INTRODUCTION: The primary
aim of basic Education in Nigeria is to impart a functional literacy and
innumeracy that is life long to children. Basic Education is sterile if
children who pass through it are unable to demonstrate requisite skills for
adaptation and survival in the society.
In
Nigeria, the education system, especially the basic level has not been able to
accomplish the above task. This has given rise to the public out cry on the
falling standard of education. Several agencies (Government and non-government)
are making frantic efforts at arresting the situation. UNICEF (Nigeria) in her efforts
to reverse the ugly trend in education has over the years assisted state
ministry of education and other agencies that are involved in implementing
educational activities to implement programmes that will lead to the
achievement of educational objectives. One of her several attempts at
implanting quality basic education in schools is the introduction of aflatoun
programme . Aflatoun as a concept simply means-explorer. The philosophical
basis of aflatoun is to impart skills that will enable children explore their
environment, in order to find out ways of exploiting resources in their
environment for survival.
Alatoun
has two components. These are the financial Education component and the social
education components.
The
financial Education component has to do with children learning the skills
involved in financial management. This has to do with learning the skills in
income generation, planning and budgeting, and engaging in micro-enterprises.
The
social component on the other hand helps children to know their rights and
fight for it. It is also aimed at children knowing their responsibilities in
the society, e.t.c
The
overall aim of aflatoun is to help children remain in school until they
complete their education while they are involved in income generation. This
will held them break the cycle of poverty. It will also help children learn how
to manage their income in later life. This aflatoun programme has become
crucial for the Ebonyi people as there are reported cases of children (male and
female) being withdrawn from school by their parent and guardians to engage
them in quick money making activities (Agada and Nweke 2003) these withdrawn
from school children are found hawking in the street of major town in Nigeria
(Okeke and Rufai 2003). These children lack the skills in financial management
this makes them lavish the little income which they generate from the venture
they engage in. therefore with the introduction of aflatous this trend is
likely to change.
The
two schools where the programme were institutionalized will serve as pilot. It
is expected that with the anticipated successes that will be recorded in the
schools, the programme will be extended to other schools.
Planned Results
- Children
before completion of basic schools imbibe skills in financial and social
education.
- Drastic reduction in poverty rate in
the society.
- Drastic
drops in school dropout rate occasioned by quest to engage in vocational skills
centres by pupils.
- Children
act as change agents in the community as a result of their exposure to
philosophical bases of aflatoun.
Methodology Employed
In
a bid to entrench the aflatoun project in the school and enshrine it in the
minds of the pupils, two major strategies were employed.
These
were (1) A 1 – day sensitization of 100 pupils each in the two (2) schools.
2. A
2-day training and imbedding of identified skill in each school for 55 pupils
and teachers.
During
the training which was highly participatory and democratic, the children were
lead by the facilitators to identify themselves skills of interest using
democratic process of voting and consensus opinion of the majority group.
ACHIEVEMENTS:
(1) Children
now form groups and engage in micro-enterprise activities in school.
(2) Parents
of children express willingness to support the children. They even requested that they too should be trained on
aflatoun
(3) Identification
of local experts on the various skills identified by the children for constant
consultation whenever the need arises.
LESSONS LEARNT
Children
and parents drop out of school due to perceived fear that staying in school
until completion will not give them the opportunity to become rich and attain
self actualization.
CHALLENGES
- Ability to sustain the interest
already developed by parents
- Ability to over come misconceptions
about the programme.
- Inability
of government to play supportive roles in the implementation.
- Ability
to prevent teachers from using the program as an excuse to turn the children
into child labourers.
- Ability to manage fund realized from
the project judiciously.
WAY FORWARD
1. Integrating
the mothers’ club members into the main stream of the project implementation
2. Advocacy by project managers
3. Monitoring