A typical weekday in the life of a child living in a rural or semi-urban area of Ebonyi state will consist of waking up really early, about 4 a.m. (especially for the girl child) to start house chores. These chores include going to the local stream or water point to fetch water, starting a fire to cook breakfast, sweeping clean the family compound, taking out and tethering livestock or washing up dishes from last night’s supper. By the time the sun is up fully, he/she should be ready to embark on the journey to school. Typical distances could be anything up to 10km or more!
Participatory Development Alternatives (PDA) is a local NGO in the Ebonyi State of Nigeria and a partner with ActionAid Nigeria (AAN) in the Partnership Against Poverty Programme (PAP).
PDA has worked on ensuring delivery of quality education to the people of the Amikpo community in Afikpo North Local Government Area of Ebonyi State using the REFLECT and Advocacy tools learnt through AAN.
School age children in Amikpo have to walk 5km to the neighbouring school, which is accredited to administer Common Entrance and First School Leaving Examinations. The school in Amikpo has not been accredited due to the lack of an appropriate school hall in which to administer these external examinations.
The school and people of the community have sought this accreditation for over four years to no avail. The negative impact of this on the education of the children of Amikpo is apparent. The need to trek a distance of about 5km to the accredited Ozizza Community School to take their examinations leaves children exhausted, which greatly affects their performance.
Congestion was also rife. The host school facilities were not enough for its own pupils, let alone those from other communities. This situation led to overcrowding of the hall with many pupils sitting on the floor to write exams and improper supervision in exams.
Some parents were discouraged by the non-accreditation of the school, which resulted in them not enrolling their children for First School Leaving Examinations. As these exams prepare the pupils for the secondary stage of their education, the impact was large.
The efforts of the community to build a new school hall by themselves had stalled over 10 years ago.
The community residents agreed to levy various age groups in the community in order to raise funds for various aspects of the building. However, the squeeze of a low income generation did not allow the project to go past the lintel level.
The building had stood uncompleted for over 10 years, undergoing wear and tear and becoming more of an eye sore and source of heartache for those who had contributed so far but were unable to complete the building.
ActionAid Nigeria staff worked with Amikpo community in using the REFLECT methodology to identify and prioritize issues that needed the community’s attention and a joint effort in accomplishing.
Over time the use of this tool led to the emergence of the completion of their community school hall as a priority issue in their REFLECT meetings. This was followed with a meeting with PDA about the planning and execution of the project.
The community contributed labour and finances and participated in the budgeting and purchasing of materials needed for the building.
With support from PDA and ActionAid Nigeria, the building project was completed and furnished with seats and desks.
The accreditation, which the school and the community people had sought for over four years, was granted to the school by the Ministry of Education after a supervisory visit on February 23, 2010 following the completion of the school hall. Prior to the completion of the school hall, the pupils sat for external examinations (First School Leaving and Common Entrance) outside their school.
The team from the Ministry of Education, Ebonyi State, was impressed by the ‘spacious examination hall’.
As a result of the accreditation, the pupils of Migrant Unity Primary School Amikpo will henceforth be able to sit external examinations in their own school.
The school can now award the First School Leaving Certificate to its graduating pupils, and also award the certificate in retrospect to the old pupils that have graduated at a time when the school had not been accredited.
ActionAid Nigeria staff hand over Amikpo Hall to Ebonyi State Commisioner for Education
It was now up to the community members with the support of PDA and ActionAid Nigeria to bring the attention of their Local Government and State to the newly completed school hall, which qualifies them to receive more teachers and teaching materials.
A joint community and partner delegation paid a visit to the Local Government Chairman in December 2009 to inform him of the efforts of the community and remind him of the obligation of his office to provide quality education in terms of qualified staff and furnishings to the people of Amikpo.
The delegation was well received and as a result they were asked to prepare a proposal for furnishing of the school hall. This was presented at the Local Government office in January.
The highly expectant spirit of the community members was deflated however by the non-delivery on the request by the Local Government office.
Further efforts to involve the government of the state were made with at least 2 more advocacy visits by the community organizing committee to Local Government chairman and Commissioner of Education for the state.
These visits were also to ensure the duty bearers attended a formal public presentation of the school hall in Amikpo.
The REFLECT Circle members and Amikpo Welfare Association Chairman did not relent in their efforts to see the public presentation made a success. Dignitaries had been consulted and made to be part of the organizing committee, notably, the Ebonyi State Commissioner for Education, who eventually chose and fixed the date for the public presentation.
The commissioner continued to encourage the organizers, promising them that he would honour the invitation, until the day itself, when all efforts to get him to the occasion seamed fruitless.
The occasion was due to start at 10.00am, but was delayed due to the non-arrival of the Commissioner.
Other dignitaries were present however, including the Commissioner’s personal assistant, Afikpo North Local Government Education secretary, Mr. Ifeanyi Isu, ActionAid Nigeria representative Constance Okeke, Ebonyi PAP (Abakaliki), traditional rulers and a host of others.
The PDA team had been waiting at the venue since 10.00am, and had to wait for another three hours before the programme started, at about 1.00pm. It was another three hours later before the commissioner of education for the state arrived. PDA team and the organizers of the occasion had to wait patiently.
The commissioner apologized for coming at the close of the occasion. The patience of PDA and the organizers paid off as the commissioner made promises to the school, which he said would be redeemed on or before December 2010.
Pledges made included:
The provision of school desks for classrooms before the end of December 2010.
To liaise with the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) to build a fence round the school.
In liaison with SUBEB, the provision of sporting equipment to the school.
To liaise with the State Government to recruit more teachers.
PDA, Amikpo Reflect Circle members and Amikpo Welfare Association have agreed to map out action plans on how to follow up the commissioner’s promises. They have also set up their advocacy strategies, targeting the commissioner, State Ministry of Education and Ebonyi State Universal Basic Education Board.
As much as PDA and ActionAid Nigeria are committed to ensuring quality education is delivered to the children in Ebonyi state, the Amikpo community members are the brilliant heroes for being able to go that extra mile, putting into use the tools for community development they have learnt so that their children don’t have to go extra miles to undertake their examinations.
The next set of 44 primary school pupils will now not have to leave their community to write their first school leaving examinations. Undoubtedly, the academic standard of Migrant Unity Primary School will improve with this change.
We would like to say thank-you to Amikpo Community for their resilient spirit and to ActionAid Nigeria for their unflinching support to the poor and excluded, without which it would have taken a longer period to achieve this great feat.
As for us, the engagement has just started. Duty bearers must live up to their responsibilities and we will engage them creatively.