6 minute read
Leading a District
Articles by:
Dr. Sani Ladam Mohammad (Nigeria)
Mr. Constance Pee (Liberia)
Iam Sani Ladan Muhammad- PhD. The current Director/Secretary for Secondary Education Board, Federal Capital Territory (FTC), Abuja.
Abuja is located in the North Central region of concerted efforts of the school administrators, teachers, and heavy support by the Federal Capital Territory (FTC) Abuja, Nigeria government, I encourage entrepreneurship in all FCT schools; and to the Glory of God, the students are doing wonderfully well as scores of awards have been won locally and internationally.
Nigeria, being the Country’s Capital I have been the Secondary Education Board’s Director/Secretary for over one year, my roles in Secondary Education Board are versed and enormous, however, it covers all aspects of educational development of all Secondary Schools under the auspices of Secondary Education BoardFCT. It is my responsibility to see that Senior Secondary Educational programmes smoothly, training of teachers in various fields of their Studies, organising and teachers ‘participation in internally organised Seminars, workshops and conferences.
Coordination of the school administrators (Principals) remains my sole responsibility in order to see to the smooth running of FCT Secondary Schools, twice a term, meetings are held with the school administrators.
Globally, the world moves away from being dependent on government’s white-collar jobs; with number of registered students etc. In addition, the number of employed permanent but Pensionable staff in SEB, each division/unit is all captured as the name appears “Secondary Education board.’’ Lectures, training, symposiums, seminars, etc. can be held comfortably in the smart room while it also Serves as an “e-library.”
Additionally, inspection and supervision of FCT Secondary Schools is also part of my schedules, in conjunction with other Departmental and unit heads of the board. Mandatorily, visitation round schools for inspection takes place, twice a term viz: resumption and midterm inspections. Besides, inspection of core subjects during WAEC/NECO is made round FCT Secondary Schools to assess, advise and rate school academic performance for a progressive outcome.
Further, to the above, introduction of staff’s participation in sports within the office’s premises remains my initiative. The Sporting activities: Table tennis, footballing, Ludo, chess, badminton etc. are engaged in once in a month of which I am not left out, of course, being a lover and promoter of sports and games. This act, without doubt, has improved the majority's individual’s health as confessed by many participants and fostered more unity among staff.
Covid-19 was of course, a devastating scourge as it has paralysed so many activities and reversed or stagnated them as well, and the education sector also had its own share. After the pandemic’s strike, some strategies were taken in order to recover from its bite.
In view of the above, extra lessons were organised for students, especially those in examinations’ class SS3 for day students while those in boarding schools utilised judiciously, night prep-times Recently, the smart room was situated at the Headquarters of Secondary Education Board (SEB)
The Smart room is outstandingly unique as it serves as a window for the Director/Secretary to monitor, observe, access and obtain information from all FCT Secondary schools Inspecting or Supervising every School’s Scheme of work, lesson Plans, teachers’ attendance in school and classes of teaching; the Smart room is encompassing as it encapsulates all necessary information required of SEB and the FCT Schools: number of Boarding and day schools in all the Six Area Councils of FCT,
Recently, a few school principals of FCT Secondary Schools and SEB’s staff attended an open innovation/entrepreneurship training in the UK, the training will certainly give birth to train the trainees in a short time to the FCT Secondary School teachers.
Reward surely is a gain to hard work In this respect, FCT Secondary Education Board awarded some of its exemptional hard working staff including the school administrators (principals). Surprisingly, the Director/Secretary was among the recipients of such outstanding awards.
Teaching and learning may never take place without instructional materials. Considerable number of FCT Secondary Schools have computer rooms where teaching and learning take place. Besides, majority plans which can be assessed right at the Smart room of SEB.
Generally speaking, consistency in the supply of electricity in Nigeria is not 100% In view of that, all Secondary Schools of FCT have alternative means of generating electricity as augmented for the purpose of learning and administrative works. WI-FI networks are available but majorly for administrative arrangements as an integral part of teaching and learning processes; registration of examinations is a very good example to cite in this regard.
Construction and maintenance of Secondary School’s infrastructure is very paramount to the FCT government, for it improves teaching and learning processes. Right now, construction and renovation of class rooms and halls are ongoing for the development of education. These projects, I have gone to see the levels and standards maintained in the infrastructural development.
Government remains the sole stakeholder when issues on education arise. However, Parents in no small way can be relegated. FCT Secondary Schools relate, interact, and liaise with parents on their wards’ issues. Progressive learning, achieving good results without compromise, discipline, intervening in domestic issues that erupt between parents and wards, where their Children who are our students are involved Parents Teachers’ Association is a strong chain that holds the coaches of educational development, and as adopted by FCT –SEB where I am currently the Director/Secretary, as driving and achieving academic improvement is my utmost goal
Iam the District Education Officer for Paynesville Education District in Liberia. hold a master’s degree in School Administration and Supervision from the University of Liberia and an
Entrepreneurship Development Certificate with more than 5 years of experience in conducting training for schools and Liberian Returnees from the diaspora.
As a trained Educator and Administrator, I have more than 10 years of experience in teaching, administration, and team support services. I have served as the Education Coordinator of the Liberia Returnee Network, presently as Education Director of the Worldwide Missions of Liberia I am a also Disciplinarian and always want the right things to be done
Along with my current role as the District Education Officer for Paynesville Education District (PED) # 4, I also serve as an officer for Montserrado County School System #1, Ministry of Education, Republic of Liberia. Since my appointment as District Education Officer, I have the responsibility to supervise about 126-130 schools in the Paynesville Education District.
My functions as a DEO are numerous. My office has an oversight to all schools (Faith- based, Public, Mission, Private and Community) in PED #4. One of our duties is to ensure that all schools obtain operational permits for each academic year to operate under the laws of the Republic of Liberia We do inspection of school facilities, instructional staff credentials check, what is being taught (curriculum implementation) as well conduct refresher teachers training for schools either by cluster or by section
When we took office, the first and foremost needful thing we did was to visit all of the schools under our supervision. And the exercise took us about two months and a half to complete. We inspected each school as per the level in terms of Administrative Readiness, Instructional Readiness and Infrastructural Readiness.
The essence of the exercise was to categorize the schools per rating (status), need assessment of professional development and conducive and safe learning environment as per the Ministry of Education standards.
Today, we can proudly say that we have made some great gains in the area of standards yet there are still challenges Under our watch, we have had discussions with school proprietors, principals or administrators as it relates to the overall learning outcomes of the students, human resource development, conditions, and location of their schools There have been instances where we have threatened to reduce or drop the level of schools that are not in compliance with the Ministry of Education. All of these are geared towards having an enabling environment, leading and managing schools, teaching and learning improvement, instruction and on-site supervision as well as professional development.
We also want to inform you that under our supervision for the first time some of our schools are to benefit from the smart classroom (Wi-Fi network). The smart classroom will provide our students the opportunity to use their smartphone and computers as they sit in to surf the internet to research and do assignments.
In regard to infrastructure, our National Government with the IRISE Grant from World Bank under the Global Partnership for Education has renovated over fifty schools thus making the learning environment very conducive to improve the learning outcomes of our students
Finally, during the COVID 19 outbreak, I was not in the employ of the Ministry of Education
The parents have been very helpful With the establishment of Parent Teachers Association (PTA) in almost all of our schools, frequent meetings are driving the learners’ improvement After these called meetings, parents usually speak with their children at home. At times some of the parents visit our schools to monitor, check on their ward, child(ren) academic progress as well as behavior.