ZOO AND MUSEUM: VITAL FOR EDUCATION AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT OF THE CHILD

From the Museum of Traditional Nigerian Architecture (MOTNA), National Museum Jod

Zoo is a facility dedicated for the confinement of wild and in some cases domestic animals and birds, in a secure enclosure, for breeding, and for display or exhibition, in captivity, to the public. For the museums, the insight by the DG, National Commission for Museums and Monuments suffices: 

“They are not mere repositories of artefacts, they are invaluable institutions that serve as hubs for learning, exploration and enlightenment”.

If you are like me, you learnt some of the things you know today from the classroom; as a matter of fact from the pictures of objects that where shown to you and your classmates in a text book. Such objects cover both domestic and none domestic objects. 

Examples of some of the objects that you were privileged to see and learn about in a textbook picture include - aeroplane, train and ship. Others are human beings; mostly reputed people, those in authority then or long before that time. Capital cities like Lagos, Port Harcourt and Enugu, Calabar, Jos and Kano, and various species of animals, domestic and wild were part of it.

In order to plant the knowledge and have them sink deep in our mind, the teachers used stories and deployed as teaching aid the pictures, for enhanced assimilation and understanding of the lessons, lasting impression and greater impact on us the learners. 

While growing up, the tortoise was a regular feature in most of the stories we were told at home before school age and in the school subsequently. Some of these stories were by word of mouth only, without the aid of any picture of the animals in the story. I don’t know about you, as for me the very day a picture was introduced along with a story, the experience was entirely different. The class that day, the learning process and the lessons learnt were more impressionable, deeper and very unique. Fact is the introduction of the pictures to the story and learning process in the classroom created a mark and left an indelible impact in our life. The continued use of pictures in learning, at home and in the classroom brought a turnaround in our learning experience.

I tell this story here, believing that many people had similar experience. I won’t be surprised if the reader is begins to have nostalgic feelings because you have been taken down memory lane. This narrative is intended to paint a picture in the mind of the reader that will ultimately arouse in your consciousness an impact driven thought arising from the realization that intermittent trips to the Zoological Garden (the Zoo) or a Museum, example the Jos Zoological Garden and the Museum of Traditional Nigerian Architecture (MOTNA), Jos and other attractive sites located at the National Museum Jos, will have transformative effect on the education of your child. 

Keep following Scoreline for more lessons about the Zoo and the Museum that are of benefit to the education of the children and creation of socio-economic opportunities for their empowerment in life. You too, the parents, guardians, uncles and aunties stand to benefit maximally from the eye popping and life changing issues that will be generated on this segment of the Platform…