Tag: praise

Two teachers who are on a week  exchange programme in the country have praised their host schools.

The teachers – Ms Alice Player,  who teaches English&Literature, and her counterpart, Mr Daniel Kenway, a Technology teacher from DepFortgreen School, Lewinsham London – are part of the DFID Global School Partnerships (DGSP).

On the programme, one of them said: “Thereare things you can’t learn from the textbook. You can’t relate the experience on paper. I am a teacher of English & Literature and for me, it is a fascinating experience trying to integrate Uganda culture and Nigerian culture to literature. Well, the fact is:  there is no one way that is right. It’s a platform like this that gives a child early form of education. Don’t forget that as teachers, our main concern is the child; we want to inspire and engage them. We want them to realise that learning is for every aspect of their lives.  There is something that you just cannot learn by reading books but you have to go and live it.”

They said they would return home with fond memories of their experience in Nigeria and what their host Rainbow College in Asese-Maba, Ogun State offered them.

The DGSP aims to raise young people’s awareness of global development and equip them with the skills and knowledge to become active global citizens.

The programme supports mutual beneficial learning partnerships between schools in the UK and Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and Latin America, which seek to embed a global dimension in the curriculum. Under the deal, DepFortgreen School, St Kizito Kampala, Uganda and Rainbow College Nigeria encourage openness and access to partner schools.

“It’s my first time here and everybody has been fantastic and wonderfully generous. For our one week stay, we visited various schools under Rainbow College and are amazed by the love, the diligence, respectfulness, inquisitiveness the teachers and particularly the students demonstrated,” said  Kenway while expressing his gratitude for Rainbow’s hospitality.

Rainbow College Senior Principal, Mrs. Christiana Ebai, thanked the British Council, which initiated the DGSP and from which the trio have collaborated on projects, staff/student as well as curriculum exchange, exhibition, among others.

The partnership, Ebai said, promotes teacher and student exchanges, curriculums and cultural exchanges. However most fascinating to Rainbow, is the window of access the college has to relate with East Africa, a practice she said is not too common as most commercial and educational issues are often done by Africans within their region.

The three schools, Ebai said, have partnered on projects is various subjects, such as arts, geography science and English, to climax in a ‘face-to-face’ session, where the schools would engage in a comparative analysis of their experiences.

She said: “We did a project in the UK where we visited varying market within our country to do comparative analysis of changes in food prices. We eventually met in our usual ‘face to face session’ where each school shared its experience; and we found that rates of food prices were not so different anywhere in the world.

“Last session, we did a project on HIV where the three schools looked at the impact of virus on the world and sensitised youths on the scourge. We also did another one in Geography where each school looked at the three key areas of geography- physical, human and regional.

“Last year, we had a joint arts exhibition showcasing artworks from the three schools which were brought together for a week-long art exhibition. On English, our theme was Africa with a select number of students that wrote poems on Africa which we co- published.”

Rainbow Director of Studies Dr Abioye Laoye said the projects the school embarked on are submitted to the British Council in London which assesses it and if one is qualified, gives 15000 pounds grants to each school to cushion the effect of facilitating teachers on exchange programmes.