Oro College - CoE
on Sabo -Oke (Nigeria), 05/Apr/2011 10:10, 34 days ago
Thought I would record more about my job with ESSPIN at Oro Teacher Training College. Oro is just over an hour's travel by bus from Ilorin. I am supposed to be here three days a week with the specific task of redeveloping the Education Resource Centre (ERC).Bearing in mind that this is a teacher training college, there seems very little concept of the need to use visual aids of any sort. A complex of about ten rooms has become available, formerly a library, but now destined to become the ERC for the College and surrounding schools. This is all part of the Honourable Commissioner's plan for Oro to become a Centre of Excellence for the State and an example for other States in Nigeria to emulate. The ERC will be a facility where lecturers and students can get instruction and advice on how to make their own visual aids for incorporation into their lecture plans and teaching practice. There is a slight problem with this from my point of view, as most of the lecture plans that I have seen  give so little information as to how the lecture will be taught and indeed, what the objectives are, that I cannot see where a visual aid could be used - unless I rewrite the lecture plan according to what I think it will be about - which I cannot do for political reasons.So, in order to make a start I have presented a cunning plan for the complete refurbishment of the ERC complex together with a wishlist of equipment and materials. I have been met with wide-eyed astonishment by those at the College to whom I have shared my draft proposals, with some wry looks suggesting " He'll be lucky!" Anyhow, The Director of Works seems to have accepted my plan wholesale and tells me the money for it will be released next week! This will surely go down as a momentous day in the annals of the College if it actually happens. I have told them it has to be up and running by September - I'm sure they think I am bonkers but they think I am leaving then and I didn't want to disabuse them, so we may get some results! The Provost and senior management team did look slightly perturbed at my deadline but didn't indicate that it would be a particular problem. We shall have to wait and see.Getting the centre set up is one thing; getting people to use it is quite another, so my next task is to set up a training programme for those who will be running the centre and another for the staff who will be using it.Herein lies another challenge: Most of the staff regard the College as a facility for giving them employment, not for training teachers. They are frequently less than enthusiastic over their job and, from what I have seen, have very shaky subject knowledge and even shakier ideas on teaching methodologies. They are training teachers in the way they themselves were trained - ie, badly. And many of those being trained don't actually want to be teachers! Also, the lecturers have just called off a seven week strike action over pay - they would like some, and on time. Things have not been amicable between staff and management and I am not sure what mood they will be in when they eventually return to work. So - Centre of Excellence! - No pressure!!Actually, I am looking forward to the challenge. It's nothing like anything I have ever done before and if I handle things the right way, it could be quite an exciting project.