GAA AYEKALE COMMUNITY SURVEY REPORTS
The Gaa Ayekale project which took place on the 26th of October 2018, started on a bright note.
The members of the Yattiyr foundation and her volunteers arrived the community early enough to commence the preparation for the event. The people of the community were supportive. most especially, the Magaji of the Ayekale. The students and the youths of the community were instrumental in setting up the venue of the program.
The scholarship program started with the second stanza of the country's national anthem.
The vision of the foundation, was nicely spelled out by the convener, Fatoye Oluwasegun John. At close, he remarkably stated the three core pillars of the foundation which were; Advocacy, Mentorship and Sponsorship. After which the head of the community came on board to give his speech.
The Magaji of Gaa Ayekale addressing the community
The magaji used the ample of his time to pray for the convener and the members of the Yattiyr foundation. He expressed his joy and could not hide the feeling of what it feels for a revolutionary moment of education coming into the community.
His speech ended with prayers while the keynote speaker of the day, Dr. Dayo Awoyale came up. The speaker spoke on the essence of education and the danger of girl child early marriage. The speaker flowed in his uptown dialect which was a good omen for the people of the community as only a few ones among them understands English language.
Dr. Awoyale addressing the people of Gaa Ayekale
Dr. Dayo Awoyale gave enough analogies that resonates with the people of the community and one could tell they are really ready to turn a new leaf. During the speech of the keynote speaker, the Hon. Commissioner for Education, Kwara state, Dr. (Mrs) Balikisu Oniyangi walked in. Her presence commanded the presence of other dignitaries such as; Director of School resources, The Director of the state human capital development and other important personalities.
It took no time for her to be introduced, while the parents of the beneficiaries of foundation scholarship were interviewed.
The Hon. Commissioner of Education gave her address shortly after the names of the beneficiaries of the scholarship were called out.
She spoke also, on the importance of education and the danger of early girl child marriage, building on the points of the first speaker. She interjected between Hausa, Yoruba and English language. She stressed on the need for the community to wake up and make education their sole priority. She set up a committee that will monitor the growth and the activities of the teachers of the school. Her honorable promised the school tables and chairs. In addition, the community's youth leader got an appointment of monitoring the school's teachers’ activities.
Afterwards, the Hon. Commissioner was presented with the foundation's official T.shirt that she gladly accepted. She laudably commend the work of the foundation. While the books, pencil and textbook was presented to the principal of the school, the Hon. commissioner was interviewed by the AIT correspondents. The commissioner once again, commended the effort of the Yattiyr foundation. However, one of the pillars of the foundation is advocacy for a better educational policy that makes our children future ready. As a result of this, the foundation went her way to make some research and came up with a few recommendations.
1. A review of the state's curriculum in a way that prepare the kids for the future workforce, by taking holistic measure on UNSDGs in the school contents.
2. Project Based Learning should be looked into for both students and teachers. This would spur the need for teachers to be innovative enough to drive creativity among the students. Every kid is born with different needs and one size fits all crap remains the deadly part of our curriculum implementation in a typical school system. For every topic on Environmental Hazards for example, students must be involved in projects like advocacy in whatever form - mass media engagement, prints and boards and co.(that is 100% student oriented) through extra and curricular activities all in a way to promote LIFE LONG LEARNING, LEARNING BEYOND THE CLASSROOM AND SOFT SKILLS FOR 21ST CENTURY.
3. No nation can rise beyond the quality of its teachers: There is need for professional development. And not literacy or mastery of contents to dish out to students alone. Training of Teachers on UN SDGs into every content of the curriculum, teaching with technology, 21st century skills and communities of practice (Subject Associations both local and international standpoints) are germane keys to professional development of teachers in any country.
4. There is need to build a community of STEM Education - to advance special tech skills of kids. Just like is implemented in Ogun State with support from United States Consulate to train over 200 educators and 4,000 students on Coding and Robotics (Check TedPrime Hub on Twitter). That is where the 4th Revolution is tilting to. Lagos had keyed into this projection with Code Lagos Project since 2016. Check Code Lagos on Twitter, also.
5. The need to train teachers in the most professional education with bodies like Microsoft. This trainings are free just a sign up into Microsoft.edu.com, though, with just few instructions.
6. Teachers should be trained on one of the vital skills of the 21st century, Emotional Intelligence.
