Foundation builds teachers, students capacities on playful learning in Ebonyi 

A youth-based non-governmental organisation, Whisper to Humanity Foundation, has built the capacities of about 50 selected teachers and students in Ebonyi state towards embracing the playful approach to teaching and learning.

 

The 2-day residential capacity building Project tagged “Empowering Educators and Learners for Transformative Education” was held Friday 8 and Saturday, November 9 in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State capital.

 

Participants drawn from 10 pioneer secondary schools across the three senatorial zones of the state were trained on playful learning approaches, story telling 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 training also beamed searchlight on Issues around bullying in schools and its inhibitive impact on learners concentration, calling for its elimination in the learning environment.

 

Speaking to newsmen, the Executive Director of the foundation, Maryjacobs Okwuosa said the project was aimed at making teaching and learning attractive to teachers and school children by creating a more cordial and friendly learning space.

 

She regretted that the traditional mode of teaching in schools which create status gap between teachers and their students has lost impact, leading to declining interest and attention span of young people in school learning in Nigeria.

 

She noted that her foundation has reached an estimate of over 226 teachers and 18,000 students of secondary schools category with both advocacy and capacity on ways of improving the impact of learning through the play approach.

 

Okwuosa explained: “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 have 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 part of transformative education that we are looking at is transforming the mode of teaching, using playful approaches and interactive method.

 

“Another is ensuring that the children feel included.”

 

“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.”

 

Speaking further on her motivation, the Executive Director said her foundation which was started in the year 2020 was inspired by the passion to make the young people the centre of positive change.

 

She 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 a better children for a better society.

 

“It is guided by the passion to create an equal society, realizing 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.

 

Some of the teachers who spoke with journalists: Precious Mbeke from Nnodo Secondary school, Abakaliki and Pius Nwofe from the State Special Secondary School, Opefia in Izzi local government area, applauded the foundation and its initiative.

 

They urged the government to buy the transformation initiative by providing both the enabling environment and materials for a playful learning both for the regular and special schools.

 

“Children love games, and when you employ that in teaching, their interest and learning span is elongated”, Mbeke affirmed. My

 

Student participants, including Restoration Kenneth from Federal Government Girls Secondary School, Ezzamgbo in Ohaukwu local government area and Chizzy Williams Enyi, a visually impaired student of Ebonyi state 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 schools learning environment.

 

Both the teachers and students pledged to collaborate in stepping down the training beyond their various schools.

 

Earlier, the Director and Head of Educational Services in the state Ministry of Education, Chinyere Eziulo, who represented the Commissioner, Prof. Paul Awo Nwobashi, described the training as first of its kind; a much desired timely intervention for smooth teaching and learning.

 

She assured of the Ministry’s support and collaboration with the organizers to promote the innovations in Ebonyi schools within the limit of available funds.

 

The project: Empowering Educators and Learners for Transformative Education is supported by IGNITE Consortium, a conglomerate of various feminist and women-led funds principally aimed at advancing Adolescent female education.

 

The project is pioneered by Whisper to Humanity in four states of Nigeria: Imo, Ebonyi, Cross River and Delta.