i stand for education - Stephen Adams Social Reformation Foundation (SASRF)

For quite a while now, the issue of the Nigerian education system and standards has generated heated debate and controversy. Many Nigerians are concerned.

The issues have repeatedly been
forced to the front burner with recent mass failures in national examinations and the inability of Nigerian graduates to measure up to employment standards required by the job market.

Stephen Adams Social Reformation Foundation (SASRF), an NGO based in Lagos, has taken the issue of educational standards as its key area of focus, promoting Train-the-Trainer programs for Teachers in public schools under its
Teachers4Change program in order to impact student outcomes and the development of Teachers in Nigeria.

Its new campaign, “istandforeducation”, is another initiative to focus the attention of the general public on Education matters. Mrs. Nike Akerele-De Souza is a Director of SASRF and outlines the concerns of the Foundation and tells us how to get involved.

1. Tell us how SASRF was founded and the motivation behind the establishment.

The  Foundation was launched several years ago to address and proffer solutions to various societal needs for the disadvantaged. SASRF took on educational and health sector issues as well as correctional centers for children and old people’s homes. The Foundation has also provided school infrastructural assistance as well as materials to public secondary and primary schools.

2. What are the ambitions of SASRF?

SASRF’s mission is to affect the lives of the disadvantaged. We aim to reform environments that we get involved in. We wish to make an impact on our community and the nation by effecting positive change. Over time, we have developed a focus on the Education sector because we believe there is a crisis and urgent transformation is needed in Education.

3. What initiatives have been established in the area of Education?

There is a clear challenge in Nigeria and
indeed a crisis with the quality of our education and the educational structure itself. Our children are not learning what they should and the way they should to become effective 21st century citizens.

Teachers generally lack the requisite skills and knowledge to transfer to the children and, our teaching methodologies and materials are out-dated for the world of today. Teachers are no longer valued in society as they should be, and the Education sector is not an attractive career option for our youth.

Consequently, we introduced a Teachers4Change Project which involves a one (1) year continuous school development program focusing on Teacher Training & Development and Mentoring for Public Primary school teachers which commenced in Lagos State. Teachers are provided with class room instructions for 3 terms, practical knowledge transfer and school visits to best practice private schools.

4. You have just launched a new campaign on education. What is this campaign about?

We have just launched the istandforeducation campaign and project. We aim to create awareness of the crisis in education and generate support for these issues in our capacity as private sector/NGOs. As individuals, we should begin to own and be responsible for the transformation needed in Education.

There are several credible organizations working in this area already. We have just launched the nationwide campaign
and hope to have about one million (1,000,000) signed up individuals on our platform. The target of this campaign is to attract citizens of all walks of life (the populace) who are concerned about what is happening in our education sector.

We will then be able to call on some of the signed up individuals to volunteer
to teach, work on education projects, mentor students and teachers and get active in various education interventions.

With our website/education portal –
www.istandforeducation.org – we will make available to the populace information on education issues and news and begin to sensitize the populace on what is happening with our children in Nigerian schools.

The istandforeducation project will also
showcase key education projects and initiatives undertaken by various organizations & NGOs. The populace will then be able to see and assess private sector/NGO presence in education and be a part of the change process.

We hope that such projects may also receive financial assistance from those interested in helping.
We will work closely with organizations assisting in the education sector.

5. What role can the public play in supporting the istandforeducation project?

The istandforeducation campaign through the social media is targeted at drumming up attention and creating awareness about the education situation in Nigeria. We also hope it will promote discourse and conversations about the important education related issues and their solutions.

Our means of doing this is through an
awareness campaign driven by the internet and social media. The campaign will be driven on Instagram, twitter, Facebook and our portal istandforeducation.org (a purpose built website with ability to take a roll call of individual sign- ups for support and assistance).

Please go online to istandforeducation.org and sign up immediately and also take a decision to
join the cause for action.

You should also upload your photo to your favourite social media site and tag at least 4 people asking them to do the same for Education.

Please don’t forget to include in your social media post  #istandforeducation and www.istandforeducation.org and remind the 4 people you tagged to do the same.

We look forward to your support as we drive changes in our education sector and create a better future for our Teachers and children.

JOIN US ON

istandforeducation.org

istandforeducation Nike’s work in Education is implemented in her
role as a Member of the Human Capital Committee of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), an appointed Member of the Human Capital Committee of the National
Competitiveness Council of Nigeria.

She is a Fellow of the Aspen Leadership Institute (US)/ Africa Leadership West Africa (ALIWA). As a Director of SASRF, she is active in the education
sector, especially in the area of Teacher
Education and Development.

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Personal Teachers diary

This is the easiest way to begin a process of reflection since it is purely personal.

After each lesson you write in a notebook about what happened. You may also describe your own reactions and feelings and those you observed on the part of the students.

You are likely to begin to pose questions about what you have observed.

Diary writing does require a certain discipline in taking the time to do it on a regular basis.

Writing a teaching diary

Here are some general questions to get you started:

Lesson objectives

• Did the students understand what we did in the lesson?

• Was what we did too easy or too difficult?

• What problems did the students have (if any)?

• Was there a clear outcome for the students?

• What did they learn or practise in the lesson? Was it useful for them?

Activities and materials

• What different materials and activities did we use?

• Did the materials and activities keep the students interested?

• Could I have done any parts of the lesson differently?

Students

• Were all the students on task (i.e. doing what they were supposed to be doing)?

• If not, when was that and why did it happen?

• Which parts of the lesson did the students seem to enjoy most? And least?

• How much English did the students use?

Classroom management

• Did activities last the right length of time?

• Was the pace of the lesson right?

• Did I use whole class work, group work, pairwork or individual work?

• What did I use it for? Did it work?

• Did the students understand what to do in the lesson?

• Were my instructions clear?

• Did I provide opportunities for all the students to participate?

• Was I aware of how all of the students were progressing?

Overall

If I taught the lesson again, what would I do differently?

So score yourself as a teacher.....

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I love my Profession

Endless giver, Father and mother of multitude Rendered talkative By wisdom and knowledge Detribalized by The makeup of their classrooms… Moulding characters, Pushing talents, Kneading personalities and Adding knowledge. By Nje mjika symphorosa N. A.

The character builders, In all human race, From infancy Till requiem mass. Teachers, To some perfidious To other collusive Posterity will be their judge In their deportment of longevity They were denied their Fundamental right Guerdon in high heaven they say They need their per diem Here on earth As they can only eat Their recoil the therapy here on earth. By Sonde agbochenu aboh

I LOVE my profession………………… do you LOVE yours ?

What it takes to be a teacher?

A teacher they say is expected to be an epitome of knowledge, creative, inspiring, motivating, a Role Model, just to mention a few.

We are challenged in terms of :

TIME: Most of  our time is spent on school work- writing lesson plans, thinking of institutional media, marking home works, test, examination scripts, observing kids, making evaluations, member of a School committee, ensures discipline,do publicity for our school sometimes, take kids on excursions, visits to places, etc.
We hardly have time to look after ourselves although people in other sector thinks we have more time than they do.

WORKLOAD: The workload of teaching as it involves research, mastery of the topic, directing classroom activities,understand facts, realities of the society, the concepts of each topics and its dynamics - whether Abstract or concrete, understand the values of the society and how it can be related to the topic, etc.


LOW PAY : We are the least paid, with no regular salary, no special bonuses, no extra time pay, least appreciated by parents and School Management. When there is a slight issues between us and parents the school authority would prefer to only hear from the parents and all they do is sack us straight away, if everyone should be sacked at every little mistake they make, no Good teacher would be teaching today. Employers think they are helping us by giving us employment.... Hmmmm.
Even parents detests us to a great extent having seen the way school management treat us.

CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT:  After getting lesson plan ready, we have to ensure the classroom is well arranged with the needed materials, kids are not in danger, learning is achieved, kids are not fighting, kids are participating in teaching learning procedure, ensure the class is neat and condusive for learning.


COMMITTEE: We are also active members of the various school committee - school events, yearly activities, Teacher's welfare, etc.  We are expected to also give in our very best, we organize school events, school outings, etc.


PARENTS & COMMUNITY :  We ensure that we have cordial relationship with the parents as well as the community because we are in many ways representing our school within our community.


After doing all this and lots more, we are the least paid and appreciated.

Over the Years these trends remain, Nigeria is 54 years Old today
We need make up our minds as Good Nigerians not to :

Never look down on our Teacher's

Please always respect and honor our Teacher's, we actually train and teacher our professionals in all others sectors of the economy

3;
I would suggest we need;
A labour force to protect unfair  treatment of teachers by their employers

Teacher Labour law to protect our teachers against unruly activities of our Primary and Secondary school teacher mostly from our private School owners

Proper Enforcement of the Teacher Labour Force if they really exist  by honest and diligent Nigerians.

If need be we need to set up laws to has to do with our teachers are work so as to see that we too are truly diligent with our work as we need a revamp of the image of our Profession.

Happy 54th Independence Day NIGERIA !!!!

Nigeria how far?

The Nigerian Economic Summit (NES) was initiated in 1993,it had its 19th NES in 2013 focused on Agricultural sector, now the 20th NES focused on the Education sector tagged "TRANSFORMING EDUCATION THROUGH PARTNERSHIP FOR GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS" at Transcorp Hilton, Abuja on 18th-20th of March 2014.like

Speakers and Panelists like President Goodluck Jonathan, Senator Uche Chukwumerijie, Prof. Pai Obanya (WAEC), Adams Oshiomole, Hon. Aminu Suleiman- Chairman, House Committee of Education just to mention a few The 20th NES on Education sector was on these four critical areas that needs new thinking if Nigeria is to develop as a Nation: National consensus on the objective for our education system Collective realization of the pervasive centrality and importance of education to national development Sustainable structural reforms and changes that allow the emergence of a 21st century economy Building a culture of life-long learning to ensure the Nigerian economy can respond quickly to global changes and global development Alero Ayida Otobo (2014) said: Focus should be on early childhood education that every Nigerian Child needs Making Vocational and technical education exciting by having better infrastructures Create an opportunity to push the innovative enterprise institutes initiative to the for front Need for new curriculum for schools in Nigeria should be looked into ensure that the students are taught the right things that would be beneficial to employers of labour

ALVAN IKOKU FEDERAL COLLEGE OF EDUCATION, OWERRI Identified that: Our Education must inculcate the values of leadership; intuition, honesty, integrity and 21st Century skills, remodeling the learning environment and physical infrastructure to reflect the character of education budget More focus should be on trending global skills by establishing research and development capabilities in schools Develop new generation teacher that is passionate, emotionally intelligent, culturally sensitive, teach savvy, technology competent, role model, team player, expert communicator and life-long learner. Teacher Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) should be restructured to be like Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), etc reviewing condition of service for teachers especially in areas of wages, career progression and professional learning communities.

The SUMMIT also identified ways of removing the disparity existing between graduate of the university and those of the polytechnic, a gap that the federal government had tried to bridge in the past without a positive outcome.Teaching Profession should be attractive. For over 6 months now: the Question is how much of all this has been implemented or set out to achieve as Deborah (Oh ! Sorry) Ebola (smiles) has become a major distraction in the Education sector today. Recently in Abuja, the Government has raised a technical committee on the National Policy on vocational Skills Development to Bridge the gap that exist in the technical and Vocational training in the country. Honourable Chukwuemeka Wogu, the Minister of Labour said the committee marks another milestone in the on-going and commitment to strengthen the Ministry. The 14 man committee to be chaired by Mrs. Theresa Braimah, Director Productivity measurement and Labour Standards in the Ministry of Labour and Productivity with members fro the representatives of COREN - Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria, National Boars foe Technical Education Headquater, Kaduna, CEO of 360 Capacity Builders Ltd, retired Director of Skills Development and Certification in the Ministry, amongst a others. They are to provide a report within 6 weeks to institutionalize a National Vocational Training and Skill Culture through hard work, creativity and innovation This is a wake up call for the necessary committee, body, agencies in charges of implementing this to get busy and ensure the right measures are put into place.