Just before Xmas, as reported on my 'back to basics' post, Kano State was just starting the data entry of the annual school census that the  Education Sector Support Programme in Nigeria (ESSPIN) programme had been supporting.  My managers are always challenging me '.. Yes Ian that's great but what are the numbers, how many kids [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

It’s just 7.15 am and it is already hot. Not from the morning sun (even though it's out and shining), but from the high overnight temperature that has not receded (talk about climate change!). It was a hot night and we did not have electricity for most of it. I got out of bed just [...]

Apologies for not writing recently, in particular to Iphie, Iyinoluwa, Yassin and Elizabeth who gave such informed and passionate responses on the situation in the Niger Delta that I raised in my post about the Maureen Matheny Academy in Bayelsa State.  You guys really helped me to understand new dimensions to the tragic situation there, as did Salisu's hard [...]

VSO Sustainable Classroom Project, Kwalli Primary School, Kano, Nigeria I visited VSO Nigeria volunteer Sue White's Sustainable Classroom Project situated in Kwalli Primary school, just inside Kano citadel's ancient mud walls to see the progress she had made in (i) establishing a teacher professional development resource and outreach facility and (ii) abolishing use of the cane! Against the [...]