The declining interest and attention span of young people in school learning in Nigeria has been rooted majorly on the obsolete approach to teaching and learning, which is fast losing its potency. The traditional mode of teaching in classrooms whereby learners follow stereotyped patterns oftentimes creates a boss-servant relationship between the teachers and the students.
This scenario tends to alienate the pupils and students from their learning environment, thereby affecting their attention adversely.
It is to reawaken this dying attention that a dynamic and innovative non-governmental organisation, Whisper to Humanity Foundation, came to the centre stage. Through the instrumentality of its project: “Empowering Educators and Learners for Transformative Education,” the organisation has reached an estimate of over 226 teachers and 18,000 students of secondary schools with both advocacy and capacity on ways of improving the impact of learning rooted in play.
The young and vivacious Executive Director of Whisper to Humanity, MaryJacob Okwuosa, during a two-day capacity building for Ebonyi State teachers and students in Abakaliki, the state capital, averred that maintaining a playful learning environment was key to boosting student’s attention and creative innovation.
Okwuosa stated: “We are transforming the idea of teaching. We have the very traditionally known mode of teaching in classrooms that we have had in Nigeria for years, and we believe it is not working again. Research has shown that the attention span of children has reduced by the edge. So we are looking at other avenues to ensure that our children are paying attention and being involved in the education space.
“One of the major parts of transformative education that we are looking at is transforming the mode of teaching, using playful approaches and interactive methods. Another is ensuring that the children feel included. We are in the era where children feel like adults are bossing them around, and they want to rebel so quickly. So, we are looking at an education system where children feel the sense of ownership as much as adults in the school space; a system where they are not just looking up to learn but they are excited because of the approach of learning and the access to things they have in the learning environment like play material.
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The capacities of the teachers and students selected from 10 schools across the three senatorial zones of the state were built on playful learning approaches, storytelling and narrative change; safe learning and school space management as well as conflict resolution and mediation; action plan development and advocacy implementation, among others. The issue of bullying in schools was mutually condemned as inhibiting learners’ concentration.
The trainees in series of group work developed a position paper for a curricular material review and possible bylaws for a transformative educational system in Ebonyi State, prescribing among other things the compulsory establishment of safe spaces and well equipped play centres in schools across the state.
The training was rewarding and the teachers, students and Ebonyi State Ministry of Education representative at the event, as well as other stakeholders made commitments to spread and sustain the innovation for a transformed education sector in the state. Chinyere Eziulo, a Director and Head of Educational Services in the state Ministry, who represented the Commissioner for Education, Prof. Paul Awo Nwobashi, described the training as the first of its kind, a much desired timely innovation for smooth teaching and learning. Eziulo promised the Ministry’s support and collaboration to the organisers to promote the innovations in Ebonyi State schools within the limit of available funds.
Two teachers who spoke to newsmen: Precious Mbeke from Nnodo Secondary school, Abakaliki and Pius Nwofe from the State Special Secondary School, Opefia in Izzi Local Government Area, applauded the initiative and urged the government to key into the transformation by providing both the enabling environment and materials for a playful learning both for the regular and special schools.
Mbeke emphasised: “We have learnt the best methods to teach our topics in whatever subject matter so that the students will better understand. Apart from creating a safe space, the use of play way method and games will definitely enhance student’s participation in class. Children love games, and when you employ that in teaching, their interest and learning span is elongated.”
For the students, Restoration Kenneth from Federal Government Girls Secondary School, Ezzamgbo in Ohaukwu Local Government Area and Chizzy Williams Enyi, a visually impaired student of Ebonyi Special Secondary School, Opefia, said the innovation is a sure way of nurturing an all inclusive learning space in the schools. They appreciated Whisper to Humanity Foundation for the value added to them which they said would help them in their relationship with others, even beyond the school’s learning environment.
Enyi, the visually impaired, was emphatic in appealing to the state government to provide the necessary special ICT equipment and softwares that would enable learners in his category to enjoy the same level of learning with normal others. He said: I have learnt in this training that transformative learning is the bedrock of educational growth in our country. I have also learnt that we need to reduce or totally eradicate the mindset of bullying, and embrace a more inclusive learning space.
“This innovative training has given me a mindset reformation that will help me align properly in learning spaces with others above the limitations of social challenges of visual impairment. As a special student, there are certain things I need to feel more involved in the learning process. For instance, in computer learning, while other sighted students do practicals, I hardly flow along because the software that will aid me do the computer is not available, and I often feel sidelined.”
Indeed, there is no doubt that with these ideas enunciated by Whisper to Humanity and the unbridled passion found in the Executive Director, Okwuosa, this campaign holds the torch for our educational transformation. Okwuosa in an interview further added: “I wanted to create something that the young people can own for themselves and by themselves. These ideas are borne out of passion for better children for a better society. It was guided by the passion to create an equal society, realising that the only way to sustain this is to build change through education, where children learn from a young age and grow with it for sustainability.”
Whisper to Humanity, an organisation started in 2020, is supported in this project by IGNITE Consortium, a conglomerate of various feminist and women-led funds principally aimed at advancing Adolescent female education. The project is pioneered in four states of Nigeria: Imo, Ebonyi, Cross River and Delta.
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