This week, the sixth team of National Graduate
Volunteers in Kwara is starting their service. Twenty people will be teaching
mathematics and science subjects in schools in the rural areas of the state. Their
impact is much bigger than you might think. Look at these examples from last
year:
One of our volunteers has been teaching physics
and chemistry in a rural secondary school. He says: ‘Before I was sent as a
volunteer to this school, there was no qualified teacher for physics and chemistry.
The teacher for these subjects only had a secondary school certificate. He did
not teach practicals, I am not sure if he was able to do that himself. But the
secret of chemistry and physics is that if you don’t pass the practicals, there
is no way passing the subject’. Students are performing much better now. Before
about 40% of the students passed the external exams in these subjects. Now
about 90-95% passed. This is a great result, especially if you keep in mind
that the equipment available for teaching practicals is very limited.
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| Soap making workshop |
A group of volunteers have been teaching soap
making to a big group of students in a girls school. One of the volunteers
says: ‘Recently I was at the market and a girl started shouting at me; Aunty
Aunty! I was looking who it was and asked her if she knew me, shouting like
this. The girl said; yes you taught us how to make soap. And look, I went out
to buy the materials and I produced soap and I sold it for fifty naira!’
These two examples are showing very direct
impact the volunteers have on the students with who they work. But what do you
think about this:
A volunteer is teaching in a very rural school.
She says: ‘My school is facing a lot of challenges. It is very far out and
teachers don’t want to go here. They are business minded people. I try to
convince them that the children in the school are more important than business.
They find it hard to understand that I volunteer. I work very hard but earn
much less than they earn. I hope that I can inspire them to give priority to
the students. Assisting others is a gift and hopefully our efforts will bring
real changes’.
I hope the new team of National Volunteers will
be able to have at least as much impact as the previous team. Because all
together, we can bring change!
