BKDF met with educators under its ANTY GOMA community education initiative on 26th November, 2018 in Kontagora Niger state. The team also met other stakeholders such as the local government education authority board (LEA); local government director of social development, and the community development officer all in Kontagora local government.
BKDF Aunty Goma is a registered community based organization, knowledge and innovation network, charging a very minimal daily fee of ten naira, enough to procure basic education materials and aids. It is a community social marketing enterprise initiative by BKDF and staffed on a volunteer basis by out of work women who were school teachers and educators. It derives its name from a mix of English and the Hausa language ‘Aunty’ and ‘Goma’ meaning the figure ten which represent the daily ten naira fees.
The CBO is made up of community education learning centers in many remote villages and wards where out of school children are brought together to have basic education as cheaply as possible and sometimes for free.
BKDF provides coordination, guidance, mentorship and the innovative management, administration, curriculum designs and systems strengthening for the program. In this It consolidates, curates and brokers knowledge from across partnerships to build capacity for better policy design and implementation. The program is to complement the efforts of the government to promote education in the states.
The BKDF team visited five Anty Goma locations and had a meeting with about 20 community educators who are operating within Kontagora. Some of the challenges of the Anty Goma community education program is the inability of some parents to pay the ten naira per day fees for their children, the lack of government recognition and inadequate communication among the educators. They also have shortage of teaching aids like school boards and classrooms.
To address these issues, BKDF promised to help secure funding to support the learners whose parents cannot pay so they can remain in the program. BKDF will also work with other stakeholders to provide teaching aids, training of educators and the development of a uniform curriculum for the initiative. The advocacy to get the government to recognize and support the program is ongoinh. The BKDF team taught them about the Sustainable development goals and distributed exercise books and pencils to the students. The next meeting will take place in January 2019 for the presentation of reports and teaching materials to the Anty Goma’s.
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