hanyan jir’gin kasa (no idea how it’s really spelt)
on Fantastic Voyage (Nigeria), 27/Jul/2010 13:01, 34 days ago
Health warning: This is just all about schools and the education system here.  Skip past it if you want to know about the cool bits…There are currently 0.3 books per student in primary schools.  That’s in total, not in each subject.About 30% of students initially enrolled make it to the end of primary school (that’s not even the end of ‘compulsory, free, education’).(Interestingly, although– of course – fewer girls are initially enrolled, a higher proportion of boys drop out.)There’s currently an average of around 78 students per classroom and 40 students per teacher in schools (again, for the latter, that’s all teachers: about 10% of teachers will be delivering about 5 lessons a week.  Average class sizes are much higher than 40.)About 60% of children in Kaduna State go to primary school (that’s one of the highest proportions in Nigeria.  Just imagine the state of those numbers above if it gets to 100%…).Each school is accountable to between 5 and 7 inspecting bodies from the various different levels of government that are, in theory, responsible for how they operate.Very approximately 40% of primary students pass their basic literacy and numeracy exams at the end of primary school.  This is the highest rate for any state in Nigeria.The results are still being calculated, but from other states it seems likely that something in the region of 5% of teachers would pass the same tests.  That’s five per cent.  Of the people who are teaching students how to pass those tests.37.5% of teachers are qualified to be teachers.It’s hard to be certain, but around 20% of teachers arrive on time each day.  I have no handle on how many generally stay to the end of the working day, but it aint many.In total, Kaduna spends₦5,319 per primary student per year.  That’s about £23.  Eat your heart out, Mr Osborne.98% of lesson time has the teacher talking and students silent.  (I remember the lessons like that…I’d say (or sing) anything – anything at all – to keep 5EA quiet on a Friday afternoon.  And I often did.)Due to money‘somehow’ disappearing en route, the overwhelming majority of schools in Kaduna State have received no money for anything other than teacher salaries for at least 3 years.  This is in a landscape which alternates between shimmering heat, heaving rain, and swirling dust clouds.So, this is why local communities are being encouraged to band together to‘support’ their schools: the government’s pretty much failed to do so and the task is now so monumental it’s hard to imagine any programme, policy, or initiative that could actually do what everyone here apparently wants to do (which is, in educational terms, to Be Britain).  Maybe Cameron went through the sane thinking process with his pre-election policy committees.