We’re poised to train 2,000 teachers this year – Onyeka Jaibvo-Ojigbo, IEDUMAN boss
The International Educational Management Network (IEDUMAN), a leading educational advocacy group, is set to empower 2, 000 teachers in 2019, as part of its annual Educational Empowerment Series. This was disclosed at a press briefing on January 11, 2019 at Gurunar Viceroy Restaurant, Akin Adesola Street, Victoria Island, Lagos, where Dr. Onyeka Jaibvo-Ojigbo, President and Convener, IEDUMAN, and Evan Udogbo, IEDUMAN’s partnership and engagement officer, answered salient questions.
Chibuzo Ihegboro
What is the motivation behind IEDUMAN’s activities?
It is our tradition since the last few years we have been in existence that every year we roll out a programme, something that we think is going to impact or change us from the way we do things in our educational sector. It is a known thing that there is a crack in the wall of education in this nation and everyone is blaming one another.
We have left so much to government and we forget that our children are the beneficiaries of the education we are talking about. Most of them in authority, their children are not even here and most of us cannot afford education outside the country. So, are we going to remain stuck? As part of our duty or what we stand for in IEDUMAN, we are trying to provide a platform where we can all come as professionals, look at what is going on, discuss it and proffer a way out. Most times, we talk but there is no follow up action. And if you really want to follow up, how much finance do you have to embark on it? You can’t save the world but we believe that we can, at least, lend our voice and save portion of the world that we can save.
What is the major project before the group in 2019?
This year we took our theme from our Educational Empowerment Series. We are going to be focusing on the Nigerian Teachers Skill Project. We are going to be working with a lot of teachers from nursery, primary and secondary schools. That is the basics of education. If the foundation is right and well laid, the building will stand much stronger. The Nigerian Teachers Skill project is essentially focused on teachers in the foundation stages of education. We will talk to them about professionalism and offer training and anything we know we have to do to make them do their work better.
What are the key drivers of the Teachers Skill Project?
The society is evolving and our world is changing; there is disruption in the system and technology has changed the way things work on our education. That is why we have to sit down and say what can we do for the Nigerian teachers? There are a number of gaps in our education that we have been able to identify, like the issue of blended learning, that is, integration of digital tools technique, materials into learning in the traditional classroom model. This is one of the solutions that we are providing as part of the Nigerian teachers skill project.
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Secondly, we are urged to create this intervention to provide life skills to the teachers. There is this misconception that just educating the minds is okay. This intervention we are going to be providing a whole number of skills to equip the Nigerian teachers.
Also, another key driver for the project is low morale among teachers. This intervention is going to afford them opportunity for professional recognition. We are going to recognise them. We need to celebrate, especially those who are doing exceptionally. This will be a sort of Nigeria Teachers Award.
The project also aims to build a well-equipped resource centre for teachers to create an innovative mind in them.
Starting here in Lagos, we will begin with the number we can manage, which is 2, 000 teachers for a start. We know that we can reach them for sure around us.”
How do you hope to get government to key into this project?
For every project we had done in the past, we had always involved officials from the Ministry of Education in Lagos. We are working with Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria. That is also a huge government body. The last one we had in September, we had two directors from the ministry.
Incidentally, I owned and ran a school and I have done that in the last 13 years. I have seen so much in both government and private schools. And I know what is going on. Schools owners, most of them now are focused on return on investment. There is no crime in doing it as a business but do it right and government has stopped building schools and have left it for the private sector and they don’t even monitor schools again. This whole thing came out of passion from what I have seen running a school myself and I know it can be better and I know there is something government could do to make these schools better.
So, 2,000 teachers are the ones we know for sure that we can reach round us. We have done so many things on our own these past two years and people believe in us now; that is why we are reaching out to partners and most of them have given us their word. Come April, we know that many of them will make good their words. We are involving partners, people of like minds; they are people who own organisations. Some of them are not even in the education sector but when they hear the story of the rot going on, they said, okay what can I do to make this change? So, we have such people and we are still reaching out for more.
What kind of empowerment are you going to provide?
The content of the empowerment is going to be the best anywhere in the world because of the kind of collaborators we are working with, the partners are experts in that field. They are the ones to tell us this is the kind of content that we designed for the teachers. It will go through the necessary approval and the government looks into it and the management of IEDUMAN has to approve it and deploy it. One of the partners is Google.
Who funds the project?
Funding, we have done so many things on our own. We have done this for two years now and people now believe in us now. That is why we are reaching out to many partners. We are involving partners; people of like minds. And they have given us their words.
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What criteria will be used to select teachers?
The model will go this way: We are going to reach out to the government, the association, some of the schools. But the registration is basically going to be online. The event website is going to be up so teachers can go there and register. Once you register, and your registration is confirmed, you are in. With the website, any teacher can register even outside Lagos. The number of teachers could be more than 2,000 at the end of the day. But we are planning for 2,000.
What other programmes will be taking place?
This year also, as it has been our practice, we are going to be doing Eduskill fair, which is part of our commitment to also stress the importance of vocation in education.
What is common now is everybody chases certificate while nobody has any skill to offer. So, what do we find? People finish from school and they are unemployed and they have no clue of what they can do. Some state governments are doing some things and we hear a lot of empowerment, but it has to be channeled in the proper direction. If we add some vocations to education, it will be very beneficial in the long run because you will have people, who graduate from school and they will have vocation to fall back to because everybody cannot do white collar jobs or be employed by government.
This year’s education skills fair will be taking place on April 18 and 20. We hope it is going to be bigger than the past ones because we have a lot of new partners, who have subscribed to the project. It has always been a one-day programme, but this year it is going to be two-day programme. We will do some seminar and training, skills and vocation on the first day, while the second day will be for exhibition. Later in the year, we will hold our annual conference, where we will get all the professionals in the educational sector and we sit down like in a town hall to dissect the country’s educational sector, spotlight the problems and proffer solutions.
What is the big dream for IEDUMAN?
In the next five years I would like to see a well-equipped, functional educational resource centre. In most developed countries they have this. The world is now a global village; we should not be left out.
