Written by Abigail Chifusa, Global Schools Program Project Officer.
Global Schools Advocate, Bamidele Isaac Itunu from Nigeria, had the opportunity to facilitate an engaging session with the aim of introducing sustainable development to his fellow teachers. The session consisted of 32 members of staff, and 6 Principal Directors in the Lagos State Ministry of Education, Nigeria.
Bamidele introduced the session by leveraging the theory of teaching which ensures that knowledge should be transferred from simple to complex and known to unknown. The teachers, having gone through a pretest on the workshop, did not know about the SDGs beforehand; however, after the introduction, they were able to link their past experiences and actions to one or more of the SDGs, and are now aware of the existence of the 17 SDGs.
An engaging group project was initiated in the workshop where 5 groups were formed, and each group was asked to pick a theme of their own to solve a community problem as teachers in tandem with the SDGs. “This was the most exciting part of the workshop as everyone formed a circle and applied what they just learned to actionable innovations until they offered sustainable solutions.”
Additionally, each teacher received information about the SDGs, Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), and how all teachers fit into making the world a better place, through “Learners Active Participation.”
“This is a great feat because the expected impacts of teachers' training on the SDGs will help engage no less than a thousand students in the school,” said Bamidele.
Consequently, Bamidele’s school selected about 75 interested students to serve as SDG Advocates in the school; these will be the faces representing every class, ready to set the school ablaze with upcoming projects. He added that a total of 968 students benefited from the SDG school-wide activities, and 184 students benefited from the classroom activities in the month of November.
“We are currently working on 10 different projects, and the students are the face of these projects. They are innovating solutions to problems in our communities through the knowledge of the SDGs,” he said.
Bamidele added that the “Affordable and Clean Energy” Advocates in his school are working on a mini windmill to generate light energy.
Additionally, the “Climate Action” advocates are working to erect a “garden of Eden” where they will plant various flowers to protect endangered flowers and plants.
Furthermore, Bamidele’s School has initiated grand project under the Global Schools Program mandate where they designed a Plastic Recycler. The machine was presented at the Lagos states Junior Engineers Technicians and Scientists Projects (JETS) National Competition and progressed to the finals of the competition.
