Oluyemisi Oloniyo, a childhood education specialist and researcher, shares with TUNBOSUN OGUNDARE insights on what Nigeria can adopt from the USA style of education and how she became the first Nigerian to win the Woman Distinction Award at a US university, among others.
Tell us about your background
I have been a classroom teacher, assessor, researcher and community services advocate all through my career. I had worked at the Supreme Education Foundation School in Lagos, Nigeria, where I rose to the position of the head of Curriculum and Quality Assurance departments. Currently, I’m a graduate student and researcher at the Washington State University (WSU), Pullman, USA. WSU, Pullman, is a globally recognized tier-one research institute, established over 130 years ago.
You won the Woman of Distinction Award recently from the university, what is the honour all about?
It is a prestigious award in the US and by the grace of God Almighty; I am the first Nigerian to win the award since inception many years ago. So, it represents a great honour.
Tell us how it all happened
Every year, the president of Washington State University gives this category award out as recognition of contribution to women who have proven themselves as valuable members of the university through their research and scholarly work and the rest. The university also considers the level of one’s community engagements- your contributions to lift the community and the people, especially the underserved outside the university.
So, these are some of things they look out for and only six individuals across categories are honoured yearly. We have award for the best staff, best administrator, best advisor, best alumni and best woman and one more. For my category, they looked for a woman who contributed most to Washington State in terms of problem-solved research.
What exactly is your current role in the university?
I’m a Ph.D. student in educational psychology and prior to this time, I’ve earned master’s degree in educational psychology in the same university. Currently, I work with the Centre for Civic Engagement (CCE) as a researcher and lecturer. What we do is to coordinate students and connect them with the community partners within the US. We operate multiple campuses. So, we have global students, Vancouver students, Pullman students as well as Tri-Cities students.
So, we connect them to community partners. Community partners are the non-profit organisations that serve the interest of the underprivileged – the low-income families. We connect them to work free of charge. So, inasmuch as they do these, they gain insights into what they are being taught in class. So, we call the programme volunteering service. It is only that we must ensure their work aligns with their course objectives.
How can you compare this experience with Nigeria’s university system which you are a product?
Yes, Nigeria made me, and I am proud of that. Nigeria’s educational system is also rewarding. Afterall, my first bachelor’s degree in Economics Education is from the University of Lagos (UNILAG), Akoka, where I also earned my master’s in Educational Psychology. I also worked as a teacher for about 18 years before coming to the US in 2021. I worked in K-12 as a classroom teacher, assessor, and also as part of the school leadership team. So, my Nigeria’s experience is helping me.
Can you be more specific about the differences or disparities comparing the two educational systems?
Having worked with people from diverse backgrounds in Nigeria gave me some leverage in the US. Nigeria has over 250 indigenous languages. Though, Nigerian students do more of classroom work, they go for practical work at least once before graduation. In the US, you go for experimental teaching from time to time during your study period.
This allows student’s teachers to experience the real workplace while studying. They do this compulsorily every semester. The practice is a credit course designed to impact the community. For example, if you are a student of UNILAG or LASU, studying any of the education courses, you must go to class almost on a weekly basis to teach what you have been taught. It is volunteer work but compulsory.
Through this method, you help the communithatty, especially th e underserved. The same practice applies to non-teacher students. They also go to places where their services are relevant. For example, those in the medical field go to health facilities like hospitals or clinics or health centres.
In Nigeria, it is often said that most people study education courses only after they had failed to secure admission to study the so-called lucrative professions such as medicine, law, and accounting. What was your experience like?
Your observation is true. I also wanted to study accounting to become a chartered accountant before I discovered my passion. When I sat for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) conducted by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), my score was very low for the cut-off mark to study accounting in UNILAG. I was not happy about the result, but because I didn’t want to stay at home idle, a friend suggested I change to an education course so that I would be offered admission. The voice was like that of an angel because I was offered admission that same day.
Even then, I didn’t take the course seriously, thinking it would just be a passing phase. However, as time went by, I began to develop interest and love for the course. Eventually, I enjoyed every bit of the programme and by the time I was in the 200 level, I had concluded that I would become a professional teacher. When I started working, I looked for a gap to fill and found it to be early childhood education. I then pursued my master’s degree in that area, which gave me deeper knowledge that I find useful till today.
How did you achieve this?
I engaged my students as if we were having fun. Almost every six months or within a year, I got promoted. I headed many departments, including curriculum, quality assurance, and early childhood. Within a few years, I became part of the senior leadership team of my school.
Why then did you leave Nigeria?
The world is a global village, and people can move from one country to another. Nevertheless, the quest for more knowledge about childhood education was my driving force. Childhood education is a critical aspect of education because getting things right from the kindergarten and primary school levels is highly important and requires specialism.
Read Also: Senate defies Court order, sits on petition against Senator Natasha
What is Pullman 2040?
It is about projection – the expectation of where the Pullman community should be by the year 2040. Based on the work I do, I joined a team to work on the project with the Mayor of Pullman. I was given the role of education and learning, which covered anything related to the education of K-12 students and learning initiatives for adult education. We identify gaps and create programmes to fill those gaps based on the peculiarities of the Pullman community. This way, students will know what they are to contribute to the development of Pullman and the US generally and how to go about it. We teach based on societal needs.
How do you think this model can be adopted in Nigeria?
Educational leaders in Nigeria should look for areas where there are gaps and then fill them as suitable for the people within a community. This is what we call experiential learning. People gain better knowledge and perform better from their experiences than from mere classroom work. For instance, if I hadn’t gone to study education, I would not have known that teaching is my true calling. I might have worked in a bank or elsewhere as an accountant and yet not found fulfilment in what I do.
We should encourage more experiential learning across all levels of education in Nigeria. Students need to be self-aware and build their confidence, even if their parents push them to be lawyers or medical doctors. For instance, they should let their parents know they will do better as artists or teachers. This will lead us as a nation to purposeful leadership. Though scarce resources may want to hinder the practice of this kind of model, once there is political will, there will be a way.
and then