I have a little story to tell. It may provide a little
insight into one of the most daunting challenges that will confront the new
government of Muhammadu Buhari, President and Commander-in-Chief of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria. Even as I narrate it, I am not so sure what lessons we can
draw from it.
I will narrate it nevertheless. It started almost four years
ago when I visited Maiduguri, the city most afflicted by the Boko Haram
insurgency.
The crisis is fueled by an army of youths in an area of
Nigeria that has a large number of the estimated 16 million (or more)
out-of-school children in the country that may harbour the highest
concentration of illiterates in the world, plus an ocean of unemployed,
unemployable and unskilled youths, who see nothing beyond the bleak future that
lies ahead of them. That’s why joining an insurgency that promises temporary
relief becomes a viable and attractive option!
I met with the governor of the State, Kashim Shettima, and
in a few brief minutes told him about the sports academy in a little village in
Wasimi, Ogun State, and my idea about how the school may alleviate the poor
situation of a few of the youths of Borno State, who were unable to return to
school as a result of the insurgency.
He listened with rapt attention. I told him we could use the
passion of the youths for sports (football in particular) to convince some of
the those with talent in football to enroll into schools outside the troubled
state, to keep them in the schools, to give them some education that they
essentially need, provide a full dose of their youthful passion and fulfill
their dream one day of playing professional football and becoming famous and
successful like Tijani Babangida and Jay Jay Okocha.
Governor Shettima immediately took up my offer to send a few
Borno students that were temporarily not going to school to Wasimi in
South-West Nigeria, an experiment that would be the first of its kind in the
history of the state and, indeed, Nigeria.
The International (Sports) Academy is a non-profit NGO, a
secondary school for children gifted or interested in sport, but who might have
difficulty with their academics but seek opportunities to pursue their football
dream.
The Academy does not discourage any of its students from
choosing to play professional football, it only ensures that they do so after
acquiring a basic secondary education, an absolute necessity for every Nigerian
child that wants to avoid the pitfalls associated with illiteracy and the almost
certain difficult life after sports!
The insurgency in the North East of Nigeria provided a
perfect backdrop for my experiment.
Governor Shettima persuaded me to admit five students from
the State. The motivation for the lucky students for the programme was the
opportunity of high-level football training, plus exposure to competition and
international scouts. The academy promised all of that plus an education and a
get-away from the theatre of the orgy of killings in Maiduguri!
Within a few months the State ministry of education
conducted a selection process and sent the five students to the sports
‘laboratory’ in the heart of Yoruba-land, a bold experiment of the impact of
such exposure of youths at such a young age to such cultural orientation.
The students arrived the academy at the start of the
2012/2013 academic session. They were supposed to have just completed their
Junior Secondary School so, they were all enrolled into SS1.
One week into the session the school’s principal drew my
attention to a shocking discovery. The students, brilliant with their football
ability, were far behind the other students in their academic capacity.
Indeed, two of them could neither read nor write. Their
communication was limited to a few words in broken English. The difference in
the standards of education between that part of the country and the South was
clearly apparent.
Obviously, the Borno students had thought they were coming
to a typical football academy that would open up for them the opportunity for a
possible place in professional football in Europe. Academics were not
emphasized to them. They discovered that only after they arrived the academy
and found that they had to engage in the academics, obviously a new journey
that will test their will and spirit to the limit.
Recall that two of the students could not speak any English
and so could not follow the teachings in class.
The other three were a little bit better as they could
communicate a little and had an understanding of what was being taught them.
We had very few options what to do. What we knew we would
not do was to send them back to the hell in Maiduguri. We had to make the best
of what was a very challenging situation.
Let me cut a long story short.
This is the third year into our experiment. It has been very
fruitful for the students and enriching for the academy.
We dropped the two students with the most problem from the
SS1 class, as they could not cope. We created a new classroom for them with two
specialist teachers in English and Mathematics. With the help of the National
Mathematics Centre in Abuja we set up a centre in the school specially for the
teaching of mathematics. The centre now supports not just the two students but
also the entire school.
The academy also set up an English language centre for the
accelerated teaching of English language for those with learning difficulty!
So, for the past two and a half years the two students that
could not cope with the SS1 class work because of their initial lack of
communication skills have been studying English and Mathematics. In the past
year they have included a vocational course in photography into their
curriculum.
The other three students have caught up with the rest of the
class and are ready to enroll into a university! They are presently sitting for
their WAEC examinations.
The ‘miracle’ is that none of the five students is now eager
to go to Europe anymore to pursue a football career at the expense of their
education.
Indeed, the two students training in professional
photography returned from the last holiday break with a new and exciting
proposal – they want to return in September 2015, spend one extra year and
attempt to sit for WAEC! That’s how ‘hungry’ they have all now become for
education without diminishing their interest or even their chances in
professional football.
They have both passed their proficiency ‘tests’ in
English language and can now communicate well and effectively. They are now
very comfortable with their numeracy. How quickly they can catch up in the
other subjects in the next year to enable them sit for WAEC is now our exciting
new challenge!
The work the academy has done with the Borno State children
will make an interesting case study for the Federal Ministry of Education. A
British educational curriculum design consultant has already been in Nigeria
examining the methodology and curriculum that have transformed these students
from where they once were to where they now are.
They have become the ambassadors of a unique aspect of the
work of the academy. Their peers in Maiduguri who have been trapped in the warp
of the Boko Haram insurgency for the past three years would envy them not just
for their new academic achievements but also for their proficiency, their new
found confidence, their very improved football skills and their very bright
prospects for a good life into the future
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