I have a little story to tell. It may provide a little insight
into one of the most daunting challenges that will
confront the new government of Muhammadu Buhari,
President and Commander-in-Chief of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria. Even as I narrate it, I am not so
sure what lessons we can draw from it.
I will narrate it nevertheless. It started almost four
years ago when I visited Maiduguri, the city most
afflicted by the Boko Haram insurgency.
The crisis is fueled by an army of youths in an area of
Nigeria that has a large number of the estimated 16
million (or more) out-of-school children in the country
that may harbour the highest concentration of illiterates
in the world, plus an ocean of unemployed,
unemployable and unskilled youths, who see nothing
beyond the bleak future that lies ahead of them. That’s
why joining an insurgency that promises temporary
relief becomes a viable and attractive option!
I met with the governor of the State, Kashim Shettima,
and in a few brief minutes told him about the sports
academy in a little village in Wasimi, Ogun State, and
my idea about how the school may alleviate the poor
situation of a few of the youths of Borno State, who
were unable to return to school as a result of the
insurgency.
He listened with rapt attention. I told him we could use
the passion of the youths for sports (football in
particular) to convince some of the those with talent in
football to enroll into schools outside the troubled state,
to keep them in the schools, to give them some
education that they essentially need, provide a full dose
of their youthful passion and fulfill their dream one day
of playing professional football and becoming famous
and successful like Tijani Babangida and Jay Jay
Okocha.
Governor Shettima immediately took up my offer to
send a few Borno students that were temporarily not
going to school to Wasimi in South-West Nigeria, an
experiment that would be the first of its kind in the
history of the state and, indeed, Nigeria.
The International (Sports) Academy is a non-profit NGO,
a secondary school for children gifted or interested in
sport, but who might have difficulty with their
academics but seek opportunities to pursue their
football dream.
The Academy does not discourage any of its students
from choosing to play professional football, it only
ensures that they do so after acquiring a basic
secondary education, an absolute necessity for every
Nigerian child that wants to avoid the pitfalls
associated with illiteracy and the almost certain difficult
life after sports!
The insurgency in the North East of Nigeria provided a
perfect backdrop for my experiment.
Governor Shettima persuaded me to admit five
students from the State. The motivation for the lucky
students for the programme was the opportunity of
high-level football training, plus exposure to
competition and international scouts. The academy
promised all of that plus an education and a get-away
from the theatre of the orgy of killings in Maiduguri!
Within a few months the State ministry of education
conducted a selection process and sent the five
students to the sports ‘laboratory’ in the heart of
Yoruba-land, a bold experiment of the impact of such
exposure of youths at such a young age to such
cultural orientation.
The students arrived the academy at the start of the
2012/2013 academic session. They were supposed to
have just completed their Junior Secondary School so,
they were all enrolled into SS1.
One week into the session the school’s principal drew
my attention to a shocking discovery. The students,
brilliant with their football ability, were far behind the
other students in their academic capacity.
Indeed, two of them could neither read nor write. Their
communication was limited to a few words in broken
English. The difference in the standards of education
between that part of the country and the South was
clearly apparent.
Obviously, the Borno students had thought they were
coming to a typical football academy that would open
up for them the opportunity for a possible place in
professional football in Europe. Academics were not
emphasized to them. They discovered that only after
they arrived the academy and found that they had to
engage in the academics, obviously a new journey that
will test their will and spirit to the limit.
Recall that two of the students could not speak any
English and so could not follow the teachings in class.
The other three were a little bit better as they could
communicate a little and had an understanding of what
was being taught them.
We had very few options what to do. What we knew we
would not do was to send them back to the hell in
Maiduguri. We had to make the best of what was a very
challenging situation.
Let me cut a long story short.
This is the third year into our experiment. It has been
very fruitful for the students and enriching for the
academy.
We dropped the two students with the most problem
from the SS1 class, as they could not cope. We created
a new classroom for them with two specialist teachers
in English and Mathematics. With the help of the
National Mathematics Centre in Abuja we set up a
centre in the school specially for the teaching of
mathematics. The centre now supports not just the two
students but also the entire school.
The academy also set up an English language centre
for the accelerated teaching of English language for
those with learning difficulty!
So, for the past two and a half years the two students
that could not cope with the SS1 class work because of
their initial lack of communication skills have been
studying English and Mathematics. In the past year
they have included a vocational course in photography
into their curriculum.
The other three students have caught up with the rest
of the class and are ready to enroll into a university!
They are presently sitting for their WAEC examinations.
The ‘miracle’ is that none of the five students is now
eager to go to Europe anymore to pursue a football
career at the expense of their education.
Indeed, the two students training in professional
photography returned from the last holiday break with a
new and exciting proposal – they want to return in
September 2015, spend one extra year and attempt to
sit for WAEC! That’s how ‘hungry’ they have all now
become for education without diminishing their interest
or even their chances in professional football. They
have both passed their proficiency ‘tests’ in English
language and can now communicate well and
effectively. They are now very comfortable with their
numeracy. How quickly they can catch up in the other
subjects in the next year to enable them sit for WAEC is
now our exciting new challenge!
The work the academy has done with the Borno State
children will make an interesting case study for the
Federal Ministry of Education. A British educational
curriculum design consultant has already been in
Nigeria examining the methodology and curriculum that
have transformed these students from where they once
were to where they now are.
They have become the ambassadors of a unique
aspect of the work of the academy. Their peers in
Maiduguri who have been trapped in the warp of the
Boko Haram insurgency for the past three years would
envy them not just for their new academic
achievements but also for their proficiency, their new
found confidence, their very improved football skills and
their very bright prospects for a good life into the
future!

Meaning there education system is below 1/4 average standard, and whose fault is that?

Dem say no book, you dey talk bookuru. Make shekau no catch u

Nice one

Buhari is here for our change

In short, the federal government should send and sponsor the kids from crisis ridden zones to your NGO in the south west while you enroll them in school and polish their football talents at the same time. Not a bad idea but is this the change we all yearning for? I think not sir. Too one sided.

In short, the federal government should send and sponsor the kids from crisis ridden zones to the your NGO in the south west while you enroll them in school and polish their football talents at the same time. Not a bad idea but is this the change we all yearning for? I think not sir. Too one sided.

its a brilliant idea i think.