In a proactive move to offer educational assistance and reorientation as a way forward to the generation of Northern Nigerian youths, a new group, Northern Awareness Movement (NAM) with key figures based in the UK and USA has proposed solutions to the identifiable problems during a virtual webinar on Saturday 15 August 2020. Amir Bagwanje, Global Co-ordinator, NAM writes in African Voice this week.
The NAM is a new group of Nigerians of northern extraction whose vision is to make education the centrepiece of the socio-economic progress of the region. The Coordinator of the movement, Amir Bagwanje said, “We hope to have virtual learning centres where Almajirai, IDPs and other underprivileged children could sit and receive lectures and training for free virtually from our tutors who mostly reside in the U. K. and USA”.
Also, NAM aim to achieve a lasting peace, which unfortunately is eluding the zone, through reorientation, tolerance and respect of our ethno-religious differences. Mentoring Commandant Alistair Soyode moderated the summit.
The guest speaker, the Secretary-General of the Anglican Communion, Archbishop Josiah Idowu-Fearon spoke on “achieving peace through education and reorientation”. He emphasised the need for proper religious education at all levels of education.
He maintained that, interfaith dialogue and fellowship would go a long way ending the mutual suspicion that exist between Muslims and Christians. We must use education as a tool to push back the message of violence and intolerance. He mentioned that Kaduna State government has achieved some milestone. A model adopted by the Kaduna government in the Kaduna Centre for Christian-Muslim Relations which, sought to teach people the working knowledge of different religions should be emulated across the northern states.
The Archbishop concluded by proposing four principles from Quran Q49: 13, about peaceful coexistence: Mutual understanding – ta’arauf (knowledge of the other); mutual engagement – ta’aawun (cooperation with the other in righteousness and piety); mutual contribution – tasaabuq (competing with each other in good works) and mutual support – tadaafu.
The next speaker was Nafisa Baba-Ahmed, a PhD researcher in education and social justice. She spoke on “moving Nigeria forward post covid-19: taking education and schooling to virtual online platforms”. She maintained that the issues affecting education sector such as out-of-school kids, poor funding and lack of qualified professionals must be addressed. Also, online classes must be accessible to the poor and adaptable. The other issues, she discussed are students illiteracy in computing and internet use which can be solved by raising awareness to both teachers and students. Lack of electricity and instability of internet services which can be addressed by pre-recorded sessions. Educator’s technophobia and outdated teaching skills can be ameliorated by introducing mandatory training and collaborative teaching and learning. She rounded up by proposing micro learning through existing app, model programmes in schools and setting a deadline for full digital learning integration in all schools.
Alhaji Yusuf Tajiri Kankiya, National University Commission Liaison Manager, spoke on “education in northern Nigeria: then and now”. He gave a synopsis of the evolution of education in Nigeria. He categorised the types of education in the country as traditional, which is the knowledge one gain from parents; Islamic education which came in the 11th century which was also formal as most of the conventional subjects such as astronomy, medicine, grammar, general sciences and social administration were taught; the third one is the western education which came to the north after the Amalgamation of 1914. He stated that Western education met resistance of the Muslim north for fear of Christianisation because it came through the Missionaries. Mr Kankiya stressed that, by the year 1395, there was already a school in Katsina called Gobarau University. The school produced some of the earliest scholars like Sheikh Abu Abdullahi Muhammad bin Masan Gamihi al-Barnawi, popularly known as Wali Dan Masani (1595 – 1667) and many others. Katsina Teacher Training was established in 1922 while the first Teacher Training School in the country was built in Abeokuta in 1859. Mr Kankiya explained that population explosion, reliance on paper qualification (certificate), lack of incentives to teachers causes the decay in our education sector. He concluded by pondering why is teacher’s salary not as good as a doctor, Judge or custom officer?
| The last speaker was Dr Usman Bugaje, the Convener of Arewa Research Development Project, who spoke on “education for development: fixing the nexus between knowledge and policy”. He maintained that education should derive development. He said there is only one good, which is knowledge and one evil, which is ignorance. Anything good comes from knowledge and everything bad in our society such as killings are attributable to ignorance. People in power are not knowledgeable on how to deliver mandate. The main issues he said are content. We don’t have a well-articulated educational policy that is why we are just producing certificates but not aware of the global standard. The content must be consistent with our national need, our vision and national development plan. This is how Singapore developed and South Korea did the same which now produce high technology. We are not current in terms of curriculum. For instance, in agriculture, we have to move to processing rather than primary production. Chinese government works hand in hand with their university to derive development agenda. We don’t have that link in Nigeria. We need data, timelines and monitoring and evaluation to succeed. Another problem he mentioned was that our policies do not benefit the people. He gave example of the Anchor borrower scheme, a soft loan for farmers which is not working. Political parties and leaders do not prioritise knowledge that’s why corruption is rampant. The way out he said is to change the political recruitment mechanism in our political parties to allow knowledgeable people to takeover. The youth should join politics and make change. In conclusion, Amir Bagwanje reiterated the ultimate goal of getting virtual learning centres so as to start teaching vulnerable children in northern Nigeria free of charge. Kindly follow us on twitter:@AfricanVoice2 |
