A series of blog posts looking at the key themes within education. Comparing the similarities and the challenges that education faces in Nigeria and the UK.
If I could have got on twitter whilst I was in my hotel in Nigeria at any point for the first few days then you would have seen lots of GRRRRR’s! Well the simple answer was that I couldn’t, apparently we had wireless in our rooms, but I attempted to get on it more times than I like to remember, I was given various suggestions on how to get on there by the hotel reception and they promised several times to send up there network manager who never ever appeared. The bottom line was that due to the frequent power cuts any attempts at trying to get web access was a complete waste of time and this was in what was a 4 star hotel in the capital city of Abuja. It then made me think what new technologies would I see in the school when we visited?
So when we arrived we were invited into the headteachers office where I noticed there was a photocopier, however it didn’t appear that it had been used for a long time although I could have been wrong. I then also saw a TV and video which I was informed was also used within the lessons. The problem though was the electricity as although there was mains electricity there were constant and regular power cuts which could mean the electricity could go off for anything from 5 minutes to perhaps sometimes up to an hour and this could happen many times a day. I later found out that this happens all over and basically because there isn’t the infrastructure to supply the electricity to everyone so basically they turn off different areas when they need to, to share it around, often randomly! (mmm yes very annoying and actually quite ridiculous! Particularly from a country that has vast resources at its disposal such as oil reserves.)
In fact this is probably the main thing that is really stopping Nigeria developing, how can they encourage any business in if they can’t guarantee an electricity supply, you could build a factory, employ workers but then production stops when the electricity goes off! What everyone including the school has to do is run off generators too however this is means additional cost and often they will not be on because they simply can’t afford it. We then started to walk round the school and I was really looking forward to see what ICT or technology they had access to. The first thing I saw was this sign:
I thought this was a good sign, I don’t mean the actual sign itself I mean that it was promising. As we walked round most of the school we didn’t come across anything, I was beginning to think we wouldn’t find anything until we came across a small computer suite with around 15 computers in, which happened to be switched off and not being used. During all the time we were there the computers seemed to be turned off, but I was told that the students did get to use them and that they did have internet access but due to the electricity problems it created them with some difficulties.
Whilst in Nigeria I had time to catch up with an old friend of mine Ike who I first met at the Worldwide Innovative Teachers Forum 2008 in Hong Kong and ever since have worked on collaborative projects with. Ike is an award winning ICT teacher and works at a Specialist ICT school in Abuja. I thought therefore he would have access to really good facilities particularly as his school is the only one that offers additional qualifications in ICT however as we discussed it he told me of the challenges that he faces to try and teach ICT often to 50 or so students in a class but with only 16 computers.
It then made me reflect on a previous post of mine called Pisco Sours, Ponchos and Panpipes but no broadband or wireless see here: http://www.danjjroberts.co.uk/2009/11/25/pisco-sours-ponchos-panpipes-but-no-broadband-or-wireless/
It really makes you think, the students I came into contact with seemed to be really excited by technology yet didn’t have great access to it, bizarrely they all seemed to have facebook profiles but rarely got access to them or when they did it was through friends of friends nothing consistent or regular. All I kept thinking was that it must have been a real challenge for the young people there to develop those ICT skills whilst in employment particularly if they really needed to use them which in some jobs they would. Have you had similar experiences in other countries? Do our students know how lucky they are?