Senator Joy Emodi , founds University in Games Village Abuja called ‘’Brickhall Schools’ starting with Primary

Senator Joy Emodi, known to her fellow lawmakers, first as “Joy of the Senate,” as a Senator, and later “Joy of the National Assembly,” when she served as Presidential Adviser on National Assembly matters, is a former chairman of the Senate Committee on Education.
Although, she is a woman of many parts, one aspect that has however surely lifted her as a rare gift to Nigeria is her stint in education sector where she has given so much both as an individual and as a public officer.
Emodi, who turned 60 recently, was UNESCO’s focal person in the Nigerian parliament at a point and in order to further contribute to the education sector, she has now decided to devote more attention to raising what she termed “intellectually and morally strong future generations” of Nige¬rians. She spoke to ISMAIL OMIPIDAN on her new project.
Excerpts:
What’s happening, you appear to be on the quiet side these days?
Well, you know I clocked 60 recently, to the glory of God. What’s happening is that I have limited my political activities. I am paying more attention to other areas of my calling, training, career and passion. So, I am now going into school proprietorship. I just founded Brickhall School. We are currently admitting our pioneer pupils into early edu¬cation classes and Primary 1 to 4. We shall start secondary school classes in September 2016 by the grace of God. My ambition is to ultimately grow it up to university level.
That’s quite ambitious. What’s the motivation?
Education has always been my first love in terms of passion, training and career. I first bagged a Bachelor of Science degree in Ge¬ography Education from University of Nige¬ria, Nsukka and subsequently , I went into teaching and education administration before going back to school to study Law and was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1988. I served as Education Officer under the old Anambra State School Board. Those were the good old days. Sadly, things have become so bad now.
Compared to those good old days, you could never have believed it not even in your wildest imagination, what our education sec¬tor has become today.
So, this school project is my way of mak¬ing practical intervention and giving back to the society. It’s an amalgamation of the ideas I gathered from within Nigeria and interna¬tionally that fired my zeal to set up the Brick¬hall School. I sieved from all my education experience and came out with what I feel should be the model for an effective and ef¬ficient education system in Nigeria.
Brickhall School is sited very close to the Games Village, Abuja. It’s a quiet and central location. It’s inside the city, yet secluded from city distractions.
We are starting with early education or what some call playgroup and nursery as well as the primary classes. Having laid that foundation, we will bring the secondary classes on stream by 2016.
Brickhall sounds unique, where did it come from?
I chose the name from the connotations of the substance, brick, which is a hardened block of mud or clay used for building. We intend to inculcate strong knowledge in the pupils and students that will enable them grow into strong, committed citizens of the nation and the world and be able to impact positively and strongly the society they live in.
It’s co-educational. It’s not just by name, but also in terms of meeting the physical, emotional or psychological needs of both the girl-child and boy-child. We do not have boarding facilities yet. That will be coming along with the secondary school segment.
But let me be honest with you, as a person, I would never allow my little child, a primary school pupil, to live in the boarding house. You see, we have fundamental duties as par¬ents. The first is to worship and serve God.
The second is to give our best to raising total children, children grounded in the fear of God and our cultures. Disciplined and respectful children, intelligent and emotion¬ally sound children. In their early formative years, children need parents as much as they need teachers at school to grow under well-balanced influences.
I understand that parents are under a lot more pressure now in the bid to make ends meet. But, I must be honest with you any work I will do at the expense of bringing up my children is not worth it. So, it’s good to strike a balance. I wasn’t into active politics while my children grew up. I picked jobs that allowed me the time to care for them. But by the time they are in secondary school, the basic foundation would have been laid. They can be boarders. Yet you have to keep watch¬ful eyes on them, because it’s a lot more dif¬ficult to raise godly children today than in our days because of too many influences that abound.
Can you tell us briefly about the fa¬cilities in the school?
The school was founded to serve as a model for learning and to produce total and well-rounded children that every parent will be proud of. I traveled to many countries when this dream came up to get ideas and adopt world best practices. This was in addi¬tion to my international tours as chairman of Senate Committee on Education.
We have a school building with spacious classrooms equipped with world-class facili¬ties that make teaching and learning fun. For instance, each of our classrooms will have cutting-edge audio-visual equipment and teaching aids that facilitate leaning with ease.
We shall have well-equipped laboratories for science and home economics as well as music and arts rooms where our pupils un¬dergo the practical aspects of their studies. There is a standard library and ICT room and they will be well-resourced. We have a large and well-equipped auditorium for so¬cial and extra-curricular activities. Brickhall School also boasts of well-equipped indoor playing area for early education pupils and spacious outdoor fields for games and sport¬ing activities for the total child development. The equipments are ready and in the process of being installed.
Of course, we are conscious of the secu¬rity of children put under our care. The en¬tire premises is fenced securely and we have a team of efficient private security guards supported by a standby patrol team of the Nigeria Police Force to ensure adequate se¬curity of lives and property in and around the school. We also have other sophisticated and hi-tech security gadgets, which I am not sup¬posed to mention in public.
More importantly, the life and health of our children are very crucial to us. Brickhall School boasts of a standard sick bay, which will be operated by a registered pediatric nurse and a consultant pediatrician who are well trained. So, parents can be rest assured that their children are in good hands in school.
The good thing about us is that Brickhall School operates Nigerian/British curriculum in its truest form. It’s a good blend of both international and local content and flavour for effective teaching and learning methods for the overall development of the child.
We also teach Igbo, Hausa, and Yoruba in addition to French language to ensure that every child is well grounded in the local culture and exposed to a major international language.
Education is not all about reading and writ¬ing and passing exams. We teach etiquette, civics and moral education to ensure that they are molded into complete citizens with acceptable social behaviours as well as civic preparedness that help them fit perfectly into the wider society as good citizens as they grow.
Brickhall School is, indeed, the school of choice for discerning parents who wish to give their children the best education that will give them a perfect launch in life.
What were challenges you encoun¬tered in the course of bringing the school project to fruition?
We have peculiar challenges in bringing dreams such as this to fruition in this coun¬try. It was not different in my case. There was a lot of going forth and back. But I am also a stickler for due process and standard. The authorities supervised as we built. The educational authorities also painstakingly scrutinized our processes of registration, our curriculum, etc. It has been challenging but worth it.
God’s grace has been sufficient indeed. I am also more determined , because of the cause I am pursuing. I must tell you that leg¬acy is more important to me going into this project.
It’s not about money. With every sense of modesty, those who know me will tell you that contentment is one of my greatest gifts from God. I don’t believe in savage acquisi¬tions. Once I am able to maintain the standard and pay workers, I am okay. I have brought up all my children. What will give me fulfill¬ment is to see Brickhall School produce pro¬fessionals, presidents, governors, lawmakers, business magnates and people that will im¬pact the society positively.
Again, let me also add that members of our teaching staff are highly qualified and experienced. The same goes for school ad¬ministrators to ensure that the school’s phi¬losophy, vision and mission are religiously observed. The least qualification for teachers at Brickhall is Bachelor’s degree in educa¬tion and early childhood education for the primary and early years respectively. Apart from paper qualification, we recruited teach¬ers with passion for education and not just people who are looking for jobs to keep body and soul together.
Finally, with this, are you quitting politics or what?
Well, what I am saying by implication is, less politics, more time to this education proj¬ect. Although, political allies still come to consult, I’m not in active politics, but my po¬litical court will always be open to associates and for political interactions.

Sun