Last Movement in Bauchi

Wednesday I took part in my last school monitoring visit before leaving Bauchi and had dinner with my adopted Bauchi family.  Tomorrow Thurs) the office has planned a 'send forth' gathering for me. Friday I leave for Kano, then to Sokoto next week. Melancholia is setting in.

About the monitoring ..teams of project staff have been going to each of the 10 local governments in which the project supports a total of 10 public, Islamyia and non-formal schools to check on their progress after rounds of training have been completed. These monitoring visits have been scheduled every Wednesday for the past three weeks.  With the frenetic schedule on which development projects operate, sometime things go haywire.  One team left their team leader behind.  He and another partner had to take a hired car because two of the project vehicles had been scheduled for long distance trips.  As a result, this team could only visit one of two schools.  Travel to the second school required an all-terrain vehicle, not the Toyota Corona (yes!) they hired.  

My team also had to use a hired car for the hour and a half drive to the Alkaleri local government. I have no idea what happened to divert the project car we were scheduled to travel in.

One class was being held in this 3-room school

Anyway, our driver Ephraim was good and managed to keep the car upright as we straddled gullies, avoided herds and drove through fields to get to one Tsyangaya school.

Many of these Islamic schools which are operated by local Imans are held under trees or make-shift structures.  I was pleasantly surprised to see a regular, 4 classroom ETF (Education Trust Fund) structure at the edge of the village bordering the farming area.  

Writing slates prepared by the Imam for study of the Koran

One class was in session with a little over 30 pupils, all boys ranging in age from 7 or 8 to early teenagers, in attendance.  A check of the enrollment register showed that the contact person for more than two thirds of the boys was the Imam.  Parents literally turn their boy children over to religious leader for care and spiritual guidance.  Many of these boys come from other states and never get to see their parents or families again.  The problem of the almajari is huge in northern Nigeria.  Hundreds, no thousands of boys roam the street begging for money and handouts.  Their education is limited.

Support for Orphans and Vulnerable Children is the projects primary focus.

This situation appeared a little different.  The boys were receiving more than religious education as a few were asked to read  information randomly selected from the board. (Memorization rather than actually learning how to read is a problem).  We were told there was also a girl's school in the village that is not supported by the project.  Unfortunately we were unable to visit that school.  I would have liked to compare facilities, resources, instruction, etc.