Distance education option is best for Nigeria, says Education Minister

By Mary Akparanta

Guardian July 18, 2005

From the person who should know, came an advice on Monday that distance education remains the most viable option in the country's effort to create access to tertiary education. Education Minister, Mrs Chinwe Nora Obaji, who gave the advice while on a familiarisation visit to the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), also affirmed the enormous challenges associated with the provision of access were too overwhelming for the traditional learning system to cope with.

Her visit to the Open University headquarters in Lagos was her first to any federal tertiary institution since she assumed the position education minister. She explained that one of her reasons for embarking on the visit was to lend credence to the strong determination of the federal government to provide cost effective, flexible and life-long education to a very large majority of Nigerians, who otherwise would not have had a chance to undertake tertiary education.

The visit was also intended to physically appraise and assess the status of the progress made by the university. She expressed the conviction that Nigeria, like other countries of the world, has no alternative but to embark on the provision of higher education en masse, to cater for the millions of people who require it through the distance learning mode. Besides, she noted that because of the new ways of doing things, technological development and the profit motive, work place skills requirements were changing.

She said: "We are therefore confronted by a constant need to redefine our capacity building efforts and to refocus on skills development by building new human capacity through the avenue of open and distance learning."

Obaji, who urged the vice chancellor and the management of the university to forge ahead in spite of some inadequacies declared: "the National Open University of Nigeria has fully taken off."

On the issue of funds which has been one major problem facing NOUN, and which has put the university in a deficit, she gave the assurance that the ministry would not relent in its effort to ensure that all the necessary support is employed to keep the university on course. Her words, "Mr. President and the current administration are committed to the university. And no stone would be left unturned in getting it up and running."

Sounding a note of warning to all universities and other institutions of higher leaning which still indulge in satellite campus operations, the minister said the National Universities Commission (NUC), the National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE) and the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) have been directed to deal seriously with heads of institutions still involved in outreach/satellite campus networks.

"Operating these campuses is now illegal, and such Heads should be reported to the Honourable Minister of Education for appropriate sanction," she warned.

The Open University has so far registered and matriculated 9,967 students, who have successfully completed their first semester and had taken the relevant examinations. Several instructional packages in over 40 degree and diploma programmes are also being developed. With about 26 study centres nation-wide, the university has conducted staff induction and system-based workshops for the West African region. It has also firmly established, with the assistance of the Commonwealth of Learning (COL), a Regional Training and Development Institute for Distance Learning (RETRIDAL).

While ensuring a strong quality assurance mechanism in all its operation, NOUN has recruited and trained the right calibre of staff, and has taken advantage of highly experienced retired professors and professionals as study centre managers and tutorial facilitators.

The Vice Chancellor, Prof. Olugbemiro Jegede conducted the minister and her entourage round the institution.

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Education should be enjoyable, fulfilling, says Ajayi
By Rotimi Lawrence Oyekanmi

Guardian June 27, 2005

She was the first female indigene of the old Ondo State to get a full scholarship to study Education in the United Kingdom. At that time, when her mates were opting for something else, she made up her mind that she wanted to be a teacher, a very good one, with a tall dream. And since 1950 when she entered the teaching profession, she has never looked back. With dexterity and uncommon courage, she plotted her way through. She met with numerous obstacles, very daunting indeed, all in her effort to engage in what she believed in. Looking back now, and due to be 75 next month, Mrs Victoria Arinola Ajayi told The Guardian, "I have been fulfilled. Completely fulfilled."

Mrs Ajayi is the founder of Yewande Memorial School, located at Surulere in Lagos. Founded in 1965, the school currently has 26 teaching members of staff and about 300 pupils. Many people who now hold positions of authority both in Nigeria and foreign countries had passed through it. For a school that is 40 years old, one would have expected that the founder would establish a secondary school, to absorb those coming out of the primary section. But Mrs Ajayi would not. She told The Guardian in an interview that since the motive for establishing the school was not just for the money in the first place, the effort it takes to run it is big enough for her to handle.

She explained it this way, "some people will say, why don't you expand. Go and build a secondary school. I said look, my own goal is to have my little corner, shine there and make everything solid for the children. The school is now a limited liability company with a board of directors. If in the future, they feel the need, after I had gone to expand, fine. But as far as I am concerned, no. Do you know what it costs me to find staff for that place? Look at those people that have schools. If you look at them, they are ageing fast. It's not easy. If you see the application file, university degree people, writing a whole paragraph, no verb? What do you want them to teach the children? To find seasoned teachers is an uphill task, which I am not ready to face. To buy a school van is what I said from the beginning that I am not going to face. Because the day the driver backs out, the children will not come to school, the parents will start making trouble, then you will be running helter-skelter, you won't sleep, you won't eat well, you understand what I mean? I cannot do it all. Something must be left for somebody else to do. I maybe a bit myopic, but I know what I want. I am quite contented. Money was not my primary motive. If you see the margin of profit in that place you will be shocked."

Her motive for establishing the school was informed her desire to give good education to the children and some undercurrents that that dogged her early stint with the civil service.

"I returned from the UK, where I went with a scholarship to study Education in January 1959," she began. "I came back and I started working at Anglican Girls Grammar School. I was there for sometime. Some situations arose that were not conducive to my aims, so I made up my mind to leave. That was a church institution. So I said, let me move to a government institution, I was employed by the government then, the education department. In fact, they did not have the position that they could fit me into. They asked me, would you like to go to the primary section in the Government Demonstration School? I am a teacher anywhere, anytime. I will go, I told them.

"So I was at the demonstration school. I was teaching primary one. And up to primary three, most of the children were non-readers (of English). By the time I spent six months there, all of them had been able to read. Everybody was shocked. It nearly caused a riot among the parents. They wanted their children to be moved to my class. That went on for sometime. And then they sent from the Education Authority that they should put me in the Teacher Training College. So I was in that place. I was lecturing in English, at the Lagos State College of Education, Ijanikin. Another situation arose. There was an advert for promotion and we all applied. And they didn't know what to do with me. Politics had already entered into such things. So they gave me one of the posts. And they said point of entry would depend on one's qualification. When it came to the point of entry, they said I should start from the bottom scale. So I thought it was a big joke, that there was a mistake somewhere. The Director of Education then was an English man. And Nigeria had not yet gained independence. That was in 1959. And he started to fight the issue with the establishment, that there had been a mistake, that Mrs Ajayi should enter as such and such level. But they (the authorities) were adamant. My principal too k it up with them too, and when I saw that there was no show, I thought of opting out. I had tried a voluntary agency. I had tried the government, there is a big war there. But I didn't want a situation where I will be working and would feel cheated. It would affect my performance.

"Not only that, it would affect me in the near future. Not that I was too money conscious. But I just don't believe that I should be cheated. I knew that it was a way to spite me. So one day, I wrote my letter of resignation, went to see the Principal, and I told him, excuse me sir, this is my letter of resignation. I'm leaving this place. He said what? Why? I said, you are asking me that? You know the situation in this place, and it is not conducive. And he picked up the telephone, phoned the establishment and said, Mrs Ajayi is threatening to resign. That was the word he used. I said please sir, I object to that statement. I am not threatening to resign. I am resigning. There is no looking back. He asked, what next? I said I don't know. I know that there is something for me. At that time I was toying with the idea of starting a small nursery school. I was only 29 years old then.

"Anyway, I tendered my resignation, and I went looking for a place. And I found one. I hadn't enough money. A colleague, who was in charge of Physical Education at the College, was going on a fellowship to Indiana (United States), and he wanted to let out his house to someone who had integrity, somebody who would pay regularly and not give him stress. I said okay, I only have money for half of the month. So, I started the school (Yewande Memorial) with four pupils. Four young pupils, age range; two and a half to four and a half. I was the teacher. I was the nurse. I was the cleaner. I was the one that would carry them in the morning from the car and then take them back. And in no time, these children were picking things up. The parents were surprised. I was having my own family too, I was having children. As a matter of fact, when I started that school, I had a four-month old baby. When I knew that the money would not be enough to do what I wanted to do, I started an evening class. At the evening class, I was coaching people for the entrance examinations into grammar schools. At that time, each school conducted its own examination, schools like Igbobi College, Methodist Boys High School, Baptist Academy, St Gregory and they (students) were coming. And in not time, I had that lesson from 4 to 6pm, when I close at 12.30, I would go home to make lunch for my baby and to get ready for the afternoon. And then, at six o clock, I started another class for people who wanted to do GCE. They called it Cambridge or one funny name then. And then people who wanted to enter into the Teacher Training Colleges came too. I eventually had to employ. That was what pushed me into it.

"And I made up my mind from the outset to employ Nigerian teachers. It was only Corona, St Saviour's, St Mary's and I think St Agnes at Yaba that were having private schools at that time. And expatriates manned them all. So, to crash into that, people that wanted to start school were engaging the expatriates' wives. But some of them (expatriates' wives) were not even educated. And I insisted that I was not going to do that. It was an uphill task. They were bringing their children who could not even speak a word of English, at best, broken English. And as soon as the children were able to speak English, they disappeared into Corona. I was losing these children year by year. Those schools were very expensive then.

"So I made up my mind that whatever I do, this school will be accessible to the rich, the middle class and the lower cadre. I will cut across the society to make education available to all of them. Which, of course, I was able to do and I have maintained it up till now. I want you to go other schools around Surulere (in Lagos) and compare our fees. I think the cheapest you can get is 30 something thousand (naira per term). And I thank God that up till today, and God helped me along the line, I was able to construct that school, by the grace of God, during the (civil) war. It was by direct labour. The only thing I did not do was that I did not go to collect sand from the seashore, or to collect gravel from Abeokuta. Every other thing... I had this Italian car then. I even bought all the planks I used for the school. And I went to where they sell red bricks at Oregun (around Ikeja, Lagos) at that time. And that is why I am able to charge what I am charging now. If I am paying rent for that place, it could run to over million per annum. And if I am paying one million, I won't be able to run the school. And God has been so merciful to me in the choice of my staff. My training and my being a teacher trainer all my life had enabled to know a good stuff. And I am glad that Mrs Omobola Oloko (the head-teacher) had under-studied me, and she has been following the structure.

Mrs Ajayi's background is a modest one. When she was asked to narrate it and how she charted her way up, she responded, "I was born into the family of a pastor. An Anglican pastor. My father was an Anglican pastor. We were six; four girls, two boys. At that time, we were in an area not very far from Owo (Ondo State) After some time, my farther sent me to Kudeti Girls school, Ibadan, That was where I had my foundation. From that school, I went to the United Missionary College, Ibadan. I was at Kudeti from 1944 to 1946. And in January 1947, I passed the examination, and got admitted into the UMC, which was the only female teacher training institution at that time. It is more or less equivalent to a university these days. The Church Missionary Society and the Methodist Mission founded it. And I passed out in January 1, 1950 with Teacher's Grade Two Certificate.

"After that, I went to Owo, at a Missionary Girls' School. After two and a half years, they moved me to the Teacher Training College also at Owo. That school is now called St John and St Mary's. Later, there was an opportunity for scholarship and I applied to study Education. We went to Ibadan for the interview. And I remember that Mrs Kofo Ademola was the secretary at that particular interview. I was the very first female to be given government scholarship in the whole of Ondo State to study abroad.

" I went to study Education in Liverpool (United Kingdom). It is a College of Education attached to the University of Liverpool, what you will call an off campus. I studied Education there with full scholarship. I got married there. When I finished my programme, my husband was studying Law, and he hadn't finished, so I had to wait for him. Meanwhile, the London County Council offered me a job. I was a teacher there. The annex of the school was inside a Synagogue. And I really enjoyed it. Many of the children hadn't seen any Black person speaking English or even wearing clothes before. But I had to leave when my time was up, because I was on scholarship and I could be penalised if I didn't return. I came home in January 1959. My husband was still there. I was 29 years old then. However, my teaching career started in 1950, 55 years ago."

How did she construct the curriculum of Yewande Memeorial School? She explained. "With my experience as a teacher, and a teacher trainer, before I went to England for Education, with my experience when I was teaching at the London County Council, I was adequately armed. And when I came back I had a stint at the Anglican Girls Grammar School. So I was able to sit back and pick the best from those experiences. And then when the government was just blowing hot and cold, they gave me so much headaches, it took them able four to five years to recognise my school. So, I picked all those things together and I merged them. Then eventually, the government insisted that we must use their curriculum. I said okay. I prepared the curriculum of the government, and my own too. What I do is that, the government's own, by the end of the first term, we had already covered the whole year. So I am obedient. And then, in-between, I was putting my own. That's how it has worked. God blessed me. I have knowledge of the past, when education was still education. I had knowledge of the opportunity I had, and then my knowledge of the British system of education. I was able to merge all these.

But it has not been all rosy for Mrs Ajayi. In fact, she had to fight so many battles with the government over several years for her school to remain on its feet She narrated some of those battles. "In 1980 the government took over all the schools. A year before that, in 1979, I discovered that none of my children wanted to study education. Not even one. And I want this school to be a continuous thing. I don't want it to die with me. So, I spoke to a friend who said, make it a limited liability company. In 1979, I made it a limited liability company. Less than a year after that, ( Alhaji Lateef) Jakande (second Republic governor of Lagos State) struck. He could not touch my building because it was limited liability. He took all buildings. He built one ramshackle school at Randle, and wrote, "for Yewande Memorial School Pupils." And the parents were very happy. He said that he will not only take over the schools, even the people that founded the schools will be forced to run them. Many people had a stroke because of that. So Jakande was not able to take the building. Unfortunately there were some of the parents who were supporting him to force me. But since their children were no more in my school, there was no way the government could force me to go and teach them when I did not submit an application. So I locked up the school for six months with heavy chains, and I was running the nursery section alone, because that did not come under the axe of the government. I had a lot of problems with the government you know. Somebody took them to court on my behalf. I have never forgotten that, and I became the chairman of the Proprietors and Proprietresses of Lagos State. And I led a delegation to (the late) Chief Obafemi Awolowo then. After I had finished speaking, Awolowo took a look at me and asked, which Ajayi is yours? I said, excuse me sir, that is not relevant to my mission. It doesn't matter where I come from. I am a Nigerian. And some of our members were already going behind my back to beg. When I saw that, I just took the battle up alone. And I even had to use a friend to get my daughter into the Baptist School here. Nobody would have anything to do with Ajayi. It was that bad. It became personal."

On what motivates her, Ajayi declared, "my focus is that every child is entitled to education in a decent environment, with decent teachers, and up-to-date things that can stand them in good stead and to make education affordable. When I started, there were drivers whose children were in my school. My cleaners, I gave them that concession. It cuts across. And then I wanted to prove, because at that time, they were making me to feel that if I do not have an expatriate on my staff, that I can never make it. I wanted to prove them wrong at that particular time. After the success of Yewande Memorial School, other schools were springing up. And I also wanted to prove that this education should not be a sort of stress. It must be something that is enjoyable, that children will enjoy. And I thank God, because today, children that have passed through my school are holding important positions. And any place I go to, in the United States, the United Kingdom, I just run into my former pupils. They just hug me and say, you don't know me ma? And when they mention their names, I look at the face, and I would remember their mother and father. One of them came to the school and asked after me from the head teacher, who told them I was fine, that I had just left the school. And that person was surprised and said, "you mean she is still moving around? And Oloko told that person, "what do you think? If you see her in a fitted dress when she came here, you will not believe she's the one."

On what she thinks has gone wrong with the quality of education, Mrs Ajayi said, "I think it all boils down to having wrong priorities. Because, if you don't have the correct priority and follow it religiously, somewhere along the line, things will go wrong. I am not here to critise the government, but I think they are not vigilant enough. If they breathe down on schools the way they did on Yewande Memorial School, there will be sanity in the education sector.