The maiden training program of the Abia State primary school teachers by an Australian based NGO, Precious Kids Education Empowerment may have been concluded but the enormous benefits from this exercise cannot be overstressed. In this interview, one of the facilitators Sahera Sumar explains how the Australians will help to upgrade the Abia State school system to conform with what is obtainable anywhere in the world.
Excerpt:
Abia Online: Good day ma'am. We are correspondents of the Abia Online. May you tell us about yourself?
Response: My name is Sahera Sumar. I am from Australia. My background is in adult education. I have done training on psychology, behavior and leadership; raising strong leaders. So I'm very passionate about education and building strong leaders and the impart this will create in any organization or profession.
Abia Online: That's great. Perhaps this is the first time you set your feets on the Nigerian soil, how do you feel being in Nigeria?
Response: I love it. It has been wonderful. We have been greeted with love and I'm very pleased to be here. The people are fantastic.
Abia Online: This is a prototype program your team is running with the Abia State government in Nigeria. What informed your decision to chose Abia for this lofty project?
Response: I think it an opportunity to really make a difference, contribute to something that is different. After working in Australia and internationally, this was an opportunity to impart lives in a very different way. I was excited to be part of this inspirational program.
Abia Online. You are one of the facilitators of this program and the lecturing sessions are over. Do you feel fulfilled with what you have done so far?
Response: Yeah! I would say it has been extremely fulfilling. We have exposed the teachers to think and act in different ways. We have connected with a lot of teachers and I think this is a tip of an iceberg. And while we have opened up their minds, we have additional works to do.
Abia Online: In sub-Sahara Africa there is a high rate of uneducated children. How do you think this program would help in solving the illiteracy problem and it's associates?
Response: Thank you. Well, the fundamental part of the program is about being student-centric. This means that the student/child should be kept at the center of all the teaching and really create a strong learning environment.
Mainly because we are now in a technological world, children are open to so much information. So teacher have to be taught on how to do things and teach in new and different ways. I think this will really help to improve the literacy level in Nigeria.
Abia Online: Ok. How do you think this program will be sustained, precisely the with the collaboration with the Abia State government.
Response: For us we are committed to the program and hope it will continue. In our meeting with the Governor, we were convinced that the Abia State government is keen about improving education and empowering children. The governor is committed to building infrastructure for conducive learning environment. Some of these confidence are what we are building on to sustain this program for some years.
Abia Online: Some of the problems we have in Nigeria is either we hadn't voted enough fund to the education sector or no monitoring and evaluation. How are the Australians going to help in the success story of this program?
Response: We are committed to go back and create a lot more interests among Australians; the teaching and education communities. We are actively going to start to create more links between the schools there in Australian and the schools here in Abia. We would create more awareness and share our experiences. I'm sure the Australians will really hope in different directions when we share our experiences with them.
Our first commitment is that we would be shipping our first consignment of books, toys, school equipments, whatever we could manage to get.
Abia Online: Would you like to come down to Abia for subsequent or similar programs?
Response: Absolutely. I think we have made long lasting friendship and so many people have touched our hearts. We would be very happy to come back and continue this work. We are partnering with you now to see the schools are improved.
0 comments:
Post a Comment