Friday 9 July at UEL

Dr Bakari and Mrs Alfa came back to the Cass School of Education at UEL's Stratford Campus to discuss how the Development Impact For Nigeria (DIFN) volunteers will be used during their forthcoming trip to Adamawa State. The blog about this trip will be at eventually be at http://diasporavolunteeringtoadsubeb2.blogspot.com/.

The Adamawa State team met with The Dean of the Cass School of Education; Ms Ann Slater and the Associate Dean: Dr Linda Amrane-Cooper.

Meeting with Deans at Cass School of Education

From the School of Education at the Stratford Campus, the Adamawa Team are taken to UEL's Docklands Campus.

Mrs Alfa at the Docklands Campus in University Square

At the Docklands Campus, we meet with Joseph Birtus who is the out going president of UEL's Student Union.

Dr Bakari, Joseph Birtus and Mrs Alfa

Joseph shows us round the North Building where the Student's union has its offices as well as a reception where the various services the students union provides for students can be accessed. The visitors were given some of the documentation produced by the Student's Union including:

the Programme Representation Handbook 2009 / 2010 that is a guide to support students elected to be programme representatives; the student's written submission for the UEL Institutional Audit and UEL's Vice Chancellor's strategic plan for the next 10 years titled Transformation for Excellence 2010.

The staff end of year party was taking place during the visit and this provided the team with an opportunity to meet with some of the many Nigerians who are members of staff at UEL.

Jean Bean, Business Manager at the Knowledge Dock showed the team around the Knowledge Dock which encourages and assists the development of enterprise opportunities for students, academics, inventors and local companies, it helps these businesses to grow through incubation services, expert centres and support programmes.

Mrs Alfa, Jean Bean and Dr Bakari outside the Knowledge Dock

Thursday 8 July at Risley Primary School

Yesterday, I met with Dr Bakari and Mrs Alfa at their hotel for an hour. We reviewed our discussions with Dr Elspeth Page and Mr Abimbola Osuntusa in Cambridge and discussed the programme for the rest of their visit as well as the programme for the DIFN Diaspora Volunteers who will be in Abuja on July 26th and in Adamawa from July 28th. Mr Yomi Oloko (DIFN's Diaspora Volunteers Programme Director) joined us for this useful discussion which clarified the purpose and objectives of the volunteering programme.

At 12.15, I returned to my desk while Mr Oloko took the team to Risley Avenue Primary School.

Visit to Risley Avenue Primary School, Haringey

Based on the report made by Yomi Oloko (Diaspora Volunteering Programme Officer at DIFN)

Risley Avenue Primary School is the largest primary school in Haringey with over 600 pupils. The school is very diverse in terms of both pupils and teacher population with over 50 different languages spoken by the school community.

The visit by Dr Bakari and Mrs Alfa began with a welcome from the Deputy Head teacher with whom the visitors discussed the need for effective recording to monitor pupils progress and the need for teachers to be able to use differentiated learning methods in the classroom to ensure all pupils reach their potential.

Dr Bakari and Mrs Alfa then meet up with the head teacher Mr Robert Singh who took them around the school. During this tour, the visitors saw the school office and how Information anc Communication Technology (ICT) is used to organised and store school records. They also saw how ICT access for pupils is organised in the school by means of a small ICT suite with 30 desk top computers and a pool of 30 laptops which can be wheeled to each class as and when needed. In addition there are a number of computers for the school's teachers to use.

After the tour of the school an informal meeting was held with the head teacher at which he described how the school holds its own budget and has a Senior Management T (SMT). Mr Singh explained the importance of appropriate training for the members of the SMT.

Tuesday 6 July Mrs Alfa and Dr Abiola Ogunsola go to Cambridge

Tuesday 5 July. Dr Bakari was needed by the Governor of Adamawa Dr Murtala Nyakoa, who is also visiting London. Mrs Alfa and I took off to Cambridge to meet with Dr Elspeth Page who is now working for Camfed (the campaign for female education). Dr Page has developed a strategic plan for Continuing Professional Development for all levels of human resources at ADSUBEB so in addition to discussing Camfed, we also discussed what it would be useful for the team of volunteers that will be going to Adamawa State at the end of the month, to do.

Mrs Alfa takes the tube (London underground transport for the first time)

Mrs Alfa surfacing from the underground at Kings Cross station

At Kings Cross overground station waiting for the train to Cambridge.

Dr Elspeth Page takes us to lunch with ESSPIN's Mr Abimbola Osuntusa (Education Quality Specialist for Kaduna State)

Squeezing into Dr Page's small car was not as challenging as it looks!

Working in Dr Page's garden, we learn a lot about what is already going on in Education Development in Nigeria that will be useful for planning our programme for when the DIFN volunteers go to Adamawa State at the end of the month.

Waiting for the train back to London at Waterbeach station we say Goodbye and Thank You Very Much indeed Dr Elspeth Page. It was a busy but very rewarding visit.

Monday 5th July at UEL's Cass School of Education

Yesterday (Monday 5 July) Dr Bakari and Mrs Alfa visited the Cass School of Education at the University of East London (UEL) where African Diaspora and development day was held on Saturday.

Here is a short video's of the Cass School of education, shot with a small camera to show AFFORD volunteers the venue for African Diaspora and Development Day (AD3), at which Dr Bakari made his very effective presentation on Saturday.

36 evaluations had already been returned when we met for the plenary at 6 pm on Saturday. This was when Thelma Bowlay-Williams (Operations Manager of RemitPlus) made her call for people to remember to return their evaluations. When AFFORD reviews these evaluations, we shall be able to report what people said they would be doing as a result of attending AD3.

During their visit to the School of Education the team:

• Reviewed their Calendar and activities for the rest of their visit to London using Google Calendar.


• Proposed activities were added to the calendar so that Development Impact for Nigeria (DIFN)volunteers, and others, can follow their activities and plans.

Diaspora Volunteer Abiola Ogunsola with Dr Bakari and Mrs Alfa

• In the process of reviewing their calendar, they looked at this blog and I agreed to add the links mentioned in the course of our discussions to the page.


• Hopefully, the blog will help with reviewing the visit on their return to Nigeria next week.


• We took an online tour of the University of East London (UEL) using the web site to visit:

..........- the services the university runs: to manage its business, for its students and for its staff;

..........- the 9 schools of the university and

..........- the programmes of study in the Cass School of Education.

The ADSUBEB team doing their virtual tour of UEL

• In the course of our discussions about the programme for their visit, we went to Teacher's TV and discussed how we might use the permission we have obtained to download programmes to show in Nigeria.

We finished at about 1.30 when the team left UEL to go and meet with the Governor of Adamawa State Vice Admiral Murtala Nyako (Rtd.) who is also in London for a visit. We sent them home with some Nigerian food from our local 'Tasty'.

Saturday 3rd July At African Diaspora and Development Day (AD3) 2010

Over one hundred and twenty people attended Africa Diaspora and Development Day at UEL's Cass School of Education on Saturday 3rd July. It was a great learning experience for the African diaspora organisations, individuals and their friends who participated as well as for AFFORD and DIFN. Our speakers Dr Salihu Bakari (Chair of Adamawa State Universal Basic Education Board) and Gibril Faal (Chair of AFFORD) were informative, entertaining and inspiring. UEL's Professor Sonny Nwankwo chaired the event helping the audience recognise the connections between the presentations and guiding follow up action. It was a brilliant occasion.


From left: Dr Bakari; Dr Nwankwo and Gibril Faal

In the middle, Mrs Fadimatu Alfa (Education Secretary Yola South) making a point.

Some of the audience.

Welcome to the ADSUBEB Blog

Dr Salihu Bakari Chair of the Adamawa State Universal Basic Education Board (ADSUBEB) and the The Education Secretary for Yola South, Mrs Fadimatu Alfa have arrived in London for a 10 day visit. The Secretary to the Board Dr Disaro will be joining them shortly.

Development Impact For Nigeria (DIFN - www.difn.org.uk) and the Africa Foundation For Development (www.afford-uk.org) welcome the team to London and look forward to making their short visit a productive exchange that will support the Board's leading role in education development in Nigeria.

This blog will try to keep friends of ADSUBEB informed about the team's activities during their visit.