|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
A nation’s development is a function of its human capital stock, which is in turn dependent on the quality of education citizens receive. In this interview, DEMOLA ALADEKOMO, Chairman of Meadow Hall Foundation tells BusinessDay’s STEPHEN ONYEKWELU how the Foundation is driving quality education in Nigeria. Excerpts:
Tell us about the vision and objective of Meadow Hall Foundation. What are your specific contributions in advancing the educational outcomes of the Nigerian child?
At Meadow Hall Foundation, our main aim is to advance the educational outcomes of the Nigerian child through teaching quality, changing mindsets about teaching and advocating for the teaching profession.
In terms of our contributions in advancing the educational outcomes of the Nigerian Child, Meadow Hall Foundation has championed a host of initiatives, some of which are the School Adoption Programme with our flagship adopted school being Ilasan Primary School, Jakande, Lekki Lagos; the annual Graduate Teacher Trainee Programme (GTTP); the Free Teacher Professional Development Training where we train teachers on current and best teaching methods; and our Inspirational Educator Awards(INSEA) that rewards exceptional teachers and school leaders who have put in extra effort to better the lives of their students and their communities.
What are the key projects and developmental initiatives executed by Meadow Hall Foundation since inception?
Some of our programmes include our Graduate Teacher Trainee Programme (GTTP) where we develop young graduates with a 2.1 or better for entrance into the education sector. As part of their training, these trainees learn about best educational practices and also teach at Meadow Hall and Ilasan Primary School (our adopted school). This programme has an absorption rate of over 95 percent into the education sector.
We have a Free Teacher Professional Development Programme whereby teachers from low-cost private schools and public schools receive free training on the best 21st century teaching and learning practices. We have a School Adoption Programme, which is a school improvement programme aimed at providing support (infrastructure, adequate teacher training, teaching aids and educational technology) to public school students and teachers. We also have our education convention which comprises of an education conference and the Inspirational Educator Awards (INSEA).
Could you explain more about Meadow Hall Foundation’s School Adoption Programme?
Our pilot adopted school is Ilasan Primary School in Jakande, Lekki and developmental initiatives that have been carried out there include; building of a school fence, teacher training, distribution of resource packs, book donations and more.
What does Meadow Hall Foundation’s Education Convention entail and when will the next one hold?
Meadow Hall Foundation’s Education Convention provides an opportunity for teachers, school owners, parents, government officials, policy-makers and other stakeholders to gain fresh perspectives on pertinent educational issues from their interactions with teachers and educational experts. The theme for this year’s convention is “Addressing the Quality Question in the Education Sector”.
As Meadow Hall Foundation continues to advocate quality education in Nigeria, some of the topics to be discussed in the convention include- Making Learning Authentic for the Nigerian Child, Personal Effectiveness: the Key to Unlocking your Highest Potential, Driving Quality Recruitment, Schools of the Future, Guiding your Child’s Academic Career Path, Raising Godly Children in the 21st Century, An Enduring Structure: Sustaining your brand and Who Owns the Curriculum.
Notable facilitators and panellists such as Fela Durotoye, Folasade Adefisayo, Lolu Akinwunmi, Kehinde Nwani,Yinka Ogunde, Anthonia Maduekwe, Ola Opesan, Olufemi Ogunsanya, Ronke Soyombo, Modupe Adefeso-Olateju, Yinka Obafisoye, Nike Akerele De Souza, Babajide Duroshola and Lola Esan will be at the convention. The keynote speaker is Oyewusi Ibidapo-Obe (Educational Administrator and former Vice Chancellor, University of Lagos).
The Education Convention is set to hold on Saturday, 21st of April 2018 from 8am to 4pm at the Landmark Event Centre in Victoria Island, Lagos. The Education Convention is a must attend for teachers, school leaders, school owners, parents, government officials and policy-makers.
To register, please visit www.meadowhallfoundation.org/education-convention.
The theme for this year’s convention is “Addressing the Quality Questions in Education Sector”. What impact would the convention make in Nigeria’s Education System?
Quality has been a major issue for us in the past couple of decades.
We have graduates now that are not able to construct a full sentence. The university graduates are no better simply because they take their input from the secondary schools and since the secondary schools are bad, the university graduates are also bad; similarly, the primary schools.
In recent times, we have heard about states firing practically all their teachers because they are illiterates. We have heard of Edo and Kaduna states. We have worked in Lagos as Meadow Hall Foundation, individually, we have worked in other states and the stories abound.
Now, this Convention is supposed to address some of the fundamental issues that we have in quality. How should we approach it? We do not have all the solutions, but the good thing about Meadow Hall Foundation is that we have a school running, we have the experience, we have the expertise to know what good, quality education is all about; that we are going to bring to the table.
We also have good, experienced and capable educators coming to speak at the event. The keynote speaker is Oyewusi Ibidapo-Obe, who has been in the education system for so long. He is going to dissect and analyse these issues for us and proffer solutions to the nation based on our experience as Meadow Hall, and also the experience of the speakers. Because we are also going to have teachers there, it is not just going to be a unidirectional discussion; there will be input from the teachers also. How they think quality can be improved, without neglecting the quantity. So you can expect a lot of ideas, suggestions and advise to the government and to private sector participants on how we can improve the quality of education in the country.
What is Inspirational Educator Awards (INSEA) all about?
The INSEA is a merit-based award aimed at rewarding passionate, outstanding, hard working, and innovative teachers and school leaders. The award is open to teachers in Nigeria who teach in public or private schools (primary or secondary).
The Inspirational Teacher of the year will receive a cash award of N1,000,000.00 while the Inspirational School Leader of the year will receive a cash award of N2,000,000.00. The two runners-up for both categories will also receive the sum of N500,000.00 each. To learn more about the Inspirational Educator Awards (INSEA), please visit http://www.inseawards.org/
Considering the huge financial requirement to host the education convention and INSEA, What are the motivations for the Foundation hosting the event every year?
No amount of money is too much to positively influence a soul, a student, a state, a nation. We strongly believe it is something we need to do and we are going to continue to infuse a lot more money into the system so that we can have good and qualitative education for our people. At Meadow Hall, our objective is to use education as a tool for societal transformation.
Since the government cannot do it alone, in what areas can the government partner with the non-governmental organisations like the Meadow Hall Foundation to improve the quality of education in Nigeria?
The simple thing we would like the government to do is to give back the schools to the communities and the NGOs. Government needs to call on private sector, religious bodies, communities and NGOs to help support in the education sector. The communities consist of the parents of these children, and so, once they are mobilized and empowered to get this done, in less than 10 years, we believe there will be a turnaround in the level and quality of our educational system.
Any final words of advice to the Federal Government and other educational stakeholders
I would like to first address the NGOs, religious bodies and the communities. I believe we have also failed government and our children. We all need to sit up! This is our nation, these are our communities, and these are our children. We need to take the schools back on; we need to advise, coerce, influence, motivate government to give back these schools and come up with policies that limit their role to policies, monitoring and measurement and issuing sanctions. I would like to commend Meadow Hall Foundation on their efforts to facilitate change and advocate quality education, and it is vital that other NGOs follow suit.
The government and their dwindling resources, as well as the rapid growth of our population makes it clear they don’t have the capacity to manage the educational requirements of our people. Some of the suggestions that we may be coming up with (I don’t want to second-guess the Convention) is that government should consider limiting their involvement to primary schools only and consider privatising secondary schools for the singular reason that, at those levels, the parents can afford to start looking at how to pay; we can start by having social welfare nets, which can aid students and parents with payment. There is a simple way to get this done and this will be discussed at the Education Convention.
We need to implement the suggestions that this Convention will come up with and ensure we start in earnest. It is not just going to be by we submitting papers to government, we need to follow up those papers and recommendations so that they are implemented and we will support the government to the benefit of our people and our children.
