AL – AZHAR

AL – AZHAR INTERNATIONAL COLLEGE, LOKOJA

-A MODEL EXEMPLAR IN SECONDARY EDUCATION

It has become an established fact that most faith based schools provide a way of life that remains with students for life. It also instills an indelible sense of responsibility anchored on moral values which they carry through with them into the larger society. If this is indeed the case, it then follows that schools with remarkable background in faith should be the option for the young ones in today’s world that is perennially plagued by multifaceted vices and where leaders with requisite moral background and integrity are bred less frequently.

In the comity of leading private schools in north central Nigeria today, Al – Azhar International College, Lokoja occupies a central position of eminence with an unmistakable vision to be a world renowned institution devoted to growing leaders who will champion a new world of development.

Established in 2010 to provide mainstream education based on the National Curriculum and underpinned by Islamic values. At the centre of the school is a community of students being availed the opportunity of learning in a caring Islamic environment which promotes true Islamic values of life-long learning, making positive contributions to society at large and a culture of high expectations and excellent performance. However the school also admits students from other religious backgrounds.

With an effective paradigm that combines academics with high moral training, the school’s teaching methodology geared towards developing abilities in the children to inquire, think, strategize, communicate effectively, take calculated risks, become knowledgeable, principled, open minded and well balanced adequately provides the incremental building blocks toward building students that will appreciate the gift of life and carry themselves as model exemplars of humanity equipped with knowledge, wisdom and compassion.

At Al – Azhar, recognition is given to the needs of each individual child. The dedication of the highly qualified, motivated, vibrant, enthusiastic and inventive staff is remarkable. Here teachers don’t watch the clock; they make themselves available to students even outside lesson hours.

Realizing the immense benefits of extra-curricular activities which include a high sense of self-esteem and team work in the lives of students, the school provides a breadth of extra- curricular activities such as I.T, fishing, poultry, and cinematography among others for the benefit of the children.

Bearing in mind the Islamic orientation of the school, the school offers unique programme for muslim students to learn the Qur’an with the right tajweed. Hifzil Qur’an (Qur’an memorization section) unit provides those who start from the primary section and who are boarders the opportunity to memorize the entire Qur’an.

In the nursery and primary school section, the school believes that education should be more than memorization, repetition and standardization tests. Hence, the school offers a unique practical application of sensory based approach that emphasizes the child’s natural interest in learning.

African Education Monitor spoke with the Administrative Director of the school, Hajia Iswat Omoniyi Habeeb recently and she reeled out extensively, the values on offer in the great institution.    

Let’s meet you

My name is Hajia Iswat Omoniyi Habeeb. I am the administrative director of Al- Azhar International College, Lokoja, Kogi State.

When was the school established?

The school was established on 16, September, 2010.

That means you are not yet in SS3 class?

If you are to look at it from those students that started with us in Jss1, yes we are not yet in SS3, but we have some students that got admitted into SS1 who are now in SS3.

Let’s talk about the selling points of your school. Al-Azhar sounds Islamic. What do parents and students stand to gain from the Islamic orientation of the school?

We are not running away from the fact that the school is a Muslim school in orientation. We also take children from other religious backgrounds. Nevertheless, the only thing that makes the difference is that we pay special attention to Muslim children because we want to mould them, we want to groom them into responsible adults that the parents and the nation will be proud of in the future. I read a book sometime ago and it was said in that book that, educating children without a sound religious background, you are only educating hooligans. Our mission here is to really groom them and let them be able to know God. So morally, academically and spiritually, we want the best for them.

As a school with strong Islamic values yet co-educational, do you have boys and girls in separate classes?

We don’t separate them. We have the two sexes in the same class but on different rolls. We have separate rolls for boys and for girls. They still mingle to some extent, but we have separate hostels for them, separate prayer grounds including even the play grounds. The two of them are not playing together in the loose sense of the word. If the females are on volleyball, the males can be on football. If one of them is on martial art, the other can be on athletics. So we try to separate them because according to the teachings of Islam, the males are not supposed to mingle too much with the females, but that does not stop them from academic and other healthy competitions.

So how do you integrate them socially?

We have social gatherings like football competitions, debates and quiz competitions e.t.c. We even have drama club, literary club, the jet club e.t.c which are for both sexes. So they do compete.

How are your teachers? How motivated are they? Because existential reality shows that teachers are paid pea-nuts in some private schools thereby affecting their level of devotion. What is the state of things as far as remuneration is concerned here?

As far as remuneration is concerned, we try our best to make sure Al-Azhar is the best private school for trained teachers to work in this part of Nigeria.

We don’t employ anyhow teachers in Al-Azhar. The least qualified you get here is NCE and that is for the nursery and primary section. At Al-Azhar international college, we go to the extent of sending some of our teachers for further training and paying for them. For instance, we recently sent some of them for Montessori training. One just finished at Montessori International Institute, London and we paid more than N1million training her. She will come back and train fellow teachers on how to deliver the method to the children especially the younger ones. Equipments worth millions of naira in this regard have just been purchased and they arrived Nigeria from abroad a few days ago.  We also organize seminars and workshops for teachers from time to time. As soon as we employ them, there are some of them you still need to teach on how to talk and how to dress so that they will be able to fit into the place you want them to be. As for remuneration, it is very o.k. When we started newly, we set our standard and we have our scale.  For example if we employ a teacher, after four months, we increase the salary of such a teacher. So as they are growing academically, they are growing financially too. We don’t allow the teachers to go to the extent of extorting money from the pupils’ parents.

We also have so many programmes in place. For example, we have the Al-Azhar Business Committee. They are the teachers that look around, attend seminars and learn so many things that we can do in Al-Azhar like fish farming, poultry and things like that, that can generate additional income for the school and for the teachers too. Whenever they have anything to sell, they will sell it because we have the in-house selling point and the ones we can sell to outsiders. So we do all these to make them happy.

It is a fact that not all parents have the wherewithal to send their wards to good schools. Part of corporate social responsibilities of modern schools is having a scholarship scheme for certain categories of students. Do you have such here?

Yes. At Al-Azhar international college, the proprietor always tells us that the school is not established solely to make money. It is a humanitarian outfit. We have some of these children that ordinarily, their parents did not think of bringing them to a school like this, but the proprietor is making it happen for them. We have many of them here 100% free including their learning materials being provided by the school. We have about ten of such children here.

Moreover, all the students that started with us at inception are still enjoying 10% discount on all their fees and students that excel 100%, the school normally gives them scholarships. In addition, if you have up to four kids here, one of them will be free. So we have different kinds of scholarships and ways of assisting students in Al-Azhar.

Let’s talk about your facilities. Which facilities can you say the school boasts of that a modern school should have?

In terms of facilities I can say the school is simply in a class of excellence. From very spacious classrooms, splendid hostels, well stocked library, laboratory, expansive playground for various sports to the state of the art instructional materials, our computer room is world class. We call it IT centre with high speed internet facility. In fact if you come back here next week, you will meet the latest sets of computers that are coming in their tens. They are screen-touch computers which will arrive here God willing on Sunday. As the school resumes by next session, it is going to take a new dimension. We have a qualified computer science graduate taking care of computer study with other assistants that do help him. We have laptops, media projectors and all our staff are computer literate because in Al-Azhar you as a teacher set your questions by yourself and type them which is another medium of ensuring that teachers are computer literate.

What are the extra-curricular activities or vocational studies do you expose the students to?

Like I said, fishing is one of the extra-curricular activities we expose them to. The students know how to breed, cross breed and hatch.

We also teach them cinematography. They handle camera. They can hand still or video camera. We are even teaching them how to edit.

In certain quarters, opinions are divided over the choice of school for wards by parents. Some argue for public school, while others go for private. In your opinion, what edge do private schools have over public?

There are many advantages derivable from sending your children to good private schools. In private schools, proprietors are not ready to tell stories that are not palatable. So they go the extra miles to make the children get the education their parents want for them. They go the extra-miles up to even taking loans to provide the needed facilities that will make their students to be able to compete with their counterparts elsewhere.

In private schools, you want to create a standard that the public schools are not able to create. You want your children to get out and when they speak, they are asked which school do they attend. You want them to write examinations and excel without necessarily making your school a miracle centre. You want to teach them what they need to know up to even arranging extra classes for them. In Al-Azhar international college, we arrange for extra classes without asking parents to pay extra fees. If your child is not doing well academically, we have extra- classes for those that are not doing well.

To me, it is the private schools that are doing what is supposed to be done for these children to make them able to compete favourably with their peers in any part of the world.

And in your view, what do you think government can do to help private schools in moving education forward in Nigeria?

If there is the political will I think government can do a lot in this regard.

They can provide some of the facilities, create avenue for private schools to do more, encourage those that have the know – how, give them grants, provide laboratories, provide libraries, provide infrastructure e.t.c. Government can even go to the extent of employing teachers for private schools and pay their salaries. All these will go a long way towards reducing unemployment and even making the society a better place to live because if people are gainfully employed all the social upheavals and security challenges as we have in Nigeria today will be reduced to the barest minimum.

What do you have to say about mushroom schools that parade themselves as private schools that are in their thousands in Nigeria today?

It is still the work of government to regulate the activities of private school owners. As private school owners, we have our association and we do encourage our members to always go through the right channels. If you know you don’t have what it takes to be there, there is no point deceiving people that you have a private school because a private school is supposed to be a place where you get outstanding performances and where the children are well taken care of. A private school is supposed to be a place where you want to create standards. So we don’t have to deceive ourselves. There are some that are in the business that have no business being there.

However, we do encourage one another to go through the right channels, get approval, get the necessary facilities because you cannot keep children for example and will not provide playing materials for them, as you cannot take playtime away from them.

A visible trend among well-heeled private secondary schools in Nigeria today is to float a university in the course of time. Are you thinking along this line also?

Absolutely. As we speak, we are doing some feasibility studies on A- level porgrammes and even if possible floating our own university.  But honestly, we want Al-Azhar international college to consolidate enough on that satisfactory pedestal before any move toward a higher institution.

What advice do you have for parents that are desirous of bringing their wards to your school?

For parents that will want their children to be in Al-Azhar, it is determination that matters. There are many of our parents that are civil servants and they still go the extra – mile even in spite of the perceived belief of other parents out there who might want to think that our fees are relatively higher. The candid truth however is that we are putting the average Nigeria parents into consideration.

We have payment options that make it easy for parents. If you are capable of paying once, fine but if you cannot, you can pay instalmentally. There is an option of paying termly, there is another option whereby you pay seven-times i.e. you pay 40% as the child enters and the remaining 60% is divided equally and you will be paying instalmentally at the end of every month and for the next six months, you will finish the payment if you are dedicated to the education of your child. So God has been doing wonders in the lives of our parents. And they are able to pay the school fees of their children as at when due. Al-Azhar international college is not there solely to make money, but we want to create standards. We want to groom these children to be able to compete anywhere in the world.