El-Amin School instills passion for learning in students
Authorities in El-Amin International School, Minna say they pay special attention to staff capacity building because it is integral to the overall vision of the school’s founder. They also allow teachers and students to imbibe modern and approachable learning opportunities.
They also say they have designed staff development measures to provide a range of opportunities to meet the needs of all stakeholders as well as inspire passion for learning in their students.
The principal, Nkama Vincent, said the school invests in both teacher and infrastructural development to have teachers with effective discipline and skills to promote positive behaviors and change in the classrooms. “We have a continuous development programme in which we run in-house training for teachers in addition to our training institute. Teachers also attend overseas training,” he said.
He said the teachers belong to several educational associations and abide by standards set by regulatory and professional bodies. The school, the principal said, encourages teachers to do online programmes and that during its annual appraisal meetings, the teachers are assessed and asked to carry out classroom observation.
“There is what we call mentoring in which we ask teachers, including the brightest, to watch the teaching methods of their colleagues during classes,” he said.
Though it takes time to develop a great teacher, the principal said the focal point of the school’s management is to improve teacher quality, and in that manner, help an effective teacher become a good one and a good teacher a great one. He said almost all students benefit from high quality instruction.
Mr Vincent said the school has installed high quality and durable laboratory facilities to enhance handson experiments and the effectiveness of learning science. The school, he also said, helps students to grasp science concepts by combining classroom teaching with adequate and relevant lab experiments.
There were also workshops in the school where students could physically use machine tools to learn different skills, the principal said, in addition to art studio where they could think and act creatively.
Again, while most schools no longer teach typing because of the availability of PCs, El-Amin School still boasts of a well-equipped typing pool where students could practice regularly to achieve the reflexes to become skilled typists. Excellent typing and writing skills are said to be helpful to students and make it easier for them to do research, assignments and communicate ideas, he stated.
Moreover, the school has two computer science labs with adequate desktops.
“Our science laboratories are better than labs used by students in many universities. We have state-of-the-art facilities in every discipline including chemistry, biology and physics as well as in basic technology, carpentry, electrical, mechanical workshops and Visual Art Studio,” Mr Vincent said.
“The home economics and language labs are well equipped and we still have typing pool where we test the accuracy and typing speed of students.
“We have two ICT labs with each having not less than 35 desktop computers, accommodating 70 students at once, apart from tablets that the school purchased for them for their classes as part of the digital classroom system. All these were the work of the founder, late Hajiya Maryam Babangida,” the principal stated.
He said most students enjoyed food and nutrition lessons which provide them with comprehensive understanding of food composition. The students are given opportunities to interact with chefs in different places to hone their skills.
He said: “Our food and nutrition students recently visited one of the best hotels in Abuja and when they returned, they admitted that they were familiar with all the equipment the hotel was using. They also interacted with the best chefs.”
The principal further stated that the school management had since inception given utmost attention to sports and other extra-curricular activities that help students to stay physically and mentally fit as well as achieve more academically. This, he said, explained why the school has excellent sports facilities including a gym.
“We have a good football pitch of standard size, lawn tennis court where the executive director plays daily, basketball court, volleyball court, table tennis room and a fully equipped gym,” he said.
He said because children are the future of religious tolerance, students are allowed to practice their faith freely in the school and encouraged to respect the views of each other. He said students learn to be more understanding and more respectful of people who hold belief s that differ from their own
He said, ‘Here, people are free to practice their different religions and tolerate each other. This gives every child an idea about the rights of people and that translates to what happens in the lager society.”