EDUCATION

Given the social and economic context of this neighbourhood, it stands to reason that the educational system and facilities are at a deplorable and decrepit state. The educational/schooling system is associated with poor attendance, probably due to poor understanding of the value of education and the need for indigent children to supplement the family income through street trading.

Most of the schools, where they exist, have poor and dilapidated infrastructure/facilities and inadequate teaching resources/materials. Delivery of basic education is further hampered by the lack of trained and qualified staff that, for the most part, are underpaid and often paid in arrears. The decay in the educational system is further exacerbated by the fact that parents are often illiterates themselves, and indifferent to the quality of education their wards receive.

To make an impact in a dedicated and timely way, we have as our focus area, public primary schools within the Obalende area.

Our Goal

To sustainably transform two public primary schools in the Obalende area from the current state to schools meeting minimum standards established by UNICEF, by the end of the year 2007.

Group Objectives

WORK PLAN
Over the next two years, we have set the following targets:
1.         Boost the awareness of the value of primary education and enrolment
Support the development of a series of programmes, which support universal primary education, key importance to conflict prevention, personal and community economic and social development.
1.         Stimulate Parental/Community Involvement for Sustainability
Develop a programme for parents and the community to take ownership and provide a basis for sustainable rehabilitation and development.

2.   Rehabilitation of schools
Activities:

1. Develop high quality school rehabilitation guidelines with minimum standards for physical infrastructure, furniture, security, air and light, and plans for playgrounds, toilets and water supply systems
2. Obtain and maintain funding for schools that require rehabilitation
3. Provide the resources and supervision required to execute the rehabilitation guidelines.
4. Set up procedures for facilities care and maintenance to ensure sustainability of a good learning environment

3.   Improve student welfare
Activities:
3.1: Health

1. Ensure that health education is a part of the school’s curriculum, and the school is equipped for it.
2. Ensure adequate resources for the provision of emergency medical attention
3. Initiate procedure for continual training in first-aid and CPR for staff.

3.1: Nutrition

1. Develop and execute plans for the provision of a cafeteria or other healthy nutritional options for the children.
2. Liaise with the food and nutrition team for the provision of some free meals each week.

4.   Improve the quality of teaching and learning
One of the key elements in the Education Team’s strategy is improvement of the quality of education provided. This means that the focus is on learning, rather than merely schooling. An education curriculum must allow learners to acquire knowledge; develop skills and appropriate attitudes that are useful for life and that can be adapted as life’s circumstances change.  An important tool toward achieving this is the use of high quality materials for teaching and learning.
Activities
4.1: The provision of textbooks

1. Develop modalities for the provision of textbooks and supplementary materials to complement the textbooks.
2. Provide resources for Physical Education and Art & Craft.
3. Maintain donor funding to ensure availability of all learning resources.

4.2: Provide textbook induction of teachers and supply teacher guides

The supply of new textbooks with appropriate content and up-to-date methodology, while being a worthwhile achievement, cannot stand alone without attention to the teachers’ ability to handle the content and the new methodology. For this reason textbook induction will be provided to teachers through in-service training as well as supporting teacher guides and regular school supplies.
Supporting Activities:

1. Provide textbook induction for teachers to ensure they will use the books to good effect.
2. Provide teacher guides corresponding to each subject and grade.

4.3: Provide teacher mentoring services and in-service training to improve the quality of teaching
Regular in-school mentoring and support will need to be prioritized in order to ensure that the caliber of teaching is to reach a standardized, acceptable level.
Supporting Activities:

1. Provide in-service training for teachers currently teaching in the schools
2. Develop a mentoring system with trained mentors in support of the quality of teaching and learning in the schools.

5.   Ensure a sustainable supply of well qualified teachers

• Support the recruitment and deployment of well-qualified teachers to the school.
• Initiate provision of grants from donors in support of teacher remuneration.
• Promote the increase of the budget allocation for the school by local authorities
• Support the introduction of income generation schemes to promote school income and teacher incentives

BUDGET
Our budget for the first phase of the project is estimated at N15,000,000million (Fifteen million naira)
In the short term (6 months), we aim to complete work on the classrooms and other facilities used by the children. We also aim to procure all textbooks and notebooks needed, and begin training programs for the staff. The team has met with building contractors to evaluate the work needed and the associated costs. We have also consulted publishers to determine the cost of getting the necessary books. Costs received so far is as follows:

2          Text books for children at the 2 schools.

This is a break down of textbooks per child + 12 exercise books per child.

Staff Training

We have a good team of highly qualified people in the educational sector. We intend to do a lot of the work involved in the training pro bono. As such, we’re looking at the cost of producing materials and packets for training sessions. We have estimated a cost of approximately N20,000 per head for 2 months of weekend programs. There are 37 teachers in both schools; hence, we have a cost of 740,000.