By Christy Anyanwu
Ebi Obaro is a certified Canadian Immigration and Education Consultant. She remains in good standing with the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants (CICC), and the Canadian Association of Professional Immigration Consultants (CAPIC). A graduate of Food Technology from the University of South Bank, London, she is also the Chairman of the Nigerian Canadian Business Association. With over 20 years of experience working with students and immigrants to Canada, she founded Maple Canadian College (MCC) after careful evaluation of the experiences and needs of international students in Canada. Recently, she spoke with Saturday Sun about her foray into foreign education and immigration. In the interview, she advised parents on best ways to assist their wards in their educational pursuits.
How did you get involved with Canadian education?
It’s not by chance that I got involved in Canadian education. I didn’t stumble across it. My family comprising seven of us, five children inclusive migrated to Canada 25 years ago at a time when Nigerians did not show any interest in Canada probably because they were not aware of the country or because it was too far. So, having had our five children go through Canadian education – some from elementary school and all of them through secondary school and university, in 2000 I had the idea of promoting Canadian education in Nigeria. The idea came from the fact that having had our children go through the education; one could see the gaps in the Nigerian education curriculum. So, we established Maple Canadian College (MCC) about 20 years ago to recruit Nigerian students to Canadian schools. At that time, we didn’t have a school. Students were going into Grade 12, which is the last year of secondary school in Nigeria. That is, the pre-university class or they would go straight to the universities or colleges with their WAEC results.
What was the vacuum that you saw that gave birth to your decision to help Nigerians secure Canadian education?
We discovered that Nigerian students were struggling in school. The difference in the syllabus was beginning to show, especially in English and Sciences. We all claim to study English from primary school. But there are a whole lot of differences when it comes to the quality of English that we know. And then we have a lot of problems with our writing skills. So, Nigerian students who got into Canadian universities found it difficult to write. And there is a lot of research and writing of papers. But today, our students here find English different. For the first two years, it was difficult. But now we have been able to get them to do very well in English.
How about sciences and mathematics?
They found sciences and mathematics also difficult. I remember once when the then Nigerian Ambassador to Canada challenged me. He said: ‘why don’t we open a Canadian school in Nigeria so that Nigerian students at that early age, most of who are 16 years old, can do the Grade 12 programme in Nigeria before going to the university in Canada?’ This is because we could see a lot of them struggling until they become disillusioned. They were failing. And there was a lot of concerns from their parents that their kids were not doing well. They could not understand why. So, that challenge was there for many years. At that time, I didn’t see us having a school. But a time came when we decided to do this. So, we set up Maple Canadian College to bridge that gap between the Nigeria secondary school syllabus and the Canadian high school curriculum.
How have you been able to manage teenagers considering the pressures that come with adolescence?
When you think of Nigerian education, we all know that there are gaps in the curriculum. Sometimes, you find out that the curriculum has nothing to do with reality. There is always the need to transfer what is learned in class to what is done in the real world. That was really for us the greatest challenge. Having to come here, go through the Canadian curriculum and then apply the knowledge, is the greatest challenge that they have had to overcome. Another thing is that they haven’t learned how to do things timely, so when deadlines are set, there is usually a challenge to meet the deadline. These are the things they go through in the first few months, struggling to meet deadlines. When you miss deadlines in the Canadian curriculum, there is a penalty for it. You tend to lose marks once your deadline has passed. So, we had to get them to understand the need to meet deadlines and ensure that their works are ready on time and they have the privilege of showing them to their teacher here in Nigeria before they submit them to their Canadian teacher. They also had big issues with plagiarism. There is no framework put in place for plagiarism in the Nigerian curriculum. So a child does not know that copying and pasting without citing sources is a crime. And there is no tolerance for plagiarism in the Canadian curriculum and even in the western world. They had a lot of academic integrity issues at the beginning and there are stages to handling those academic issues with Rosedale and the Canadian curriculum as they would usually begin to catch in on what is required of them within a few months here.
You mentioned that Nigeria’s curriculum does not meet up with standards. What are your suggestions on how it could be improved to meet the international standards?
When a child passes through the Nigerian system and goes straight into a foreign university, they are faced with so many academic challenges out there. Those were the major reasons that Maple Canadian College was established. Nigeria’s education system does not correlate with real life. Unfortunately, everybody is passing through the same system, including teachers. And so the tendency is that the outcome will always be the same. The people teaching and those receiving end up the same. So there is a need for training. I am not in the school of thought that we should take up another person’s education system. I think that what we have is robust enough, what we need now is to put some extras into it – a review. There is no time when we review and when even the review is going to take place; it is not done by educationists but by people outside of the education sector who have a clue of what is happening inside. So if this review is going to be done and done with the intent to improve the outcome, then educationists need to sit down, look at our curriculums, look at real-life and find a way to put some balance into what the students are learning. And then infuse technology. We need to infuse technology from the grassroots – the primary so that they are not left behind because when they go outside, they are left behind. And, a lot of students now do the extra. Those who want their children to study abroad, actually go the extra mile to do something more for their children, so that they are not left behind if they go outside. That struggle will not take place if all these things were put together. So, a lot of training must be put in place for the teachers. But for the private school, I must confess that I don’t see a decline. I am seeing more of a push towards what is necessary.
So, in essence, the problem is with public schools?
The children in the public schools are the ones who are ways behind. And so government must, as a necessity, put things in place so that these children can leverage. Then, there is no danger that one child is going full speed ahead while another child is left behind. That just determines where they will end up. Government just needs to understand the place of education and put everything that it needs into it. I also think that education has to be practical, related and fun, so infusing technology into the curriculum will go a long way in making students understand better what they are being taught. And the teachers have to be certified in specific subjects to be able to teach the students effectively. Apart from the gap in the curriculum, Canadian content is way more advanced than Nigerian content. Some of our students taking physics here are now looking at topics they didn’t teach in the Nigerian curriculum. Imagine what will happen if they go straight to the university in Canada to study engineering.
Who influenced you as a person?
I think it was my father. My father has seven children and all of us are still alive today. Anytime, we sit down and talk about our upbringing, we always talk about our father. I remember when I was in secondary school, someone asked me one day, ‘Don’t you have a mother? You always talk about your father.’ I told her, of course, I have a mother. My father was very much involved in our upbringing. He was a present father. He was always home after work. He would sit us down and talk to us about things. He was a soldier. Several times, he had gone abroad for training. He had a foreign exposure. He doesn’t believe in spanking. He would rather sit you down and tell you what you did is wrong and you would be weeping like you were beaten. That was even more painful than beating. My father made sure that he provided for us, and guided us; he was there for us. This is the first time actually that I realize that my father is my role model.
As an educationist, what lessons have you learned in terms of relating with parents and students?
In my profession, especially dealing with Nigerian foreign students, I find that the present-day parents do a lot for their children. When I went to school, my parents were not much involved. They just assumed that I’ll do the right thing. We chose the school we wanted to go to. But I found out that now, parents are so involved. They do everything for their children.
Their children no longer have the push to do things for themselves. They are not involved in the programme that they want to study sometimes. You find students studying something that their parents want them to study. I think that should change. Children should be involved in the programme they want to study so that they do it well. Nigerian parents believe they could pay their fees. Sometimes they don’t have the funds and they are not realistic about being able to pay their children’s school fees. Do what you can do for your children. Even when they study in Nigeria, they will be fine. Do not stretch yourself beyond what you can do which might result in the failure of your children abroad. You can’t pay their fees. The children are just there, and we have seen that happen to some of the students. Parents believe by faith that they can sponsor their children when they cannot.