strategic thinking is hard

This week I was for one week in Ilorin to start a strategic planning process with the Ministry of Education and the stakeholders of the Nigerian Graduate Volunteering Programme.

The first day was all about the Memorandum of Understanding that VSO has to sign with the Ministry, so for this day I only invited Ministry staff. I had hoped all directors would be there and the Permanent Secretary would take part in some sessions, but it was a bit too much to ask. The Honorable Commissioner did do the opening and that meant a lot to the staff. They felt supported by this gesture, which made them more open en free in their plans.

I tried to make it as participatory as I could without leading them to much in certain ways. During the first activity, a small discussion about the partnership principles, I understood that you will have to structure the discussions otherwise they will go nowhere or anywhere. I also noticed that the discussion culture here was different then in the Northern states, where hierarchical systems are more important; a normal staff there will never openly disagree with a senior. Here it was totally open and they were even looking a bit funny when I told them that I wished for a discussion without hierarchical limitations. It was a nice feeling. I know I steered the discussion a little bit too much into the ‘ownership’ question, as this is most often the hinder for an equal partnership. The participants, as I expected, saw ownership as a financial commitment and said that for that I only could go to the Honorable’s office. So I had to encourage them thinking about ownership in different ways. Was hard but we got some good imput.

The second activity was the SWOT-analysis on the functional and organizational activities in the Ministry as well as to reflect on relations with other stakeholders. This was interesting; we worked in groups of 5 to get the first information on strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. So much came out of this; almost every group had their own unique input when we were collecting the information on central charts. Then the difficult questions started, questions that Nigerians in general don’t ask. You could notice they had problems linking the four categories from the first part of the exercise to answer the analytical questions. It was hard to organize this discussion and to keep the participants focused on each question at the time. During the writing of the report that evening I discovered that I had answers to questions I thought I forgot to ask. I was lucky, by the way, that a Corper was writing the note during the whole meeting. Although she did a bit chaotic and I was really happy with my good memory, whitout her help I wouldn’t be able to get these answers al sorted out.

After the lunch only half of the group turned up for the final part, this happens more often in Nigeria; lunch is seen as a last activity. After lunch also light stayed away what made it really hard for the participants to respond adequate on the questions and to get them involved in writing objectives for the Memorandum of Understanding. So I speeded through this and left it for the MoU-committee to finish.

Day 2 was with all stakeholders in NGVP; this was a bigger meeting with 30 participants at the prime time. The introduction on VSO and NGVP took only little time after which the first activity, stakeholder analysis, started with a thought shower. Who are the stakeholders in the NGVP? We came down with a list of 18 stakeholders of which MoE and NYSC were seen as major ones, but also the schools, media, communities and philanthropist were seen as important stakeholders. It was funny that only one person mentioned VSO;-).

The rest of the day was about the future planning; what do we need to do to make it work? I short we can say ….. this will depend on the committee that will be working on de framework and plans …. And ofcourse finance! Money is so important. There needs to be a big stakeholder who is willing to lobby for this programme to get the money from other stakeholders or investors.  This because the Ministry is most likely not willing to pay for the whole amount of the allowance and getting the allowance from different places will ask to much organization. I at least have a lot of input from this meeting and a committee who will work on writing a plan for NGVP Kwara.

Links tour

This week we have had guests from Ethiopia, VSO Ethiopia and partners were interested in the National Volunteering schemes of VSO Nigeria. We have had 5 weeks to prepare for this tour, VSO Nigeria didn't have time to organize all this as this month is incredibly busy so they hired a temporary tour guide, Betty, to organize all. In the beginning all went well there was nothing much going on. Joel, and other international volunteer, and I were helping Betty with the visits to the field as we both work with national volunteers. Joel is based in PanYam in Plateau State and works for Secure Lively hoods, farmers in his region use community volunteers to help during the farming season.

All well till Kenna, our country director, came back from her study tour to South Africa, there she got to understand that no VSO Ethiopian staff was coming but more federal ministry staff. She got nervous with this knowledge and we had to change our plans for te tour as we had to arrange a meeting with some persons at at least the same level as the guests. So we ended up having to arrange a meeting with the Governor of Nassarawa State, as I and Andy do have our contacts within that administration. Although our contacts told us that the Governor was travelling we still had to try to arrange this meeting.  A lot of stress that is what is gave us, especially Kenna.

During the week it still was unclear if we would or wouldn’t meet with him on the Wednesday. As we left for Lafia on Tuesday to guide the guests along two participating schools in Nassarawa we showed what the NGVP was all about. The National Volunteers in the schools were terrific in answering all the difficult questions the Ethiopians asked. They were especially interested in the NYSC in relation to NGVP and the training they get. During this day Betty got the question to organise a meeting with the Director of NYSC. She dared to say it was no problem we could just go there. I looked back at her and told her there where major security issues at that office and you cannot go in just like that with an international group. Thereby we have had big problems getting a meeting before so she couldn’t promise something like this. But in the end on Friday we had the meeting and it turned out to be an important one for me as I finally met the person who is the brain behind my scheme. I hope I will be able to speak with her more often as she can give me good background info and she can get me deeper into the NYSC organisation to settle this programme better.

Kagbu B good practice!

 As you might know I did organize a workshop last month, in February. One of the results of this was that 2 of my Nigerian Graduate Volunteers thought they had to share what they learned. Share it maybe with their colleagues in the school. So they started talking about their plans with the principal of the school and they wanted to share their plan with the chief of the local government inspectorate, CEI. The principal at first was okay with the idea as long it wasn’t too big. They shouldn’t invite me or other volunteers to help them. Also their move towards the local government was that well appreciated. But the principal took them because he knew they should inform them about the program. When they came back from that meeting they came back with a bigger plan than ever. The CEI really liked the plans and wanted to join in on the first one after that he would see if it is possible to organize it in other schools in Nassarawa Eggon local government area. His colleagues in the office didn’t agree though they said these plans were an insult for the serving teachers in the schools. They had their education and were properly trained teachers. The CEI was furious when he heard this argument, he said them of all should know being a teacher is an ongoing learning process and if the teachers are not willing to learn they should not be the ambassadors of learning. Hear, hear!! Thank you CEI. So now after this meeting my volunteers came home and they had to think about organizing a workshop that can be copied into other workshops in other schools. So the Saturday that I spend in Lafia was a good moment for us to meet and talk about the plans and the sessions in the workshops. How could they best go about it? What were the best sessions to copy from the workshop they have had in February? What did they need for those sessions? Who would they ask as professionals to do a session? Habu and I gave them some pointers and I promised that I would be there during the first workshop in the series as it is always nerve wrecking to do something like this for the first time (and of course I wanted to experience what they picked up from my own workshop in February and I didn’t want them to fail in the heat of the fire with the CEI and DCEI in the room as VSOs name was also on the line) So we decided that Saturday that I would come to Kagbu B on the Wednesday before the workshop which would take place on the Thursday. I promised to bring materials like flipchart paper, markers, jotters and biros so we could prepare materials that they can use over and over again during the series of workshops in the different schools.

It was nice to stay in a small community like Kagbu B. Kagbu B is a small town, not connected to water or electricity as we can say not really connected to civilization. This is not because there are no well-educated citizens, but more that the people that permanent living in the village don’t want too much involvement and money from the outside. They have a pride that they can fix things themselves. Even all teachers in the school are coming from their own community, which is quite special. I stayed in Fatima’s room while she moved for one night into another room in the block that was realized by the principal for volunteers and corpers assigned to this school. Nice rooms, but without toilets, at least you have to walk 100m to go to a squatting toilet that is not just in the bush.

The Wednesday was about different kind of prep, we had to think about a programme, Clements already found some nice quotes to put up on the walls which had to be written on cardboard. Students helped us with that, as I was trying to involve the students a bit more than just writing by asking them annoying questions (my students will recognize this immediately, I always ask why they do the things they do them, want to let them think about their actions) about what the most important words were in the sentences.  In the meanwhile Fatima was cooking and preparing lunch for the next day. That afternoon Clements had to do an extra lesson for SSS3 to prepare them for upcoming exams so I observed to see if his ways changed, and they did! Clements was a different person in front of the classroom compared to the first time I saw him. He even told me that he now likes teaching as he first loaded it during his corper year. YEAH! Did have impact on him! That evening we started preparing flipcharts. I had the feeling I really needed to guide them in this. They were somehow insecure about what to write or draw.

The Thursday morning Fatima had to go to Lafia to get the drinks and snacks for the lunch and Clements and I were to decorate the hall. The other Nassarawa volunteers came in an hour before the programme would start and they had to play their own role during the first and second session. It was funny to see how relaxed they were about this. They didn’t really prepare themselves as well as I would like to see them do, but I let them. I wanted to see what would happen so I could reflect on this. So around 10.30 we started as the CEI and DCEI arrived and the teachers all had eaten their breakfast. The first session was the ‘learning tree’: going back to the roots of learning in the early childhood. Fatima and Stephen were leading this session. After that there was a good practice and bad practice example by resp. Eduard and Stephen. Eduard was interrupted by the leaving of the CEI and didn’t really prepare his session well why I was not too happy about this good practice lesson. Good practice should be good practice in whole not only because you introduce a game during a lesson. Preparation is so important for a good lesson!

I liked the sessions to the basics of learning and learning styles after which the DCEI presented a paper about the importance of the teaching job. We closed the day with the introduction of four different games teachers can easily use during their practice.

All and all it went well, I am proud of what I saw and experienced. It was good to see all my Nigerian Graduate Volunteers from one state work together like that. I know this is the beginning of more in this group of youngsters. Thank you you just made my work proven sustainable!

out of the box

The last two weeks were hard work. When I came back from my meetings in Ilorin I had to finalise the preparations for my 3 day workshop. I had to organize the 3 day workshop for my National Volunteers and desk officers from the four states I work in. I is always nice to have this annual meeting with my volunteers. They are young and enthousiastic about their teaching; Eager to learn and bright. So preparing this workshop was a lot of work but with the idea in the back of my mind that it would be appreciated enough no matter what. In the preparation I have had help from Vonny and Lucy, the two other vso teacher trainers in Nigeria at the moment. Lucy gave me some ideas about the content, which she already had used before and Vonny came up with loads of games I could use to activate the participants. With all this in my mind I started preparing 4 weeks ago, first planning and budgeting, then working on content. It is a lot of work, especially when there are not too many people you can share your ideas with, as Lucy and Vonny had their own temporary assignments. 

In the end everything worked out, I named my workshop ‘out of the box’ as the aim of the three days was to get the participants to look at teaching as a creative process. So I tried to get them busy with things that were new or unusual for them. The first day started with an artist, Stanley, he had an session on creative writing and using paint to make teaching materials. He did get the youngsters enthousiastic about their work. It was really nice to see everybody concentrating on their circles and letters and drawing. This activity was unusual as even in schools children are not stimulated to be creative, most schools do offer art classes but are more about theory. There are hardly any activities during those lessons which foster creativeness. The artist came back the second day to allow the participants to finish their work. The results were surprising, there was quite a different in performance, but everybody was proud and that was nice to see.

 







In between the sessions delivered by Stanley, Vonny and I organized 5 sessions about teaching and the use of teaching aids and games during the lessons. The first session was about early childhood learning. Questions like what did you learn before you went to school? How did you learn it? From whom? And Why? It was a nice exercise to go back to the childhood, to the basics of learning. With that we started letting them do simple games like ‘Finding your Friend’. In the end of the first day all participants did have a well prepared game and group work ready for their own lessons. As home work they had to prepare a full lesson plan with a group work activity and proper lesson objectives.

The second day we started with a recap activity ‘inner outer circle’ to recollect some information from the sessions of yesterday. Inner outer circle is about asking questions and giving answers. It was a nice energizer for the morning. After that we had a session about child centered lesson objectives, how to write SMART objectives before every lesson and the importance of lesson prep if you want to do group work and other activities. The younsters had to check if their own lesson objectives were SMART enough. After that I invited one national volunteer to deliver his lesson for the group, to see if he had understood the homework and if the others could see the good and bad things in his preparation. It turned out to be a good lesson of which we can be proud of, especially if this is the result after one day of the workshop. After lunch Vonny had a session about self-esteem. The major question in this session was ‘how can a teacher influence the self-esteem of a pupil?’ For the answer to this question she let all participants think back to their own personal stories. When were you in a situation that the teacher misused the power he/she had over you? To our surprise some people came forward to tell their personal story, of which Fatima’s is still tuch in my head as her story sounded much like my own encounter with mr Van de Veen when I left primary education.

The third day I did not have to do much, I had invited two facilitators from Bauchi, they work for Father Leo’s NGO, Sharing Education and Learning for Life. This whole day was about personal leadership in the classroom. A nice day of reflection and self-development. 

All and all I think the workshop went well till that point that we had done the evaluation and were giving out the money for travel allowance. Because as always the allowance was to small and there was a need to discuss this en plain public with my guests in the room. Like I didn’t know the allowances are too small, like I don’t know that Nigerians always seem to think you have to get paid to come to a workshop instead of paying to be allowed to enter (like in our own culture). A workshop like I had organized for those three days, they should at least pay 350 euro a person as we provided them with accommodation, food and drinks (water and tea) for four nights in a hotel.

But now after a few days my disappointment is gone and I look back on a good workshop. I want to thank Vonny and Lucy for helping me prepare and Stanley, Jonathan and Moses for their sessions and all participants for their active participation.  

Back again

Finally an update about my work again. This time it didn’t take me long to write because I didn’t have any work but because I had too much work. I have never been as busy as I am right now during my whole stay in Nigeria. Now I am the national coordinator of the NGVP I first of all have to travel quite often and second of all I meet interesting people. ‘High up people’ as we would say in The Netherlands.

For example in December I had the honor to meet the new Commissioner of Nassarawa State while I was hospitalized. And I have regular phone calls with the executive director of the Science and Technical School Board. I have to see if I can arrange meetings with them and invite them for workshops I have to organize. Wow ….. who would have ever thought that I would be capable of managing stuff like this.

Just last week I went for an advocacy visit back to Ilorin, I had arranged 3 meetings to promote and re-sell the NGVP to the Ministry of Education and Human Capital Development, the Ministry of Sports and Youth development and CSACEFA (an umbrella organization for all NGO’s and CSO’s working for education). All meetings went well after some rescheduling.

Short list of outcome:

·         Federal Minister of Youth Development is the former Commissioner of Education in Kwara so I should try to get the Federal Ministry involved in the programme so they can strengthen the connection with NYSC HQ and on State level.

·         I have to send an official letter to CSACEFA with a summary of what we discussed about what they can do for NGVP and what we offer in the NGVP programme.

·         CSACEFA will do strong advocacy for the NGVP in the Ministry of Education and use their connections to work together to get a fair selection and recruitment system.

·         CSACEFA appointed Public Relation Officer Adejo as the contact person for NGVP in Kwara and they offer to support Matthew to do the monitoring (and might offer him a job to be support officer in Kwara)

·         CSACEFA will also help pushing the Ministry of Youth and Ministry of Education to arrange employment for NGVP volunteers.

·         Olusoji Sogunno (CSACEFA Kwara coordinator) said he might pop by in the workshop in Abuja if he is around to see some volunteers and talk to them.

During this visit I also met someone, I think from Osun State, who really was interested in the NGVP. He said it would be the perfect opportunity for the State to fight the unemployment and poor education. I agreed with him but also had to say that our country strategy doesn’t allow us to work with partners in Osun. A pity isn’t it. A State that might be very interested and supportive of what we do cannot get our help. But then again we cannot work in all States.

Then today I met the executive director of an big NGO in Abuja who already started a community teachers project in the FCT. Very interesting. I hope to get a better meeting soon to see if we can support eachother. I really believe in this project and I hope I will be able to leave a legacy behind when I leave this country in June. A good project with proper out lines and good frameworks for which (inter)national volunteers will be working with pride.

Proud

After all those stories of ritual killings in Ilorin I was not so keen on going there,  but now I am back I am so glad I visited that place.

It is a nice quiet, big city. It is even clean if you compare it to Lafia. People are friendly and seem to be hard working. It was so different from what I know from my side of Nigeria.

I did go to Ilorin to get a clear view on the National Graduate Volunteering Program, the program I am working for as a teacher trainer and now also as a national coordinator. Through this program we want to encourage young Nigerians to help developing their country through education and community work. Right now we work with 7 NGV’s in Nassarawa, 9 in Kwara, 11 in Kano and 2 in the Demonstration School for Deaf Children in Kaduna. In each state there was supposed to be an international volunteer working as a teacher trainer, but only Lea and I were there. Now Lea has left Nigeria I am the only one working in all states. It is a busy future for me but that’s better than doing not much.

My visit to Kwara was to see if and how I can get new life into the program there. The former government neglected it and NYSC and VSO didn’t pull any strings to get it moving. So now I am the one trying and to be honest I am hopeful. The commissioner of the Ministry of Education made some promises that were really promising. Also CSACEFA was positive about their support for this program. It were nice first meetings with these parties.

On the last day I had organized, with great help from Matthew and Micheal, a meeting with the NGV’s in Kwara. They all came down for this meeting and they were so full of energy!

During the meeting we did a SWOT-analyses. Interesting statements came out of that. Very useful for further exploration. Some things like: using old national volunteers to monitor the new volunteers or during the send forth event in the end there should be a major item about CV writing and job hunting. Maybe even invite possible employers so the volunteers can present themselves.

Also a more urgent and more important item came up; there should be a solid framework around the NGVP in every state, a good job description for volunteers and a good memorandum of understanding for all partners in each state. All roles and responsibilities should be clear and monitored. It would be nice if the monitoring and evaluation would be imbedded in this all.

Very helpful and promising as I may say. Thank you guys!