos, Nigeria,” highlighted why parents embraced private primary schools and shunned public ones.

The paper, which is the result of 2010 to 2011 censuses of private schools in the state, discovered that despite public primary schools being fee-free, most shunned them because of overcrowding, poor/decaying infrastructure and poor quality of instruction where children were not learning.

Other reports have added to the traditionally poor outcomes of public schools, especially in underserved neighbourhoods and slums, scarce learning materials and poorly supported teachers as two of the reasons. Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who assumed office as Lagos State governor on May 29, 2019, had his job cut out for him.

Fittingly, he was aware of and committed to the challenging task of restoring public schools long before he assumed the position and was intentional about it.

Education underpins the ability to fulfil the economic ambitions for Lagos, as not only the powerhouse of Nigeria but of West Africa. In the light of wider development ambitions, he included education as a crucial pillar of his development plan for the megacity under the acronym THEMES. Education and technology are the third pillars of this development plan.

The others are traffic management and transportation; health and environment; making Lagos a 21st century economy; entertainment and tourism and decurity and governance.

On the campaign trail, Sanwo-Olu had promised that: “We will invest in the education of our children and young adults. By increasing the budgetary allocation to education, this government will empower teachers in every local government area and strengthen their capacity to deliver quality education to our children.

“New educational infrastructure will cultivate a learning environment that prepares our children for a new world that demands creativity, intuition and critical thinking. We will ensure technology is integrated into our school curriculum and empower our youths with the much-needed skills for the jobs of tomorrow.”

Recognising that education improvement is a marathon, not a sprint, the governor began his remediation efforts by tackling the infrastructure problem; hoping to deal with the overcrowded classrooms across the city.

When his government marked its second anniversary last year, it had completed more than 1,097 school projects, upgraded and rehabilitated 322 dilapidated public schools, and furnished primary schools with 87,000 dual composite units of chairs and desks. These were some of the issues parents had complained about in the above-mentioned paper.

To the government’s credit, infrastructure upgrade is ongoing. To tackle quality of instruction and learning, key shortcoming parents gave for choosing private primary schools instead of the public system; the governor launched the innovative and transformational EKOEXCEL (Excellence in Child Education and Learning) programme. It was launched in 2019 to provide quality education to the rich and poor in the public system and upskill teachers by leveraging technology.

It is managed by the Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB). Since its formal take off in January 2020, it has achieved remarkable results, including accelerating pupils’ learning, better classroom culture, and more robust lesson management. Parents are slowly returning to the public system. Like many education systems, the outbreak of COVID-19 impacted education in Lagos.

However, the EKOEXCEL programme and the governor’s vision enabled children to continue learning unlike many of their peers across Nigeria.

 

EKOEXCEL amid COVID-19 pandemic

 

In response to the school closures across the state, EKOEXCEL launched blended learning with the adaptation of the EKOEXCEL@home initiative to ensure learning continued even in the hardest remote and most poorly connected communities.

The @home programme consisted of self-study activity packets, learning guides, interactive audio sessions, virtual classroom experiences and WhatsApp quizzes. The state government continued with the innovation, and during the period of the pandemic, it distributed 450,000 mp3s with pre-recorded lessons; by far the largest technology rolls out on the Continent for remote learning.

 

Teachers during training

 

At the heart of the governor’s EKOEXCEL programme are teachers and the need and desire to strengthen the capacity of the workforce. The THEMES pillars have seen huge investment in teaching; strengthening the classroom and school management; embedding technology and using data to underpin decision-making and training.

At the graduation of the EKOEXCEL Pre-service Professional Development and Technology Training Programme that trained over 10,000 government teachers that preceded the commencement, Sanwo-Olu re-affirmed his administration’s plan to transform the education sector, increase the government’s investment and adopt a novel approach when his term began.

We resolved that this administration will empower teachers in every local government area and strengthen their capacity to deliver quality education to our children.

“As a responsible government, we will continue the massive investment in this sector, with the training and retraining of our teachers, making the sector more ICT compliant, exposing our teachers to international best practices, as well as ensuring that our schools become a destination for work and learning.

“Commendably, the recently released EKOEXCEL 2020-2021 Endline Fluency and Numeracy Evaluation has further justified the investment and affirmed the strategic intervention’s impacts.

 

EKOEXCEL’s impacts on pupils

 

An evaluation of the critical impact of the Lagos State education intervention indicates that EKOEXCEL pupils are making substantial progress in oral reading fluency and foundational numeracy compared to their performance before the commencement of the initiative.

It further showed that an average primary three EKOEXCEL pupil is now reading at nearly the same fluency level as an average primary five pupil from before the launch of the EKOEXCEL programme. The evaluation also affirmed that EKOEXCEL is significantly improving learning over what existed in the past.

The assessment discovered that pupils have made outstanding progress across all grade levels since a baseline oral reading fluency evaluation in Lagos State public schools in 2019 (before the launch of EKOEXCEL). The 2021 pupils are reading an average of 311 per cent more correct words per minute than their 2019 pre-EKOEXCEL counterparts, with the most significant gains among primary one pupils.

The study also found that “EKOEXCEL Primary two pupils are significantly outperforming their pre-EKOEXCEL counterparts on simple addition, simple subtraction, and addition/subtraction with borrowing.

It also showed that pupils who consistently receive the ‘full’ EKOEXCEL programme perform far better than pupils in the general sample. Despite the impressive outcomes, the study holds that there is room for improvement compared with international fluency norms and also on some foundational numeracy outcomes.

Expecting children to compete at an international level is a mark of the successful transformation taking place across the state.

 

EKOEXCEL’s influence on out-of-school-children

 

Impressively, the EKOEXCEL intervention has also recorded successes in reducing the number of over two million out-of-school children in the state. Supporting the state’s Project Zero, the programme is placing children in classrooms; helping them to fulfil their potential and protecting them from daily violence, abuse, neglect, exploitation and exclusion they face.

 

Recognition for the education intervention

 

Appropriately, these achievements have not gone unnoticed, with global and national bodies and individuals acknowledging the impressive strides. EKOEXCEL shone brightly at the 2021 mEducation Alliance Symposium organised by The Mobiles for Education (mEducation) Alliance, a global not-for-profit organisation that focuses on using sustainable technology to enhance quality education.

EKOEXCEL’s achievements were extolled at the meeting themed ‘EdTech for Accelerating Foundational Literacy and Numeracy in Low-Resource Contexts’ which was held from September 27 to 30 last year.

Also reviewing EKOEXCEL’s impacts, the Paul and Jean Hanna Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution of Stanford University, Professor Eric A. Hanushek, awarded the 2021 Yidan Prize for Education Research, praised its impact on Lagos’ economic transformation.

The recent Ekiti Investment Summit saw Governor Sanwo-Olu highlighting the programme’s success to other political leaders across the country; advocating the use of his ‘ homegrown’ solution in other states.

The eminent scholar whose work helped shape the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4 (ensure inclusive and equitable quality education) by reframing targets for learning outcomes and has shown that it’s how much students learn—and not how many years they spend in school —that boosts economies praised it effusively.

In educational interventions, it is seldom the case that positive results are apparent so early in the programme. We now have strong research from around the world that shows that economic growth is directly related to the population’s skills.

 

Expectations

 

If the EKOEXCEL improvements are sustained across all of the primary schools in Lagos, the future labour force of the state will be significantly enhanced, leading to a new economic era. Underpinning the government’s programme is the use of data.

The continent is often held up as not knowing and being unable to measure learning and improvement in education. The World Bank is often talking about the data in such a manner that suggests that, without measurement, there can be no analysis and no improvement.

Lagos is at the front of the technology revolution using technology to drive the changes that other Nigerian states are seeking to emulate. EKOEXCEL schools are monitored real-time by a digital and data-driven electronic dashboard that displays the data of all 1,009 primary schools under the programme, 13,673 teachers, 10,085 classrooms and the almost 500,000 pupils across all the local government areas in Lagos State.

This dashboard is accessible on the go to all the relevant primary education stakeholders across Lagos State. Data is underpinning decision-making.

 

 

QUOTE

The EKOEXCEL intervention has recorded successes in reducing the number of over two million out-of-school children in the state. The programme is placing children in classrooms; helping them to fulfil their potential and protecting them from daily violence, abuse, neglect, exploitation and exclusion they face.