This morning I was at a meeting where Muhammed Dayyamu, the Kano Ministry of Education school census manager, was succinctly reporting back the excellent progress.  While the rest of us were stuffing back the turkey sandwiches and recovering from New Year Eve's excesses back in January, the Kano data entry team had been busy, very busy.

School census manager, Kano

Within 6 weeks they had entered data from over 6,600 schools and had established that they were a lot closer to knowing how many schools in the state there actually are. An additional 88 senior secondary schools and 174 private  schools had been 'discovered', while in some areas schools had disappeared: the Kano municipality had 10 less junior secondary schools than first thought.  Everybody 'got' why having a master list of schools and keeping it active was important, if only for tax collection purposes from the private schools!

Compare this to finding out about schools in the UK.  I wanted to know more about schools in Hampshire (UK) recently. A quick search via the council website and not just school lists appeared, but catchment maps and OFSTED inspection reports full of learning outcome data, school specialism areas and improvement plans.

School information at the click of a mouse

In addition to completing the data entry, there was also some checking and quality control being introduced, including a verification exercise.  This is more important than it might sound - massive distortions that make a lot of information useless is commonplace.  Just last week I went to a school in a neighbouring state that had quadrupled its enrolment of a plan, probably to try and get a larger budget.

The next step as I emphasised to Muhammed and the local government staff at the meeting was to turn the magic handle and actually collate the key statistics on students, the gender gap and the like.  This is the information we are still starved of, to help states like Kano expand and improve their education system.

Hopefully I can report soon on how many kids are in school in Kano and get my 'results focussed' managers off my back!

Thirsty work for Ian and Rabi

On the road the other day and decided to swing by and see how the rain harvesting scheme at Gidan Mutan Daya primary school, Katsina was getting on now, over 3 months into the dry season. When I last visited the tanks had just received the first rains and we were curious to see how long into the dry season they could provide clean water for the children, especially girls to use. A previous attempt to sink a bore hole had failed to locate water in this dry environment.

Lizard Lab

Full of optimism I arrived around noon on a blistering hot day, but ominously the teachers started to smile sheepishly and as if by magic a clutch of pupils ran across the playground, clutching buckets in search of water as they left school early. One of the primary girls Rabi and I clambered up and peered into the tank, nothing but a lizard den inside: an ideal school biology laboratory exercise perhaps, but not much needed H2O.

The teachers explained that the tank never filled up in the first place, the water leaked out from the joint to the drain pipe, enough to fill buckets, but not the reservoir. "What did you do fix the problem, surely it would have been simple to solve this?" I asked. The responses were vague, "We called he installer", etc..., but at the end of the day the school / community hadn't bothered to try to make it work.

Still Walking for Water

It's difficult to know what to say / do in these situations. We talk a lot about community engagement and capacity building, but often 'Things Fall Apart' all too easily. Hopefully come June and the next rains the school based management committee will try to get this scheme working, at least none of the pipework had been stripped for other purposes yet!

It is important to look for the positives, I wonder how the other 30 similar schemes fared? I'll try  to find out next time...

We considered how to keep human development high on the agenda and safeguard our programmes from the impact of the global recession and competing priorities for funds and political attention during a UK election year. Climate Change is a good example: carbon pricing and technology adaptation are hugely important, but what about education and family planning for African girls (and boys)? If Lagos does expand with an additional 10 million souls, many are going to end up in flood prone slums: smaller, smarter families have to part of the long term solution.

M-PESA Kenya mobile cash transfer

Some topics on strategies, ‘cash on delivery’ and aid effectiveness can get a little dry, but learning what works: (e.g. activity based learning in Tamil Nadu) or what challenges some of our staff have had to overcome, really adds spice. My unfortunate colleague in Kenya turned up for his first day in the office, just as a fraud was quickly being investigated in the country's education sector. Then the health team in Zambia recounted their newly formed expertise in forensic audit, gained whilst trying to track donor budget support funds. Meanwhile, our despairing adviser in DRC displayed pictures of huge bundles of cash for teacher salaries leaving Kinshaha in the back of mini-buses, for want of a better system to pay the staff. ‘How about mobile phone e-cash transfers?’ came the response from the M-PESA savvy Kenyans.

Prof. Robert Chambers (Credit: IDS)

One of the retreat's highlights however came from an encounter with IDS’s Prof. Robert Chambers who by chance was in the hotel and readily agreed to lecture us pen-pushers on the somewhat dirty subject of Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS). Prof. Chambers, a champion of grassroots initiatives such as Participatory Poverty Appraisals, is firmly in the Development ‘Hall of Fame’ and age has not diminished his drive and intellectual interest. ‘Did we know in the Nairobi slums you could get clean water from an automatic solar powered pump via a mobile e-payment?’ he enthused to a slightly shell shocked audience.

Getting the message across on sanitation in N. Nigeria

Burning with energy, the CLTS approach that is scaling up across Africa was described. Communities walk together in their neighbourhood seeing the reality of open defecation, while facilitators make the point that with no sanitation in effect they are surrounded by 'shit’. Unprompted, a local leader ignites and resolves to take action and (without donor support) a participatory programme of pit latrine construction starts that can deliver dramatic health improvements. It’s thought that tropical enteropathy (damaged gut lining from constant exposure to harmful bacteria) is a major factor in child malnourishment and inhibits growth. Being ODF (Open Defecation Free) compliant has become a badge of honour for many villages.

In Nigeria the CLTS approach is about to be strengthened through a new DFID financed sanitation programme in conjunction with UNICEF and I returned ‘really getting’ what it's about.  I’m looking forward to the day when local Hausa leaders adopt this approach in Northern Nigeria, anyone who has gone for walk around the colourful but often smelly markets will know why!

Jigawa students need better facilities

Continuing my ‘it ain’t so bad in Naija’ theme, it's pleasing to see a corner being turned in many States and money reaching where it needs to. Dr. Modibbo, Executive Secretary of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), reported that the backlog of funds had dropped from 70 to 30 billion Naira within 12 months: the clearing of a back log of over US$ 250 million. The ‘carrot and stick’ approach includes Good Performance Awards, while naming and shaming States’ that can’t seem to spend money on schools.

Jigawa Commissioner of Education Prof. Ruqqaya Rufai

Jigawa, a poor rural Northern State has completely turned around its dismal UBE record. Governor Lamido and the resolute Commissioner of Education, Prof. (Mrs) Ruqqaya Rufai, have cleared the funding backlog. Projects are proceeding smoothly and Jigawa surged from relegation zone material to top of the league performer by the end of 2009. Contracts valued at N2.6 Billion (£10 million) were awarded for classroom construction and furniture at 401 schools: much-needed space for thousands of students. Dropping in last June the Commissioner was too busy to talk to a DFID staff member like me: she was dealing with a tsunami wave of contractors in her office!

Getting the money to flow is especially important in Jigawa, to tackle some of the worst indicators in the country. A 2006 survey found that only 18 per cent of females and 35 per cent of males in the age group 15-19 had completed primary school. Hopefully this will go somewhere to alleviate the poverty and hardship that was being described to me so starkly at the Talakawa Summit by Jigawa’s ordinary citizens.

Since then the pace has been unrelenting. The College of Education at Oro is being transformed, with a reformed curriculum for teachers like Mrs Adenekan above who want to teach and teach well. The mass of students looking for an easy diploma are gone. 

Last summer I visited Commisioner Bolaji as the School Inspectorate was evolving into a school friendly Quality Assurance Agency. Staff were reapplying for jobs and only the 'fittest' would survive. A similar whirlwind was blowing through the system and an e-payment system had helped to expose fraud and 'ghost' workers on the payroll. New education legislation is being introduced to clarify roles and responsibilities.

The Kwara State Schools’ Improvement Teams (Lagos’s team was featured in a recent post) are now moving to improve the quality of learning in the core subjects and Commissioner Bolaji has set high standards for improved exam results and is laying on extra classes.  His advice to parents on home study remains old fashioned but wise: ‘If the room your child will study in has a TV, remove the cord. For those with handsets, take it away from them till the examination is over…"

Mrs Adenekan, Africa Teacher of Year (Credit: Dimeji Kayode-Adedeji)

However I want to focus on the positive.  It was heart warming to hear about Mrs Adenekan from Ogun State selected as ‘Africa Primary Teacher of the Year’. A teacher since 1978, she recently completed upgrade teaching which included a focus on more practical teaching skills through the ‘Teachers Education in Sub-Saharan Africa' (TESSA) programme at the National Teacher’s Institute. Teaching in public schools is often maligned in Nigeria, but this was always her ambition and now one of her own children is also a teacher. I hope Mrs Adenekan’s trip to the UK and visit to the Queen will be rewarding.  She will be flying high, like the Super Eagles progress in the Africa cup of Nations (well, until last night at least)!

Kano Data Entry Team

An issue I’ve been struggling with in Nigeria for sometime is getting reliable information on how many children there actually are and, of course, how many go to school.

Just before Xmas I was delighted to see the work underway in Kano getting the school census completed. Domonec Devesa and Eunice Muchilwa, two staff from the Education Sector Support Programme in Nigeria (ESSPIN), had been working round the clock to set-up the computer room and the data entry staff were ramping up to work. Keeping such an operation going is no easy feat, with constant power cuts and surges that tend to wreck IT equipment and faulty backup generators. The questionnaires always throw up unexpected results: how do you cope with young teenage teachers, when the software thinks all government staff must be over 19 years old?

The School Census matters...

It's standard practice in most countries to annually conduct a school census to collect the fundamental information needed to monitor, manage and improve schools. The data generally feeds into a simple database known as an Education Management Information System (EMIS). For years there have been persistent problems with the Nigerian EMIS: excessively long and complicated questionnaires that were issued far too late, data was greatly distorted and results were rarely announced or used. No national data for the last 4 years has been published.

VSO Roselyn from Kenya assists the Kwara School Census

Over the last 2 months DFID’s ESSPIN programme has been supporting a number of Nigerian States such as Kano and Kwara to conduct the school census with a back to basics approach: simple, short questionnaires using trained enumerators to assist head teachers to provide impartial, accurate information on pupils, teachers, buildings and books. It reminds me of an adage that had to be re-taught about irrigation canals in Cambodia following Pol Pot’s ‘Year Zero’ regime: ‘Water doesn’t flow uphill!’ It may seem obvious, but similarly, the schools must report on the kids and conditions actually present - they should not be a work of fiction to prove everyone is in school or to bid for extra funds. By all accounts the census has been done well in many States. After 2 ½ years in the country, I for one am looking forward to some information soon, so that I can report (with confidence) on Nigeria’s progress towards its making ‘Every Child Count’: Kwara State’s mission statement.

How many kids, what do they know?

In a similar vein ESSPIN has been busy establishing State Schools’ Improvement Teams (SSIT) to improve the basics: what used to be called the 3Rs: Reading, wRiting & aRithmetic. Improving the quality of numeracy and literacy in primary schools is essential - too many kids leave school unable to functionally read and learn new skills, essential both for continuing education or work. The SSIT teams consist of some of the most able heads, trainers and district education staff who will be working to directly improve clusters of schools in 5 States. In Lagos an initial group of 60 schools will benefit.

The Director of Basic Education Services Mrs. Toun Olaogun, at the recent launch in Jibowu, Lagos, highlighted her high hopes that the SSIT will demonstrate how to turn around schools and put learning back at the heart of the agenda.

Since the bad days of dictatorship and teacher strikes in the 90’s, Lagos parents voted with their feet and transferred over half of their children into private schools. Regaining solid, basic quality education in all schools will be essential to achieve Governor’s Fashola’s plans of a resplendent, competitive Lagos Metropolis.

A Road less travelled to Timbucktou

Kano does not get many tourists – visas are awkward to come by and the overland route north across the Sahara to Europe has been closed for years due to insecurity. Recently I headed across to Zinder in Niger, the francophone desert country just north of Kano. The border officials questioned us for a while – more to chat and pass the time I think!

Kano does however get a steady stream of ‘development’ visitors; the very low human development indicators in Northern Nigeria keep the region in the spotlight for senior aid officials. For example a recent national health survey calculated the under 5 child mortality rate for NW Nigeria at over 20% - that’s over 1 in 5 dead, a number inconceivable in the West. In comparison the rate in SW Nigeria is less than half the NW rate; reflecting higher levels of prosperity around Lagos, different cultural practices and the better status of primary health and education.

Bare classrooms

This week I escorted senior DFID officials to visit a typical community madrassa school - Ilmil Huda Islamiyya Primary, one that our education programme ESSPIN will support in 2010, with a package of school improvements. The key aim is to get support from the community members who established the school themselves back in 1982. Originally the school only provided Qu’ranic learning, but over the years some lessons in the ‘Western’ curriculum were introduced - English, Maths and Social Science; with teachers funded by the government. Over time the approach will be to support the government to scale up such packages to these Islamic community schools that wish to provide a broader education.

Mind the drop!

The school clearly fills a ‘gap’, this locality on the edge of Kano city has many similar Islamic schools, but only one huge government primary school, where up to 200 children pack each classroom. Understandably many parents prefer the mix of religious and core curricula and the smaller class sizes. Fees of about US$3 a term pay for additional volunteer teachers but little else; the school was almost devoid of books and the walls bare.

Around 50 children sat on the floor in each class, keen to learn. Basic skills were being mastered, although the standard was not high and children struggled with the mix of Arabic and Latin script – do you start writing from the left or right of the blackboard?

Figure it out?

Supporting schools such as Ilmil Huda will take time and a lot of the most basic information has to be collected as a starting point.  The school census ESSPIN had been supporting in Kano enables the scale of the challenge to be identified; this one small school, the size of a large house, has around 600 students. They all need books and pens and trained teachers, resources that have only trickled in under government support for many years.

DFID and Kano State shake on it.

The next morning we could have been in a different world, paying a call to the well appointed Kano State Government House. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) had been prepared to be signed by the Kano Governor H.E Ibrahim Shekarau and DFID to commit both parties to a long term partnership supporting poverty alleviation.

The purpose of the MoU is not to enforce a legally binding contract; this is not possible in the aid world of bilateral assistance and Nigerian politics. They do however outline clear expectation on one another. DFID to provide predictable support over the next 5 years in a range of sectors under Kano’s Roadmap for Development: health, education, government reform. In return Kano State commits to undertake reforms and monitor progress against a set of clear indicators that demonstrate improved public management.

Ilmil Huda Islamiyya Primary School

Of course events may go ‘pear’ shaped as things often have in Nigeria’s past, but hopefully a visitor to Kano in 2 - 3 years time will see a much brighter improved Ilmil Huda school with children acquiring a good set of essential skills for life.

Who knows perhaps tourists will also return one day to visit the 1,000 year old Kano citadel with its mud walls and ancient Sufi traditions?

New scoreboard

Nigeria is currently going through its own mini World Cup fiesta. After many months of doubt, deliberation and dubious ‘readiness reports’ the FIFA Under 17 World Cup is on and much of this football crazy nation are intensively following the super Eaglets quest for glory, to restore national pride and re-capture their 1999 Crown. 

It's hard to pick a favourite as some of the squads were radically altered after FIFA introduced new imaging techniques of player’s wrists that accurately determine age: one nation withdrew completely!

Barca fan, Nigeria

At six locations around the nation large crowds are turning out to cheer on the teams, adding African style noise and intensity to make the occasion. I decided to make the effort and headed down to the home of our local team, Kano Pillars: the Sani Abacha Stadium in Kano.

Kano hosting the U17 World Cup

Getting a match ticket was the easy part, getting past the baton wielding police, shut gates and crowds of disaffected ticket holders was not. Most of my friends gave up when a camera was pick-pocketed. Eventually though, a FIFA ‘risk assessment’ officer let me in.

Let there be light!

Inside the atmosphere was electric as the 10-man Spanish team scored to go 2-1 up over the USA.  The quality of the play was a lot better than I expected and the crowd enthusiastic. Fans chatted with me about the stars of the Premiership and La Liga, giving sympathy for my home team Newcastle United. The stadium, complete with giant video screen was great, I really felt like I was at Old Trafford.  Only when the floodlights failed (twice) and 14 minutes of extra time added was I reminded of the problems that plague Nigeria’s quest to become one of the 20 most developed nations.

DFID has been supporting the international 1 GOAL! Campaign, in collaboration with FIFA, to use the World Cup competition to focus both public and political attention on getting all children into school – a lasting legacy, beyond stadiums and video scoreboards. Africa has most of the out of school children in the world, with Nigeria having the dubious distinction of topping this league table. 1GOAL was recently launched in Nigeria by a passionate football fan and governor of Lagos, Babatunde Fashola. Video messages promoting schooling are being broadcast together with all the U17 World cup games in Nigeria.

Teenage girls, rural Kano classroom

The healthy, literate Western teenagers on display in Kano have had the benefits of a well rounded education and great prospects lie ahead. Outside the stadium the Almajarai street boys scavenge for a living on Kano’s dusty streets and girls younger than the soccer stars on display die from maternal complications, following arranged marriages. Girl Effect, a Nike Foundation initiative eloquently illustrates the potential of adolescent girls - if they are given the opportunities of education and empowerment.

Educated but unruly...

The Eaglets are now in the final knock out stages of the competition that will culminate in the capital Abuja on Nov 15^th. I hope both they and the other 30+ million school age children in Nigeria get the education and opportunities they all so richly deserve.

Jigawa State with 4.3m people is not only as populous as a small African country it is also poor, one of the poorest in Nigeria’s federation. The poverty rate was estimated in 2004 at over 90%, compared to a national average of 54%. Since 2007, the Jigawa State Government has made public commitments to tackling poverty, with DFID support amongst others and listening to the poor. In Jigawa Governor Sule Lamido’s words: “We cannot continue to stay in the comfort of hotels, discussing poverty and claiming we are interested in eradicating it. There are people talking who have never seen a hoe. They have no idea of what is called the Nigerian peasant going about his life with untreated diseases…”

This led to the convening of the Talakawa - or Poverty Summit – in Oct 2008 to dialogue with the poor and to develop more participatory strategies for addressing poverty. It was a large open air event with the poor - Talakawa – giving testimony to the elite. Present at the summit were representatives of the poor across 51 vocational groups of the state, which included rice farmers, groundnut oil producers, food sellers, traditional birth attendants, cart pushers, the physically disabled, carpenters, tailors, farmers, fishermen and others.

Concerns were raised about rapidly declining income, unfair competition from modern production, lack of modern technology to enhance their competitiveness and lack of modern infrastructure - roads, electricity, and relevant skills training. How can baker Badamasi afford to educate his 33 children in the face of rising flour prices, competition from modern Chinese bakeries and new health and safety regulations?

Arriving at the summit...

One year has passed since the Summit and on behalf of the DFID Northern Nigeria office I attended the follow up 1^st anniversary Talakawa event, to give a good will message, hear an account of progress made in tackling poverty and to listen to the the testimony of the poor. The government and society elite gathered once more under the blaze of a hot sun and the media spotlight. As speeches were delivered, a few elderly ladies discretely begged - not wishing to miss such an opportunity and uncertain of what they otherwise might gain from showing up!

A credible list of achievements over the past 12 months was given: skills and vocational training, road construction, agricultural extension services, micro-finance and community law centres. It was welcome to hear the impact of DFID’s support, for example in arranging regular finance for free maternal health services and training for traditional birth attendants (TBA).  

Disabled poor women - doubly disadvantaged

The introduction of a safety net for the physically disabled through regular monthly payments was also highlighted. However talking to a group of disabled women (polio affected) in the crowd,  I heard that this benefit was yet to reach everyone who qualified. Interestingly testimony from some disabled at the Summit requested skills training and tools, not cash handouts.

Bilkisu, fura (milk porridge) seller

What did the Talakawa (poor) think of the support being provided, 12 months on? Clearly there had been benefits to many of those called to speak. Umar a laundryman was now profitably retrained as a photographer and Abdu a leather worker was now back in operation following business support. Gambo a TBA was grateful for her training on how to assess when emergency obstetrics support was needed, but pointedly asked when she would get the delivery equipment she badly needed. Very limited support clearly could make a difference, for example Bilkisu, a fura (milk porridge) seller now made more profit following marketing advice on where best to sell her goods.  However she still struggled to cope to make ends meet in the dry season and to pay medical costs.

Gambo: Traditional Birth Attendant

It would be easy to dismiss the Talakawa events as mere political window dressing; given the sheer scale and depth of poverty it is difficult to know how representative the poor giving testimony actually were. However Jigawa does give the impression of a State finally making progress and a genuine concern to address the needs of the poor is evident. Poverty eradication is certainly a long term goal that cannot be achieved over night.

Over the last two years I have seen Jigawa’s capital Dutse being transformed with new roads and buildings. With the support of DFID’s programmes much better government planning and budgeting systems are now being put in place. These are essential to cope with the swings in revenue that come from Nigeria’s oil wealth and try to prevent a return to the bad old days of elite capture and corruption that has paupered States such as Jigawa in the past.