FREE SUMMER COACHING WEEK THREE

By Lexan Ali and Fidel Davynovich

(Members of the DSM Ajegunle Branch)

After the Eid-El-Fitri (Post Ramadan Muslim festival) national holiday on Monday and Tuesday, the Education Rights Campaign (ERC) free summer coaching initiated by the Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM) Ajegunle branch resumed on Wednesday - the third week of the exercise.

DAY 3

As usual, coaching started by 9.00 am in the morning at the same venue (Anglican Primary School) in Ajegunle with students continuing their lecture in the various subjects.

Today’s coaching is an added boost which again recorded more students attending the exercise. This time the number of students in attendance was 214 while the volunteers’ teachers were 13. Also, today witnessed new students within and outside the Ajegunle community coming for the first-time since the initiation of this exercise. Most of them commented that they haven’t seen such a free coaching before.

Many people within the community continue to appreciate the work of the ERC. DSM and ERC members have also continued to emphasize the purpose of the coaching is to  demonstrate that free and quality education is possible in Nigeria if only the resources of the country is judiciously and democratically used to invest in rebuilding the collapsing education system.

DAY 4

The ERC coaching started 9:00am as usual. The turnout of students and teachers was impressive with orderly conducts of the students and a high sense of responsibility displayed by the teachers in the conduct of the lesson.

The number of students in attendance was 222 while the teachers were 14. All the subjects for the day were taught. After the close of coaching, a volunteer teachers meeting which usually takes place every Thursday was held where we reviewed the whole coaching and pinpointed areas where improvement is required.

We also use the opportunity to call upon teachers to start playing active roles and to be involved in activities and campaign of the ERC for increased funding of public education. The coaching closed by 1:00pm to be resumed next day.

DAY 5

The coaching has attained progressive recognition within the community by mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers who on their have come to verify whether the exercise is true or not. The number of students has continued to increase and is between the range of 200 to 270, while the volunteer teachers were also in the bracket of 12 to 16. For instance at today’s coaching, the number of students was 215 in the three arms of SS I to SS III.

The volunteer teachers have also been very active and committed to teaching the various subjects. Parents within the community on their visitation to the coaching today were full of praises for the ERC.

As part of the coaching exercise, the career counseling section has continued to take place every Friday. Today’s career talk is on “BOOKS TELL OUR STORIES.”  The speakers invited for the discussion came to share their experiences about the role of books in our life were Uche Nwadinachi (an author/teacher), Oladere Nurudeen (graduate of OAU) and Fidel Davynovich (a writer).

The speakers all spoke about why books should be cherished and seen as something valuable to read. One of the speakers pointed out that a library is very essential in the Ajegunle community and the need why the government should build one with various kinds of books for people to come and read; and also do their research there without any restriction. Also, other speakers encouraged the students to take their studies seriously.