August 29, 2022 | 3 mins

Collaboration is the process of two or more entities working together to help each other reach their goals. Collaboration is a meeting of the minds. It is the coming together of two or more people to make something.

Collaboration is more prevalent now than ever before. Collective intelligence can accomplish tasks much more quickly. It also achieves better results than if an individual worked alone. By combining diverse skills, know-how, and experience in collaboration, we encourage efficiency, creativity, innovation, and productivity.

Collaborations are necessary for advancing society. Many important fields, such as technology, science, and politics, require it.

Advantages of Collaboration

1. Networking and Future Opportunities: When we collaborate, we build our network. Having a good network can help create opportunities in the future.

1. Innovation and Invention: Collaboration is one the most powerful mechanisms for new invention and innovation. Collaborations help bring the best out of people. It helps us solve problems and generate ideas in ways that would never have been possible if we worked alone.

1. Greater achievements: We are more capable as a result of collaboration. Collaborations are beneficial because they allow everyone involved to achieve more than just one person could accomplish alone.

Everybody wins when we collaborate

Collaboration is a concept in our society that is misunderstood. It is not just an efficient way of getting a job done. It is also a necessity owed to every person involved. Collaboration increases the scope for personal growth for all involved. Its benefits are not limited to personal gain only. They can have an even greater effect on the world around us. This is why we are collaborating with the good people at Woo Network at their activation on Saturday, 9th of September and it’s titled ‘Crypto Meetup Lagos; The next market cycle’.

We will have a stand at this event where we will be answering questions as well as giving out special packages to donors at the venue.

If you’d like to attend, click here to register and don’t forget to stop by to say hi when you’re around.

August 22, 2022 | 5 Min Read Time

Background of the ASUU strike?

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has been on strike for over six months. It has led to the closure of Federal and State Universities across Nigeria, halting the growth and development of students nationwide.

It started as a four-week warning strike on February 14. By March 14, the union extended the strike by another two months. They then announced a 12-week extension on May 9. The strike has continued with ASUU refusing to back down.

What does ASUU want?

The union is striking against the non-payment of university revitalisation funds promised in 2009. It will supposedly cost the government about N1.1 trillion. However, the Federal Government claims there is no money to pay such an amount.

The union is also striking over the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), which they believe they have improved. They have built an alternative payroll system, the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS), and are demanding that the government employ their program instead.

President of ASUU, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, said, “It is not just about wages. It has to do with the system, funding, the structure, the autonomy and other issues; and how to fund universities.”

Resolving the ASUU issue and moving forward

At the root of the ASUU strike is one problem. Funding.

Nigerian education funding does not meet the standard. The education funding in Nigeria has not been up to the UNESCO minimum standard of 26% of the national budget. Using the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) statistical bulletin, public budgetary funding for education in Nigeria ranges between 4-13 percent. This level of investment in education is egregious and must be improved upon by the government.

Analysing the demands of ASUU, they are not unbearable. They are reasonable demands from stakeholders who want to see Nigerian education flourish. The Nigerian education sector is expected to deliver optimal results with suboptimal resources/funding. It cannot go on like this.

The government should invite the striking lecturers to meet face-to-face with representatives of the government to discuss the causes of the standoff. The government must also show their commitment to resolving the issues. It is time for the stakeholders in the education sector to meet and discuss a way forward.

Students have been at home for months now. Their futures are handicapped by a government declaring bankruptcy while spending lavishly.

The Federal government needs to drop its negotiating and renegotiating tactics and start working to improve the quality of education through provisions of the necessary education infrastructures.

ASUU is willing to negotiate its reasonable demands from 2009 if the government is honest. So far, the Nigerian government has not shown that it is capable of that sincerity of spirit.

August 14, 2022 | 4 Min Read Time 

Nigerian education system pre-colonization

Prior to the presence of the Europeans, Nigerian communities had their own systems of educating their children. There were two main types of education pre-colonization. They were religious and traditional education.

Traditional education helps the young understand the norms and nature of the society into which they were born and live. Through traditional education children were to acquire knowledge, skills and also develop the correct attitudes and values that would be needed not only for them to live in their local communities but also for them to be able to play their own role in and make their own modest contributions to society at large.

Islamic Education was for members of the Islamic religion across all Muslim communities. The religion of Islam had arrived through the activities of the Muslim Dyula (Wangarawa) merchants from the ancient West African Empire of Mali, first to Katsina and then to Kano in the 14th century. Islamic education was limited to teaching students about the Qur’an and the Arabic alphabet.

The introduction of western education

Western education was introduced by British missionaries in the 1840s. The Anglican Church Missionary Society (CMS) opened many schools in the mid-1800s. The colonial government gave the church financial aid, but in the early twentieth century, the government began building primary and secondary schools. By the time the British amalgamated the northern and southern regions into one in 1914, 11 secondary schools were already in operation.

Western education slowly entered the northern region. In 1947, only 66,000 students attended primary schools in the north, but ten years later, the number enrolled had expanded to 206,000. In the western region, over the same period, primary school enrollment increased from 240,000 to 983,000 students. The eastern region experienced the most dramatic growth in primary school enrollment during this period, jumping from 320,000 to 1,209,000 students. The number of secondary school students in the entire nation grew much less dramatically, increasing from 10,000 in 1947 to 36,000 in 1957. Most of this growth, 90 percent, was almost entirely in the south.

Post-independence educational reforms

Nigeria, on the attainment of her independence on the 1st of October, 1960, retained the educational policy bequeathed by the British Government. The first serious attempt at reforming the educational system in Nigeria took place in 1969.

In September 1969, there was a National curriculum conference held in Lagos. Participants at the program wanted to see Nigeria chart a new course in its educational system. They criticized the colonial education system as lacking in vitality and relevance.

The conference recommended changes in the system, from 6-5-2-3 system to 6-3-3-4 system; that is 6year primary, 3year junior secondary, 3year senior secondary and 4year university education. The recommended new system is simply the American system of education which Japan ably copied after 1945 and succeeded.

The national policy on education moved on from the educational policy bequeathed by the British colonialist. Other reform policies include:

1. The Federal Government take over of regional universities in 1975
2. Universal Primary Education Programme of 1976 (Adamu, nd.)
3. The Universal Basic Education Programme of 2000, among others.

The civilian administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo also embarked on significant educational reforms particularly at the tail end of his tenure.

Nigerians should appreciate how far the country has come with regards to education

The progress of the Nigerian education system has been slow, but it is progress nevertheless. With a population of around 180 million and an immense desire for improvement, the Nigerian government has tried to respond to demands for schools and improvement in the sector. Nigerians can appreciate how far the country has come with regards to education. We’ve come a long way since the olden days of pre-independence to get where we are today. We have created many successful individuals from Nigerian education who can be seen worldwide. Despite all the challenges, especially funding and lack of teachers, education in Nigeria has grown tremendously since the 1960’s.

8 August 2022 | 4 Min Read Time

What is a slum?

What is Informal education?

Informal Education is a form of learning that does not rely on a curriculum or structured syllabus. It can be delivered by trained facilitators or volunteers through workshops, camps, seminars, and lectures.

Informal learning covers a wide range of subjects that people learn in their everyday lives. It also includes learning methods such as self-study and informal classes, where individuals seek or want to learn specific skills or look into certain areas and don’t use formal or non-formal ways to learn.

Most importantly, informal learning does not require any form of fee payment, nor learners to possess any prior qualifications for access.

Informal Education as a tool

Underprivileged children with access to informal education fare much better in life than those who do not. With impactful informal education, these disadvantaged children become responsible leaders, ready to solve practical problems on their own, creative thinkers prepared to think outside the box and capable of setting their own goals.

We need to empower underprivileged children to be able to compete with their counterparts in the formal education setting. Informal learning provides underprivileged children with the required self-initiative, leadership, basic life and critical thinking skills they need to survive and thrive in their communities, business and governance.

Informal education is a long-term approach, teaching children life skills they need to survive and thrive. It is an effective way to reach out to underprivileged children who cannot access or benefit from formal learning because of various reasons.

Ways to provide impactful informal education for children in Africa

Considering the challenges underprivileged children in Africa face, they must be provided with quality informal education. Informal learning has a great potential for helping a wide range of learners achieve more desirable and rewarding circumstances for themselves and their communities.

Impactful informal education can be achieved through the provision of quality skills-based informal education programs that stress critical thinking. Without these crucial life necessities provided by informal education programs, development cannot happen across the continent. 

We don’t need to solve all poverty-related problems at once. If we start with a small subset of those, then we can make sure that the impact of our work is high and that we can succeed within a couple of years.

Informal education is an appropriate means of reaching out more effectively to underprivileged children

Education is a tool that provides the bearer with the necessary knowledge and skills to improve their future prospects especially in this part of the world where there are more ‘out-of-school’ and underprivileged children.

In one of our previous blog posts, we talked about education being the greatest leveler between socio-economic classes because of its unifying nature, especially when it’s beyond the four walls of a classroom.

income gap on the continent.

1  August 2022 | 4 Min Read Time

There are so many unbelievable and worrying facts about how the educational system and sector is hitting the rock bottom and is set to go much lower if proper care is not taken with timely intervention.

Here are some facts about the education system you will find hard to believe, according to Edugist:

1. Authorities have limited operating resources & autonomy.

Some local governments receive nothing once teachers’ salaries have been allocated. Improving efficiency requires the decentralisation of power along with support from federal and state governments to ensure an adequate flow of resources to the poorest areas.

2. 39% of adults cannot read or write.

This reduces their ability both to participate in the economy and to provide learning support to their children.

3. Conflict in Nigeria has destroyed 28% of schools in one State

Violence concentrated in the North has destroyed many schools and forced many others to close, and in some cases teachers and children have even been attacked. In Borno State, it is estimated that 15,000 children have stopped attending school as a result of the violence.

4. Only 2% of married adolescent girls are in school.

By comparison, 69% of unmarried girls are still in school. Those with a secondary education, on average, get married two years later than those without – which in turn has an impact on maternal health.

5. 34% of girls are out of school in some areas.

In the same rural areas, 25% of boys are out of school – a huge disparity. The disparity is smaller in the South where rural areas have less than 4% of girls and 3% of boys out of school, and in Southern urban areas where the disparity is less than 1%.

6. There are 109 pupils for every satisfactory

Nigerian primary school classroom. This represents a shortfall of 523,346 primary school classrooms – 59.95% of the total needed. At the secondary level there is a shortfall of 170,64267.63% of the total needed.

7. No government or agency is clearly accountable for results.

Local Government is responsible for basic education-but does not have budgetary power, which is mostly at the federal level. This creates perverse incentives for the LGAs to keep enrollments down or hire less expensive and therefore unqualified teachers.

8. 40% of primary school teachers are not qualified

The lack of teachers is particularly acute in the Northwest and Northeast, where only 50% and 53% of teachers are qualified. The Southwest has close to 100% qualified teachers.

9. Only 29% of students who start secondary school graduate on time at 17.

If you include up to 24 year olds to capture late starters and repeaters, then this goes up to 75% – but still a quarter of students never finish.

10. Almost half of students who have completed grade 6 cannot read.

In some areas, as many as 72% of grade 6 students cannot read a complete sentence. Clearly there is great need to improve the quality of schooling through improved teacher to pupil ratios, better training and resources.

11. About 80% of children do not have textbooks for all subjects.

About 60% of primary students do not have a mathematics or English textbook, and materials in languages other than English are scarce. Teachers are lacking books too; in many areas fewer than 15% of teachers have a teacher’s guide.

12. JAMB Reduces cutoff from 200 to 140

The Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has reduced the cutoff mark for getting into the university from an average 200/400 to 140/400 to gain satisfactory admission to study a full time course in the university