Out of School Children Feel Mocked When Their Mates Speak English, Says Educationist

By Ify Onyekwere | 

Nigeria is known for great talents and resilient individuals who make credible marks in various countries of the world. The country has the likes of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a renowned novelist who has carved a great name for herself. It is obvious that education is one strong area where Nigerians want to be seen as tall. As the saying goes “Education is the bedrock of every society” its value to those who are literate cannot be qualified but to those who do not, it can be cancer.

Mrs Esther Alli is one of the kindhearted Nigerians trying to solve the problem of illiteracy in Nigeria where about 10.5 million children are out of school according to figures from the United Nations Children’s Fund. In her bid to resolve the conflict between the educated and uneducated children in the rural community where she resides in the northern part of Nigeria, she set up an almost free school system to enlighten out-of-school children in her community.

“I noticed that a lot of times, the out-of-school children in my community often go to fight children coming back from school. I realized that it was a language problem, they do not understand the English language and then go to fight those coming back from school when they hear them speaking English. They feel they are being mocked” she explained.
Mrs Ali who understood the language from both ends decided to resolve this conflict by starting up a school to teach children in the local community English language, Mathematics, and other basic subjects. The school principal’s passion made her husband join the effort with her in pushing this task in the Mpape area of Abuja.
While the humanitarian commits her time and resources to change the narrative of her local community by providing sustainable education, she hopes that more parents will release their children to the initiative.

The school that now has over 30 pupils has potential for growth as wards who see the transformation in children who were once called “out-of-school”, send in their children one after the other for the same effect.

While speaking to Ify Onyekwere, the school principal noted that she sometimes goes directly to the houses of those who have children not in school to convince them of the importance of education. In her words, the project on which she has embarked is challenging but the advantage she has in communicating to the parents of the children makes the journey more fruitful.

While hoping for support to grow and have a conducive learning environment for the children, she sustains the school with a minimal amount paid as fees by the parents just to encourage them.