The Nation Newspaper

Tag: teaching

  • Mobile phones disrupt teaching, learning

    Mobile phones disrupt teaching, learning

    The liberalisation of the telecoms industry has brought mixed blessings. Fetters erected by distance have been demolished through voice calls or instant messaging, banking transactions now take place with just the press of buttons on smartphones’ keypads, while search engine online knowledge resource platforms such as Google and Wikipedia have had a defining impact. A new report in The Conversation shows that mobile phones have nonetheless disrupted teaching and learning, writes LUCAS AJANAKU.

    Mobile phones have become ubiquitous in Africa. Among younger users, basic phones are most common. But more pupils are accessing smartphones that can connect to the internet – and taking them along to school.

    Phones are often used in school whether the school authority allows it or not. Although they can enable valuable access to information, they also bring new responsibilities and dangers. It’s remarkably common for classes to be interrupted by both pupils’ and teachers’ phones. Access to pornography as well as bullying and harassment through phones is widely reported.

    A study of young people’s mobile phone use in Ghana, Malawi and South Africa emphasise the central place that mobile phones occupy in many young people’s lives. Before the mobile phone arrived in Africa, few people had access to landlines. In Nigeria, there were just about 40,000 analogue lines for about 120million population then.

    Phone ownership was a status symbol as the former state-run telco, Nigeria Telecommunications Limited (NITEL) and its latter mobile arm, dominated the space, stultifying development in the absence of a strong competitor. The story  changed with the liberalisation of the telecoms sector over 10 years ago. According to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), total subscriber figure as at May, this year, stood at 148,848,158 while teledensity has risen to 106.32per cent.Telephone density or teledensity is the number of telephone connections for every hundred individuals living within an area. It varies widely across nations and also between urban and rural areas within a country.

    The mobile phone represents  far more of a communication revolution in Africa than in richer countries.

    However, worried by the harm uncontrolled access to mobile phones could do to learners, some private and public schools have outlawed mobile phone use in schools. States such as Osun, Akwa-Ibom, Jigawa have made policy statements banning phone use by students, while some private universities also do not allow phone use at all by students that are even considered adults.

    The study, which involved a group of university researchers from the United Kingdom (UK) and Africa, was funded by the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council and Department for International Development (DfID). It covers many aspects of young people’s phone use, from generational relations to job searches and health advice. Use in school has emerged as a leading issue, echoing concerns around the world.

    More than 1,500 face-to-face interviews were conducted with focus on groups with young people, teachers, parents and key community members across 24 locations – eight in each country. These varied from poor city neighbourhoods to remote rural hamlets.

    This was followed up with a questionnaire to about 3,000 young people aged between nine and 18 and 1,500 young people aged between 19 and 25 in the same 24 locations.

    The survey of children aged nine to 18 years shows that mobile phone use is much higher than ownership figures might suggest. Ownership of phones was lowest in Malawi, the poorest of the three countries. Here only eight per cent of children in the survey owned their own phone, compared with 16 per cent in Ghana and 51 per cent in South Africa. Nonetheless, in Malawi 35 per cent of children said they had used a phone in the week before the survey. In Ghana the figure was 42 per cent and in South Africa it was 77 per cent. Children often borrow phones from one  another, their parents, other family members and neighbours.

     

    Children’s use of phones

    Some pupils, particularly in South Africa, use their phones to access sites like Master Maths for help with homework. But the positive benefits mostly seem to be limited to mundane tasks such as contacting friends to check on homework or using the phone as a calculator. Much information from pupils and teachers was more negative: academic performance affected by disrupted classes – due to teachers as well as pupils using their phones – disrupted sleep because of cheap night calls, time wasted on prolonged sessions on social network sites, and harassment, bullying and pornography.

    Class disruption from pupils’ phones used to be mostly from ring tones when calls were received. Now, for those with smartphones, messaging on WhatsApp or checking Facebook have become common classroom activities. Teachers’ phone use in class can be equally disruptive, as some teachers admitted. A call comes in, or they make a call, and whether they step outside or take the call in class, the end result is that the lesson is interrupted and – as more than one told us – “You forget what you are going to deliver.”

    In Malawi, 60 per cent of enrolled pupils said they had seen their teacher using a phone in lesson time during the week before the survey. The corresponding figure for Ghana was 66 per cent and for South Africa 88 per cent. Pupils are rarely given such an opportunity to comment on the behaviour of those in authority over them but even if not all were truthful, these figures are of concern. Many head teachers also spoke about the problem of teacher phone use, saying they found it difficult to regulate.

    Other problems include disturbing levels of pupil bullying and harassment. In the survey of enrolled pupils who use a phone, 16 per cent in Ghana, 28 per cent in Malawi and 55 per cent in South Africa said they had received unwanted, unpleasant or upsetting calls or texts. This was almost equally true for boys and girls.

    Distribution and viewing of pornography is also widespread, as older boys were often willing to disclose. A few – even primary school pupils – mentioned sexting.

     

    Way forward

    Many head teachers have asked how to promote responsible phone use in school. Here, according to  the report, are some suggestions:

     

    Pupil’s phone use

    It is important to have a clear school policy on pupil phone use, to inform parents about this and to explain the reasoning behind it. If the school has decided to allow pupils to bring their mobile phone to school – for instance, because of travel problems – but not to use it in school, then pupils could be required to put a name tag on their phone and deposit it with a staff member, using a register, before school begins. In this case, parents or carers must be given a phone number for urgent messages.

    If the school allows pupils to use mobile phones in class as calculators or to access the internet, pupils and their parents could sign an “acceptable use” agreement each term. This would promote effective use of class time and their own and other pupils’ safety.

    Pupils also need reminders not to publish personal information on the internet and to tell their teacher, a parent or care giver if they access any information that worries them. Parents must be encouraged to help their child follow the school’s guidelines. Asking them to sign an acceptable use agreement together with their children will help.

     

    Teachers’ phone use

    Teachers’ mobile phones should be switched off and left in a safe place during lesson times. If teachers are using their phones when pupils are banned from doing so, pupils may become resentful. Workers should not contact pupils from their personal mobile phones or give their mobile phone numbers to pupils or parents. This would help teachers maintain sound professional practice.

     

  • Teaching of History

    Teaching of History

    •We must bring it back in our schools in the nation’s interest

    The removal of history from the curriculum of schools in Nigeria is a disservice to our fatherland. The government of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, which promoted that disservice, clearly gave itself away as a victim of neo-colonialism. For, to be dodgy about the teaching of your past, is to say that your past is inferior to those of other peoples and cultures, and as such is not worthy of any detailed study. This sad realism was highlighted by Senator Ben Murray Bruce, during the Silverbird Extra-ordinary Man of the Year Award to the national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

    At the ceremony, Senator Bruce had admonished his country men and women thus: “As a nation, we have to pay attention to who we are, where we are coming from, and where we are”. Towards that he said “We need to start teaching history in Nigeria because we cannot develop or grow as a country without the concept of history.” Urging him to walk his talk, the APC leader advised the senator to sponsor a private member’s bill, to return the teaching of history to our schools, promising that his spouse, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, would support him in the endeavour.

    For us, the concern raised by Senator Bruce makes sense, much as the suggestion by Asiwaju Tinubu. History is very important to us as it is to every other race. For a people who do not know their history are bound to make similar mistake many times. History helps a people to understand their past, and through the benefit of hindsight, avoid the pitfalls of the past. History also helps a people to understand the circumstances of their past, note and promote the good aspects, and use the knowledge and wisdom gained to help chart a better future.

    Former President Obasanjo who abrogated the teaching of history during his presidency, like every other past leader, is an important relic of our history, whether for good or for bad. So, their exploits, successes, mistakes and programmes remain benchmarks, from which the present and future leaders could learn. And this can only be possible if history is taught in our schools. For us, it is erroneous to think, as the former leader may have, that the abrogation of history would help wipe from our common memory, the unpleasant parts of our past.

    What needs to be done is rather to teach the past, as a lesson for the present and the future. Like every other subject, the curriculum of the subject would be open for scrutiny, both by supervisory authorities and the general public. That way distortions and falsehood would not be allowed to prosper. In our view, it is when the facts are suppressed that a people can be fed with half-truths and lies, in place of facts and figures. Moreover, with the advancement of science, there are snippets of our history available on the go, and access to such snippets may be more dangerous, as the authors may be pursuing a different agenda from the organised proposition of our national story – history, for national development.

    If Senator Bruce truly believes that his proposition for the return of history to our national curricula makes sense, then he should join hands with those who think like him, to propose a bill to force that. Perhaps, if the present executive government at the centre thinks differently from its predecessors, it should rescind the strange decision of the past.

    We also do not appreciate why state governments have not exercised their prerogative, to encourage the teaching of history in state schools.

  • Firm kicks off inclusive teaching, learning drive

    Piston and Fusion, a leading training organisation, has kicked off its newest concept of leadership and capacity development drive for teachers aimed at exposing participants to global standards of ‘inclusive teaching and learning’.

    Working with the Institute for Learning, United Kingdom, the body is leveraging on its corporate social responsibility platform to complement the efforts of the Lagos State Government on the education development in the state.

    Established last year, its the firm’s Programme Director Mr Adeola Badmus, told The Nation at its Omole, Lagos office that the body veered into teachers’ emancipation because that area receives less attention.

    He said: “One of the yardsticks in evaluating the success of most of our schools is the performance and development of its various students. In reality of this and in achieving this cardinal success, our teachers must have the right skills to engage, motivate and meet the various needs of the students; a trait we intend to strengthen and improve on both parties through this training.

    “We observe that corporate organisations and even well- meaning individuals donors are mostly interested in putting infrastructure in schools but with very little attention on teacher development. So, if we have good schools but poor teachers, the product will be faulty.

    “Therefore, we have decided to take on certain number of teachers at every quarter and and improve on their skill with the hope of improving education in Lagos State.’’

    According to Badmus, one teacher representing 11 schools, has been incorporated into the first batch, which began on Monday, last week, noting that other batches would follow.

    Piston  and Fusion’s Director of Programme Ono Okechukwu,  explained that the concept would benefit the teachers by equipping them with more skills that would make them relevant to teaching, especially at the state level.

    “To get the best out of our teachers, schools must have development programmes that will improve teachers’planning and delivery approach to be in-line with global standards,” he added.

    Badmus stressed that the workshop would increase student pool, equip teachers with modern skills and techniques in teaching, and, ultimately, impart on a better performance by students in their various national examinations across  boards.

  • Okorocha to launch Igbo teaching in schools

    Okorocha to launch Igbo teaching in schools

    Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha will today launch the Compulsory Teaching and Learning of Igbo in Imo schools. He will also present the maiden edition of Igbo language newspaper Ikoro.

    Okorocha’s pecial Adviser on Igbo Affairs, Chief Samfo Nwankwo, described the launch as “a bold initiative to stimulate and rediscover our common heritage, the Igbo language, which is fast going extinct.”

    He lauded Okorocha for the initiative and noted that as a grassroots politician, the governor reads the pulse of the people, hence, the introduction of the free education scheme, now the toast of sister states.

    Nwankwo noted that instructional materials, software’s, Igbo language teachers and other necessary infrastructure, coupled with meeting of stakeholders, have been arranged to ensure a smooth take-off of the scheme.

    Apart from cultural dances and public presentation of the Ikoro newspaper, a summit, “Globalisation of the Igbo Language: That the world will hear us”, will hold as part of activities lined up for the programme.

    The summit paper will be delivered by Prof. Jerome Okonkwo while former Chief of General Staff Ebitu Ukiwe, Second Republic Vice President Alex Ekwueme, foremost banker Pascal Dozie and Dr. ABC Orjiako, will be special guests.

  • Our Girls; Political plague continues; Teaching and State Hospitals    

    Our Girls; Political plague continues; Teaching and State Hospitals    

    Our Girls are still missing since April 15 2014

    Our politicians just do not get it. Tell them there is a world economic crisis. Tell them China is sneezing and the world is catching cold including Africa where China is big. Tell them there is an environmental crisis with El Nino flood in unfloodable places and Nigeria may be on the list with all the reclaimed land. Tell them there is poverty with unpaid federal, state and private sector salaries. Tell them the naira is falling in spite of government and the dollar is a scarce commodity mostly in the hands of past politicians. Tell them the 2016 school fees and exorbitant taxes have to be paid. In spite of these, some serving senators and representatives have started their ludicrous ‘local empowerment programmes’, using money ‘over’-paid to them by ‘we the people’- of course. What an insult! We grew sick of similar obscenity and sickening levels of ‘empowerment’ antics during the last regime. The outrageous demand for National Assembly (NASS) vehicles buttresses this argument. Let them line up like us for car loans from banks, no privileges.  Every single NASS member has at least one car. E no do? Fixed mileage and maintenance allowances should be enough. How many honest Nigerians can get a single digit car loan? Senators and Representatives and assembly men and women should know that all is not well. They should be taking home less than a third of what they do now and stop all these media noisy ‘political empowerment programmes’ of questionable profit to the citizens.

    Nowhere in the world do politicians display such grandiose delusions. No advantage or disadvantage lasts forever. The oil price did not last forever nor will the sun. The curse of political and political party greed resulting in the new ‘Seven Years of Famine’ must not be allowed to blight Nigeria forever. We must ‘change’ this modus operandi. That ‘empowerment programme’ uses the people’s money. It should be delivered through normal government channels, not NASS. For every naira the politician spends on his ‘empowerment programme’ he must keep two or 10 back for ‘politics’ and cars and a new home bought and built with the rest of the money kept back. Enough of the evil masquerade – the charade of ‘empowerment’. It is really self-empowerment for the political class again and again. This class de fail exam again and again bo!! Always taking, no giving except for strategic advantage and media coverage. The harsh and profound economic reality is that the Nigeria of 2016 and beyond cannot afford the current crop of selfish politicians- simple, especially if they want to wallow in the past profligacy. Who will rein in this ‘political plague’ consuming Nigeria’s common-wealth supposedly in our service?

    All is not well in teaching hospitals. Quite apart for everyone wanting to become Chief Medical Directors (CMDs), these hospitals are often accused of being unfriendly. There are some difficult problems but also many easily surmountable problems including frustration of staff and patients by not being at the cutting edge worldwide in modern research and care delivery and the lack of national decentralization of certain care including cancer care. The Federal Ministry of Health can no longer leave access to today’s medical developments up to the personal international communication skills and friendships of medical professionals in its employment. It must fund targeted useful research. There should be an ‘International Internet Teams seeking Medical Advances’ sifting the web and journals for the latest to disseminate on the Federal Government Health Advances Website. It is unfortunate the valuable World Health Organisation (WHO)’s ‘SIMPLE 1mg FOLIC ACID TABLET/DAY FOR EVERYONE SEEKING CONCEPTION’ to reduce abortions and also fetal brain abnormalities, is not known everywhere and to NYSC and senior schoolchildren to tell their mothers. Indeed it should be taken up by advertising agencies and put on female soap and tampon packets and other packets and products.

    Are most patients reluctant to attend teaching hospitals and most other medical facilities? Often they say time consuming, long appointment times, long waiting lists for surgery and even to pay money, long distances to walk within the hospital, poor access to personal care and sympathy, herd carelessness, anonymity of staff, who you know, cancellations without ‘a sorry’, see a different doctor every time, poor access to consultant to name a few. Referring doctors complain of lack of feedback and non-use of joint or shared care for their patients between referring and specialists and discharge without a ‘Discharge Summary’ to empower the patient with knowledge. On the other hand, staff complains of patient overload, patient trivial complaints, poor facilities, no cutting edge equipment and expertise, poor training opportunities, lack of even short courses.

    With WhatsAp, SMS and the cell phone and email available, can they not have appointments systems so patients can report at their appointment time? We need to do ‘Time and Motion Studies’ to improve medical service delivery. In most teaching hospitals efforts to prevent fraud increase revenue but punish staff, patients and relations. This causes sometimes life-threatening requirements causing delays in care with negative impact on service delivery. Doctors no longer can deliver emergency or immediate services with emergency trolleys or even trays, a practical solution while they wait on relations who have to walk up to 5-7 km on 20 or 30 errands within the hospitals to pay bills, get appointments, purchase syringes etc. This is ‘patient and relation and treatment unfriendly’.

    • To be continued

     

  • Teaching farmers profit making tricks

    Teaching farmers profit making tricks

    Teaching farmers how to farm is not enough; experts say they must also be taught to start, run and grow a profitable business to make a living, reports DANIEL ESSIET.

    Olatunde  Aroye (not real name), got a piece of land in Oyo State to do farming to support his low monthly income. Every sowing season, he puts his faith in the latest variety of seeds, hoping for bountiful yields.

    So far, he has not been able to make a huge success of it. He is among the growing number of employed and unemployed graduates, defeated by the challenges of eking out a livelihood from the land.

    For him, farming is precarious: little infrastructure, limited electricity and people did not understand it is possible to farm and make a living from it.

    Though he has established a business growing maize, he does not see himself as a farmer, because there is still so much to learn. Having faced some challenges, he knows that success depends on good training and technical expertise to overcome the challenges of farming.

    With so many cases of failures, the Provost, Federal College of Agriculture, Akure, Ondo State, Dr Samson Odedina said there is  need to teach farmers not only to farm but also how to start, run and grow a farm into a profitable business.

    He has been involved in extensive training programme in crop production backed by research and extension support. This training enabled farmers and would- be -entrepreneurs to learn the importance of soil quality, pest control and water conservation. In the process, the farmers   identified the best cropping rotations for general adoption, using pilot plots and extension farms to demonstrate and experiment with new techniques.

    For a small fee, the  school’s experts take samples of soil and water, analyse them, and advise farmers on what to farm in given conditions and how. Besides, efforts are made to assist the farmers growing crops with linkages to markets.  The farmers are trained in marketing skills, building enterprises, best farming practices, food technology and simple processing techniques that can add value to a product.

    Farmers, according to him, have to learn the importance of meeting quality control standards; for long-term contracts depend on this.

    Alongside its focus on improving livelihoods, he said the school’s programmes have created   jobs for young people and women and this contributed in turn to social, economic and political stability in the area. This is because workers come from across the different communities to work on the farms and this opened many opportunities for people. Through this, people who didn’t have work found a way to farm and now business is booming.

    So far, he said the school has done a lot to promote rural wealth through market enhancement by linking smallholders to buyers and processors.

    Even farmers with small plots of land, he noted, can hope to increase their access to remunerative local markets.

    Access to these markets, he noted, would help to accelerate sales and returns and therefore, the spread of new intensive cropping and diversification techniques. There are increasing activities to boost food production and farmers’ production.

    Spurred by the need to produce more rice, Lagos State said it is collaborating with Kebbi State o develop the rice value chain.

    The State Governor, Mr Akinwumi Ambode disclosed this at the occasion of the 2015 World Food Day celebration in Lagos. In his address which was read by Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, Dr Yakub Basorun, the governor said Lagos consumes over 50 per cent of national rice  demand which is put at over two metric  tonnes valued at N365 billion.

    He said: “While Kebbi State is one of the highest producers of paddy rice in Nigeria; Lagos is undoubtedly the highest consumer of milled rice with ultra-modern rice processing facilities in agro industrial estates located at Imota in Ikorodu Division.

    To boost processing, he said the state plan to establish more rice processing facilities in collaboration with the private sector. This, he expressed, also, will help to create more job opportunities for the people. He said also that the government is working towards providing facilities so as to boost agricultural productivity.

    He said the state plans to give incentives to farmers as part of a long term strategy to improve the  food supply chain. One of the strategies is to provide incentives and inputs to enterprising residents, including the farm estates in Ikorodu, Epe and Badagry.

    In furtherance of the policy of making arable land available for farming, he said the state has acquired land in Ogun, Osun and the Federal Capital Territory with a view to allocating plots of land to interested farmers who will sign Off-Take Agreements with the state government. Increased   food production, he believes, could help the nation reduce its dependence on imported foods.

    The Chairman, All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Lagos State Chapter, Otunba Femi Oke, said his group is working with producers to help transform the commodities value chain, making it inclusive and efficient.

    In collaboration with the Lagos State government and exporters, Oke, said the association is providing farmers with continuous feedback on the quality and grade of their produce. This has enabled small scale producers to improve processes along the entire value chain, including picking, washing and drying of commodities. In this way, they improve the quality and value of the commodities that they harvest. The value chain, according to him, is more efficient as small farmers have easy access to grading, storage and transport services provided by members of the association and exporters.

    Along the line, commodities are analysed to make sure that there are no traces of mould, disease or parasites. If they are intended for the export market, it is important that the commodities meet international consumer health and safety standards.

    At the national level, the campaign is to stimulate nationwide food production and increase farmers’ incomes.

    Addressing a forum on family farming organised by gourmet guide234.com at the University of Lagos, Lagos, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina said agricultural transformation and food security will continue to feature prominently in the nation’s development agenda.

    According to him, there is a renewed vision for agricultural transformation, which placed emphasis on the promotion of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

    With declining oil revenue, he said the agricultural sector has the greatest potential to produce a substantial share of the nation’s revenue as well as boost food production.

    The administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, he said sees agriculture as a great a major player in efforts to overcome hunger and poverty.

    With the appropriate management methods, training and innovative technologies, he said the nation has the opportunity to build sustainable agribusinesses that will generate high yield, quality food and long-lasting economic betterment.

    For Nigeria to feed herself, he said there was a need to increase the productivity and profitability of the nation’s family farmers. Adesina challenged media practitioners to partner in government’s quest to transform agriculture.

    He said the agenda of a green revolution could succeed if journalists report agriculture well by encouraging the government to adopt good agricultural policies as well as the farmers to take up good practices to transform the sector.

    He said the media has a role to play to help the government in its bid to transform the nation’s agriculture into a highly productive and sustainable system and enable Nigeria to be food sufficient and food secured.

    He called for the adoption of modern methods.

    Dr Kayode Oyeleye, Special Assistant (Media) to former Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, who spoke at the event, said farmers needed to use sustainable strategies to achieve results and mentioned irrigation and the cultivation of improved seeds as some of the new things they could learn.

    Alongside its focus on improving livelihoods, Oyeleye urged the government to invest considerably in providing services and creating better conditions for farmers.

    The farm settlements, he said should have markets, roads, housing and consistent electrical supply.

    This, according to him will enable smallholders to become viable suppliers to big buyers and  be successfully linked with market intermediaries, processors and exporters.

    He said farmers need to participate in programmes that assist them on their farms to improve yields, reduce use of fertilizer and pesticides, and increase profitability. While many innovative technologies exist, he said they often are not integrated into the tools that farmers use every day.

    Oyeleye said though technology, tools and know-how to assure better farming future exist, the reforms have not being widely adopted, even when they provide positive financial returns. According to him, the nation’s agriculture system cannot afford to wait for piecemeal adoption of better practices and solutions.

    He said tools and solutions are emerging to help farmers see these opportunities. In order to unlock the potential value for farmers, Oyeleye said research institutes need to work together and coordinate their actions to make agriculture more sustainable.

    According to him, a high proportion of smallholder farmers need to move out of poverty stressing that for this to happen, they must have access to improved staple crop varieties, inputs and services.

    He stressed the need for capacity building to continue to be mission critical for research and development, including the adoption revolution.

  • Traditional teaching hinders early child education objectives

    Traditional teaching hinders early child education objectives

    The failure of teachers and schools to follow the Early Child Care and Primary Education (ECCE) curriculum designed by the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) would continue to affect its objectives which are contained in the National Policy on Education (2004).

    The traditional approach is still prevalent because it fits into teachers’ memory on one hand, and aligns with the cultural view of what a school is, says Ademuyiwa Ashimolowo of the School of ECCE Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education Oto/Ijanikin, Lagos.

    Ashimolowo said this while delivering the second annual departmental lecture of the ECCE Department, College of Education Agbor, Delta State.

    Speaking on the theme, ‘Early childhood care and education: Perceptions and realities,’ Ashimolowo said of the eight objectives, “teaching the rudiments of numbers, letters, colours, shapes, forms etc through play” appears to be most emphasised by teachers, while the others, including “effecting a smooth transition from the home to school; preparing the child for the primary level of education; inculcating social norms; and developing a sense of cooperation and team spirit,” are neglected.

    “The reality today is that if objectives 1-7 are not achieved in the pre-school classes, it might be difficult to achieve them in future,” said Ashimolowo.

    Aligning with NPE recommendations, the Nigeria Education Research and Development Council (NERDC), Ashimolowo explained, has patterned the curriculum to address all the objectives.

    However, Ashimolowo lamented that only a few schools either have or use the curriculum while others apply curriculums of their choices which often emphasise learning of alphabets and memorising of multiplication table. To further compound the problem, parents also use this to appraise their wards’ effectiveness.

    “Coming from the parental perception of quality, the school owners have no choice than to abandon NERDC curriculum which is all encompassing, to place emphasis on learning by memorisation since that is what parents perceived as quality.

    “The reality of this is clear: the school is transmitting set of content that can always be learnt later and not teaching those content and life wide and lifelong skills that may be very difficult to learn later.  Addition, subtraction, reading, writing and counting can be learned any time but tolerance, cooperation, spirit of inquiry, turn taking etc, may be difficult to learn after the pre-school window closes,” he added.

    Even if it is to limit it to the eight objectives of NPE, Ashimolowo said this mode of teaching (play) is not evident in most pre-school classes. He said most teachers are not qualified to master the play method as they do not have specilaisation in ECCE even if they have NCE certificates.

    “Lecturers in colleges of education rarely teach with instructional materials and the major method of teaching at that level is the lecture method. A pre-service teacher caregiver that has never been taught through the use of play-way method might find it difficult teaching children with the same method upon graduation.

    “Toys are also an integral part of the play-way approach but schools provide toys for children for recreation and not for instructional purposes. The mother tongue and language of immediate environment is another method recommended by NPE but the reality is that, parents prefer their children to acquire the official language or L2 early. Parents perceive this early learning of English language through phonics as giving their children a head start,” Ashimolowo said.

     

  • Tips for excellent teaching

    Tips for excellent teaching

    The Faculty of Education,University of Ilorin (UNILORIN) has held an orientation for its students going for teaching practice. Teaching practice is a requirement for the award of a Bachelor’s degree in Education. AFIS ODEYEMI (300-Level History) reports.

     

    Their readiness to impart knowledge could be seen in their enthusiasm as they filed into the auditorium.

    Since they are being trained as teachers, the 300-Level students of the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN) Faculty of Education seemed ready to teach others everything they had learnt.

    The school auditorium was besieged by the students for an orientation, which was part of the activities to prepare them for a 12-week compulsory teaching practice in line with the requirement for the award of Bachelor’s degree in Education.

    The event was attended by members of professional bodies, academics and stakeholders in teaching. A renowned education psychology scholar, Prof Olasehinde Williams, was the guest speaker.

    Williams, who had an interactive session with the students, said the process of imparting knowledge  must be holistic. She said if education must achieve maximum effect, it must furnish the learner with the right proportion of knowledge, valuable skills and improved attitudes for proper readjustment and general adaptation to his society.

    Learning, she said, must involve an embodiment of three parts of the human body – head, hand and heart. While using Waldorf theory of educating a child to buttress her points, the scholar said: “Meaningful learning will take place only when the head, hand and heart are involved in every bit of learning process to stimulate the interest of the learner.”

    The chairman of the occasion and the Vice-Chancellor (VC), Prof Abdulganiyu Ambali, represented by his deputy for Academics, Prof Nahimat Ijaya, urged the students to be peaceful and dutiful in their places of assignment, noting that students of the university were  welcomed for teaching practice by schools.

    The Dean of the faculty, Prof Alfred Adegoke, said the exercise was important to enable the participants acquire on-spot training in teaching. He said: “After you have had years of preliminary training in the university, the curriculum demands that you should also need to bring everything you learn to bear in practice. When you live university, you will be judged based on your performance on the job and not your qualification.”

    Adegoke, a professor of Counselor Education, urged the students show interest and dedicate their energy towards acquiring practical skills that would benefit their career. He advised them not to misrepresent the school by engaging in unwholesome conduct, saying: “You are the image of this university, because whatever you do during your teaching practice will come back at the university in one way or the other.”

    A students’ group at the faculty, 21st Century Pedagogy, urged trainee-teachers to keep faith with the ethics of the teaching profession and contribute their quota to the development of education. The group decried the influx of untrained teachers in the country, which it attributed to reluctance of graduates of education to teach.

    To encourage the students to give in their best and energy in teaching, the group presented certificates of excellence to honour some past participants of teaching practice.

    Fisayo Falusi of the Department of Arts Education was honoured as Trainee-Teacher of the Year for his outstanding performance last year.

    Coordinator of the group, Patrick Akorede, said there would be other mouth-watering benefits for subsequent awardees, noting that the aim was to dignify teaching profession.

    A student, who gave his name as Sanni, hailed the guest speaker for her inspiring lecture, saying: “Prof Olasehinde Williams has just made the task of a 12-week teaching practice much easier.”

    The event was organised by the faculty’s Teaching Practice Coordinator, Dr Charles Olumorin of the Department of Educational Technology, was attended by the Head Counsellor Education Department, Prof A.A. Talabi, Sub-dean, Students’ Affairs Unit, Dr L.A Yahaya and lecturers, including Dr A. Yusuf, Dr. M.I. Oniye, Dr U.A Ajidagba and Dr I.O. Amali, among others.

     

  • Ogun: mixing politics with teaching 

    SIR: As a concerned parent and retired teacher, I have decided to join the ongoing debate on the propriety or otherwise of the SUMMARY passage for SS1 in Ogun State Unified Examinations for Public Schools, as reported in the papers. I had initially commented on the controversy, but have now obtained further information on the exam saga from a couple of Ogun workers.

    Fortunately, I was able to obtain a copy of the third term question paper from an SS1 student in my neighbourhood. The controversial passage in Section C   was said to have been “Culled from Jola Adegbenro’s Issues on Education Today”. The examiner’s/ teacher’s name is Joel Adegbenro.

    To my astonishment, I tried in vain to establish the Jola Adegbenro on any online platform. Neither could I establish the original write-up from where the exam question was said to have been extracted. According to some civil servants, when confronted on the source of the passage by the panel set up by the Civil Service Commission, the examiner/ teacher allegedly said he extracted the passage from his manuscript yet to be published in Issues on Education Today. And look at the additional prank played by the teacher concerning his name – Joel Adegbenro and Jola Adegbenro!

    Should we now be talking about fraud, forgery, impersonation or all of the above here? Should he have been handed over to the police on this score? I leave that to the lawyers.

    But the greatest tragedy in the question paper has not been highlighted by many commentators. I discovered to my horror and chagrin that the so-called SUMMARY passage was actually a summary or synopsis of opinions expressed in newspaper adverts sponsored by the opposition in the months leading to the April 11 governorship election in Ogun State. This is horrendous.

    Another anomaly is that we do not set such a patently political question to students in such a formal examination. WAEC, JAMB, it’s not done! At best, you have a generalised extract on the state of education in which no particular government or administration can be held accountable. I challenge any examiner to prove the contrary. The reason is simple. No examiner or teacher must be seen to turn his pupils against a particular government in power.

    The teacher/examiner and the students in this particular case know which government was supposedly being accused by the SS1 question despite the ‘smartness’ of not mentioning “Ogun” in the passage. But further mischief could be gleaned from the question paper. For instance, contrary to the passage, enrolment figures, as we all know, sky-rocketed from early 2012 as a result of free education and free textbooks of the Amosun government. There were many budding private schools across the state that closed down or nearly collapsed because so many parents withdrew their children from these schools when they heard the current administration was giving free textbooks to pupils. You may call it opportunism but why would any parent suffer to buy one or two textbooks when they can get 8 or 12 for their children free of charge?

    I saw the model school at Ogijo recently and wondered if it was a private or public school. Yes, a public school. I cannot fault Amosun on this score because  rather than spend my hard-earned money on renovating a great-grandfather’s mud house that would still collapse at the slightest anger of the elements, all in the name of “renovating existing infrastructure”, I will build a modern monument in honour of his memory!

    So, one could see the entire passage was a product of deliberate mischief and did not reflect, in the main, the current realities or continuous efforts being made to reposition the sector by the government. It is dangerous to use students’ question paper as a platform to attack a well-meaning government on behalf of a frustrated political opposition in Ogun.

    There is no way those involved in such a back-door political agitation could have escaped justice going by the provisions of Public Service Rules, as reported in the papers.

    Nevertheless, I plead for clemency. Reabsorbing the officials will not be a bad idea. I know it will be a difficult choice because people should live by the consequences of their actions as a form of deterrent. But it should be possible to forgive them. At least they’ve learnt their lessons – hopefully. You cannot be politicians in civil service garbs!

    Finally, workers must be wary of being used by bad-belle, ‘NFA’ politicians in the discharge of their duties. Condensing into an exam passage published attacks of the opposition political party against the government is totally reprehensible. Children are too impressionable to be drawn into such high-wire politics. We should not toy with their future.

     

    • Ayobami Odesanya,

    Sabo, Sagamu, Ogun State

  • ‘Churches teaching too many wrong values’

    ‘Churches teaching too many wrong values’

    Nigerian-born Pastor Sunday Adelaja is the founder of Embassy of God Church, Kiev, Ukraine, the largest Pentecostal church in Europe.  He spoke with Sunday Oguntola on the wrong concepts that churches in Nigeria are promoting. Excerpts:   

    During your last visit to Nigeria, you were emphatic that the church was the major problem with the nation’s stunted growth. Do you still maintain that stance?

    I wish to state categorically that I am not talking about any particular ministry. There is nothing personal at all. I am not against any man of God or any denomination. I’m just pointing out what I believe is the truth about the situation in our country.

    I wish to appreciate all the men of God that have labored in our country. I think they did their best. I believe they taught us what they know. But we still have to admit that things were wrong and these things have to be corrected.

    What are some of these things?

    In my opinion, the leadership and the structure of the church in Nigeria are as guilty as the politicians. We Christians like to judge, condemn and point fingers at the politicians. In some cases some churches are worse and some of the practices in churches might be worse than what the politicians do.

    I am a strong believer in the fact that whatever is happening in any country, the number one cause of it is the damaged value system of that nation.  I think we have a faulty and perverse value system in Nigeria. That is the root cause of all our problems, not just political leadership.

    The political leadership comes from our society. Our leaders are not been imported from Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau or from some exotic places like Fiji totally different from us. They are not bringing their strange fire to our camp. No!!!

    How do you mean?

    For us to have a corrupt value system as a nation and then be hoping to produce godly leaders is hypocrisy of the highest order. It doesn’t just happen!

    It would take a miracle to have such leaders, what would normally happen is that even when such leaders emerge they would be largely opposed.  They would be criticised because what they are doing will not make sense to most of the citizens. Most of the people on the ground profess different value systems.

    The value systems the reformed leaders are bringing to our society would conflict with the ones that people are used to. The people would be condemning them. The conflict equals clashes. That means there would be controversies and disagreements.

    That is what happened when we had a quite disciplined, god- fearing, pious leader in Muhammadu Buhari in the ‘80s. He was overthrown and the people rejoiced because the discipline and order he was bringing to our people was totally strange to them.

    We are used to living the way we like to live. We are used to keeping our freedom, our liberty, our way of doing things. If we now have a god -fearing leader that wishes to develop the country, he would have to first alter the way we do things. Until we change, nothing changes. We didn’t want to change, so when Babangida who was more like us overthrew Buhari, we were happy.

    How does the church come in then?

    The truth is that our value system comes from our pulpit. Our value system comes from our religious beliefs. Our value system comes from our religious practices. Our value systems come from our educational system. In Nigeria, the authority of the religious institutions is much higher than the authority of the educational system.

    So, most of our value system is influenced by faith and religion. That is why I am saying it is the faulty and corrupt messages we have introduced to our pulpits that is responsible for producing corrupt practices in our society.

    Can you give examples of this?

    A pastor could say that somebody would be a millionaire before the end of the year. Whereas we are in November or December and there are 500 people in that auditorium. All of them will shout amen!!! Yet Pastors don’t correct them saying that no, you would not become a millionaire before the end of the year even if you shout amen for the whole day.

    The only person that would become a millionaire is the person that has worked for it. The only person that would become a millionaire is the person that has at least signed a contract. When pastors don’t clarify that, everybody begins to believe that some miracles would happen.

    So when such a member goes to his office and he sees an unsigned check, for a million dollars and nobody is claiming responsibility for it, he claims it. He believes that it is God that has provided for him. That is how corruption gets from the pulpit to the society.  That particular member would claim that God has answered his Pastor’s prayer.

    He would boldly come to give testimony the following Sunday while the naïve and ignorant members would shout hallelujah! Meanwhile they too are expecting similar miracles and on and on. That is how the vicious circle of corruption from the pulpit to the whole country runs.

    But isn’t breakthrough real?

    Breakthrough is a word from breaking forth. Water, springs or streams break forth from under the ground. For it to break forth, it must have been forcing its way for ages or for years before it all of a sudden breaks through.

    The breakthrough that we see all of a sudden is as a result of hard work, invincible hard work. Yet we don’t emphasis the hard work aspect, we don’t emphasize the preparation aspect. We only emphasize the breakthrough. We think that those breakthroughs only come through prayers. That is another root of corruption.

    Everybody goes out of the church looking for a breakthrough. So any opportunity they see, even though they are not legal, which they didn’t labor for, they want to take advantage of. We are promoting through our preaching and teachings from our pulpits the culture of getting something for nothing.

    That means, I don’t need to do much but I can get something I can become rich. That way we are promoting corruption in the whole country. Instead of us to promote the culture of hard work before profit, we rather promote frivolity from our pulpits.

    So, all miracles have to be worked out?

    The rule of life is that you work hard for your results. You don’t wait for grace or favor to give you results without working for them. We don’t teach people in our churches that truth.

    If you don’t work for wealth even if you get that wealth through your parents, relatives or spouse, you are still a thief (Prov. 28:24). You are robbing the people who gave you that wealth.

    That is because somebody worked for what you are claiming. How can you just be going to church and claiming something for yourself? That is another faulty doctrine we have, that promotes corruption in the country.

    When you teach that people can claim anything, how can they claim when they are not qualified for it? How can they just claim simply because they have greed for it? We are promoting greed, we are promoting lust.

    There is no product without the process of production. We tell people they can get something by faith, to only believe. We tell them to just give offerings. We teach them about faith offering. We teach them about tithe and offering. Not that I don’t believe in tithe and offering but that is not the way of receiving wealth. It is the way of preventing curses from coming to your resources.

    For you to really have wealth, giving tithes and offerings are not enough. Tithes and offerings open up heaven to you. God doesn’t send money from heaven. You have to go to work and be involved in the process of production. It is only that way wealth and riches will come to you.

    Another problem we have in the nation that is contributed by the church is that we teach millions of people that they should expect miracles. Pastors teach about miracles without telling them the truth about the order of life.

    The way we are all supposed to live on a daily basis is not through miracles or by miracles. We are supposed to live by laws and principles that God has placed in the laws of nature, in the principles of life and order.

    Life depends on laws and rules. But we tell people about miracle, miracle, miracle. No matter what you talk to a Nigerian about, they will tell you about the fact that God will do it. We are asking God to do for us what he has asked us to do for ourselves. There is no way God can do for man, what man is supposed to do for himself. There is no way man can do for God what God can only do.

    Most of our prayers in Nigeria maybe about 80 percent are a waste of time. This is because we ask God to do for us what he has asked us to do for ourselves or we ask God to do for us what he has already done.

    Thanks to that deceptive teaching, our people expect miracles from morning till night. Our people are looking for miracles. So, any opportunity that presents itself godly or ungodly we take as God’s miracle or blessing. That is a major factor encouraging corruption in the land.

    In the real sense we don’t teach people that the possibility of miracle is not the order of the day. It is only two percent of our daily life that should depend on miracles from God. The order of life is the observation of God’s laws and order. Obedience to the laws of God and the society brings wealth and blessings.