By EDUCATION, they say, is the key to a child’s bright future; and every child, whether fatherless, motherless, or orphaned, deserves to grasp that key. Yet, for many children in Nigeria, the reality of poverty, neglect, and lack of opportunities often shuts the doors to learning. In this exclusive interview with RITA ENEMURU, the founder of the Etinan Children’s Education Foundation, Inc. (ECEF), Dr Isongesit Ibokette shares his inspiring journey from classroom teaching in Nigeria and abroad to creating a foundation that is transforming lives. He speaks about the challenges, the triumphs, and the motivation that drives his vision to ensure no child in his community is left behind. Excerpts:
Dr Isongesit Ibokette with Stonix News reporter, Rita Enemuru (left) after the interview
Sir, tell us more about yourself.
My name is Isongesit Ibokette, the founder of Etinan Children’s Education Foundation, Inc. (ECEF). I come from Etinan in Akwa Ibom State. I attended John Kick Memorial School for my primary education and later went to Etinan Institute for secondary school. I then proceeded to the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Calabar Campus, where I studied History and Archaeology for my bachelor’s degree. After graduating, I did my National Youth Service in Dutse, Kano State; Dutse is now in present-day Jigawa State, and I loved the place so much that I subsequently signed a contract with the then Ministry of Education, Kano State, to work there.
My popularity and successes there were partly because of the way I interacted with my students at the Teachers’ Training College, where I taught History and English. The school had about 2,000 students, all boys, and I served as the games master as well. I was also heavily involved in the community, visiting sick students in their homes and even helping out when parents were ill. Sometimes I would “drag” the principal along with me. Many community members began to appreciate how I interacted with students both on campus and outside.
Dr Isongesit Ibokette
At that time, there were also some Canadians doing voluntary service there, much like an NGO. We became very close, helping to run the school together and bringing in new perspectives. It was these Canadians who encouraged me to consider graduate studies in Canada, even though at that time I was not interested in leaving Nigeria.
So, how did you eventually end up leaving Nigeria to study abroad?
To be honest, travelling abroad was the last thing on my mind. While an undergraduate and on a Federal Government scholarship, I had been using the allowances that came with the scholarship to help my siblings and parents. My plan was to get a job after my Youth Service to support my family.
But the Canadians were so determined to convince me to go to Canada for my graduate studies that, when they went to the Canadian embassy, then located in Lagos, they collected college application forms, filled them out, and basically “forced” me to sign them. I signed the documents just to humour them because I did not think that I could afford to study abroad.
But then, a man called Alhaji Aminu, who had become a friend and a big brother to me because of my interest in the community, heard about my reluctance to consider studying abroad. One day, he came to the teachers’ quarters with a photographer, who took my passport photo and other things, and two weeks later he showed up with an international passport for me. This was in early 1981.
Two months later, I received admission letters from five of the eight universities my Canadian friends had applied to on my behalf. Each one offered me some kind of fellowship or scholarship, but Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, offered the best package. At that time, I was working in the Teachers’ Training College, earning ₦300 per month, but most of it went to support my siblings. So in 1981, I left Nigeria for Canada with the little amount I had saved.
What did you study there, and what direction did your academic journey take?
I went initially to study Military History, but the courses on the significance of the military and military strategies in international relations were not offered that year in the nearby military academy, so I shifted my focus to colonialism and race relations. My master’s dissertation was on Labour Strategies in the Gold Mining Industry in South Africa, and my PhD was on the Impact of Colonial Rule in Northern Nigeria.
Before completing my PhD, I got a job as an Adjunct Lecturer at the University of Massachusetts in Boston. Within three months of finishing my dissertation, I became an Assistant Professor. I taught at the University of Massachusetts for about nine years, while also working closely with the African Studies Centre at Boston University (BU).
A cross section of teachers and others
While at UMass Boston as the first Africanist in its history department, I introduced a variety of courses in African history such as European Imperialism in Africa, African Nationalism, and Independent Africa. I was also, regularly, invited to run workshops for high school teachers on the essentials of African history in different schools in the greater Boston area.
So, I figured that I could step out and create my own independent consultancy. But to do that effectively, I realised that I had to first gain experience in an American high school environment, because it’s one thing to be working with teachers who are teaching high school students, and it’s another thing to actually know what the high school environment is.
So I decided in 1997 to take a two-year hiatus from the university and teach in a high school. After speaking with a participant in one of the workshops about my interests and plans, he told me to reach out to the head of the department of the school in which he was teaching, Newton North High School. I subsequently reached out to the school, and I was told that there was a vacancy. I was interviewed and, after some days, I got the job.
How was the experience teaching at Newton High School?
Newton is a very wealthy, education-centred city with two strong public secondary schools, Newton North High School and Newton South High School. The students in these schools came ready to learn. Students in my classes were very responsive to my expectations, and I loved interacting with them.
I introduced them to African literature through books such as Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, Arrow of God, and No Longer at Ease; and Buchi Emecheta’s The Joys of Motherhood. The students embraced this significantly new genre of historical fiction and made teaching fun, professionally rewarding, and satisfactory for me.
I had planned to stay in the school for just two years, but I ended up spending 25 years there. I am still US-based.
Coming back home, what inspired the creation of the Etinan Children’s Education Foundation?
Every time I visited home, I saw children along Stadium Road in Etinan heading to school. They always greeted me with bright smiles, but their faded uniforms and bare feet troubled me. So I would buy uniforms, shoes, and supplies for some of them whenever I could.
The expatriates coaching the pupils
Eventually, I realised a foundation would give structure to this informal support. That was how I started the ECEF in 2017. At first, it was just about providing basic school needs to these indigent students, but over time I expanded the foundation’s focus to include medical and dental services, clothing, food, and the Academic Enrichment Programme.
What challenges did you face in the early days?
Initially, some people tried to discourage me by arguing that it was a waste of time and resources, because the parents of the children did not even value education. Some advised me to start my own school instead. But I was determined to stick to my plans, and a few key individuals in Nigeria and the US were very supportive.
For example, in July 2018 my late brother, Brigadier General Efiok Ibokette, organised the foundation’s first fundraising event in Abuja. By the next year, the foundation had raised about $19,000. In 2019, Dr Udeme Ette, a prominent medical doctor based in Uyo, volunteered to provide medical care, including surgeries, for the children in the foundation, popularly known as scholars. That same year, Dr Ekere Essien, an Uyo-based dentist, also started offering free dental services to my scholars.
The financial support that the foundation received made it possible for me to introduce a feeding programme. Our scholars now have nutritious lunches on school days, and the foundation provides them with school uniforms and all necessary school supplies. Primary Six pupils also get extra lessons in preparation for their final exams.
How did your partnership with the Ministry of Education come about?
By 2021, I realised that I needed to further expand the scope of my foundation’s work to include professional development programmes for teachers in the school and indeed to transform the school itself into a “Model School”. I therefore sought a formal partnership with the Ministry in 2022 to facilitate the transformation of the school, formally known as Government Primary School, into a Model School.
The subsequent agreement with the Ministry stopped the frequent transfers of teachers and also allowed me to renovate the school itself. We fenced the compound with concrete and barbed wire, installed a gate for security, and renovated the headmistress’s office.
The Etinan Children’s Education Foundation, Inc. (ECEF) formally entered into partnership with the Ministry of Education, Akwa Ibom State, on 12 September 2022. This partnership was formally launched on 23 February 2023. Its central objective is to facilitate the transformation of Government Primary School, Ikot Ebo, Etinan LGA, into a top-tier primary school. As a “model”, the quality of education that pupils receive in the school will match, and perhaps surpass, what many first-tier private schools in the state and country provide to their pupils.
One of the teachers
Process and Modus Operandi of the Partnership
In this partnership, the school will retain its current status as a government/public institution in all its ramifications, abiding by the Ministry of Education’s regulations, syllabus, curriculum, mandated state-wide and national assessments, etc. Similarly, the headteacher and other staff members will remain government employees in line with their current status.
The Foundation’s main role in the partnership is to collaborate with the State’s relevant officials, agencies and/or bodies in guiding the school to implement effective pedagogical strategies so that the pupils will meet the State’s goals and standards and be able to function effectively in their post-primary school endeavours.
The key changes that the Foundation will implement in the proposed partnership will therefore be in pedagogy, or teaching methods. While there are a variety of pedagogies, it is of utmost importance that educators utilise the most culturally appropriate and effective method of delivering content and assessing students’ mastery of required skills. It is equally important that educators have access to essential tools to facilitate student learning.
To these ends, the Foundation will provide both the pupils and their teachers with the necessary pedagogical tools and other essential school supplies. Tools for the pupils will include appropriate grade-level electronics, manipulatives, workbooks, exercise books, pens, pencils, crayons, etc. Tools for teachers will include professional development programmes, in-service training, and electronic-based and physical workbooks and manuals.
For smooth continuity, cohesion, and effectiveness of the “model” programmes, teachers who receive the said training will not be transferred out of the school except under extenuating circumstances.
The partnership started at the beginning of the 2022–2023 school year with Primary One and Two classes, and will expand over a three-year period to incorporate all six grades by the beginning of the 2025–2026 school year.
The teachers and students
Key Developments
1. Yearly distribution of school supplies including manipulatives, installation of magnetic whiteboards in many classrooms, and teaching tools.
2. Security: fencing of the school compound, building of a security post, and hiring of security personnel.
3. Electrification of two buildings in the compound.
4. In-service training/professional development for teachers, including computer literacy and access to internet-based resources.
Let’s talk about Newton High School’s direct involvement in Etinan. How did that start?
When the idea of bringing Newton North High School’s students to Nigeria to help with the foundation’s Academic Enrichment Programme (AEP) first came up, I did not take it seriously. I thought that the logistics of bringing teenagers across the ocean to a village in Nigeria for three weeks would be too cumbersome and unrealistic. Moreover, what parent would agree to such a demanding trip?
But the more I reflected on the significance of such a programme to both groups of youngsters – the Newton North student-participants and my foundation’s scholars – the more I realised how life-changing this could be for these youngsters. I therefore wrote a proposal to the City of Newton School Committee in November 2021 to authorise the creation of the Newton North International Service Trip to Nigeria (NNISTN). The School Committee overwhelmingly approved this proposal.
The Foundation therefore expanded its educational focus to include the NNISTN, and in July 2022, I came to Etinan with the first (experimental) group of four Newton North students (including my second son, Isangusung Isongesit Ibokette); seven students in 2023, and nine in 2024 and this year.
Dr Isongesit Ibokette
The programme has become very popular in Newton North. Last year, for example, we received about 60 enquiries from potential applicants and their families, but I could only take nine. The criteria are strict: applicants must be in SS1 or SS2, have prior experience working with children and of community service, and have no serious food allergies or medical issues.
In addition to their role in the AEP, participants in the NNISTN also visit and have an audience with traditional and political stakeholders in Etinan and neighbouring villages and towns, as well as provide some community services such as dispensing over-the-counter reading glasses that the Foundation procures for the elderly.
The overall outcomes of the NNISTN have been that student-participants experience authentic cultural immersion in the context of the dynamics of a socio-cultural environment and pattern of life that are markedly different from theirs. Moreover, the programme’s focus on hands-on strategies for leadership, mentorship, and community service provides participants with unique educational and emotional growth opportunities.
Pupils enjoying the class
In turn, participants also provide essential services to the Etinan community and, more specifically, make innumerable and memorable contributions to the young scholars’ academic, social, and emotional growth. These have been very symbiotic real-life and hands-on processes, experiences, and outcomes.
What do these visiting students actually do in Etinan?
They assist the local volunteer teachers in the various aspects of the AEP, which include teaching English, arts and crafts, and basic science experiments, as well as accompanying the scholars on field trips to Uyo for medical and dental examinations. They are guided, but they also lead. It has been transformative for them and inspiring for the scholars.
The expatriates teachers and pupils
How many scholars are currently under ECEF, and how are they doing?
We have 30 scholars at the moment. Two batches have graduated, one in 2023 and another in 2024. They are fed, clothed, medically cared for, and supported in their studies.
People often describe your work as selfless. How do you see it?
I tell them it is selfish in its own way, because of the joy and satisfaction I get from seeing these children thrive. That is my greatest reward.
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