By Funke Cole
When Anthony Nwachukwu Isiani, a mechanical engineering graduate from the University of Nigeria Nsukka, went for his compulsory one-year National Youths Service Corps programme aeons ago, like all freshly baked graduates, he was burning with high enthusiasm to serve his fatherland as best he could.
Buoyed by such a patriotic fervour he had no qualms at all serving in a secondary school where he was saddled with the onerous task of ensuring that the senior class students passed their mathematics in flying colours at the Senior Secondary School Examination (SSCE) and similar exams; which he achieved without breaking a sweat.
Apparently inspired by the overwhelming success recorded in Introductory Technology now called Basic Technology, the school authorities asked him to replicate the same feat with Mathematics and later out of exigency Further Mathematics and Technical Drawing subjects were added for the young man to perform his usual magic. Though challenging, the sacrifice, he said, was worth it.
Brimming with ideas and raw talent he tried as best he could to help the students assimilate but didn’t get the desired results.
Not one to give up easily, as a well-qualified engineer, Isiani set to work by tasking his creative ingenuity and thus began a long search for solution to problems associated with understanding Mathematics and her theories.
That painstaking effort by Isiani is what helped to sow the seed that birthed the School Development Support International (SDS) Limited, almost three decades ago.
Despite getting very juicy offers to work at some blue chips including the oil and gas, automobile, etcetera, Isiani stayed through to his conviction: to make the world better than he met it and his forte remains the education beat where he keeps giving and never tires to give!
His establishment which is fully homegrown typifies the Nigerian Silicon Valley, where inventions are being churned out literally with a drop of the hat!
To his credit and that of his team they have been able to craft and design over nine homegrown solutions to not just aid teaching and but to make it funfilled, fulfilling, enjoyable, seamless and definitely something to cheer about.
Addressing some journalists at his corporate headquarters in Amuwo-Odofin axis of Lagos, recently, Isiani took the audience on a tour of facility where he demonstrated at firsthand the stuff he was truly made of!
The media crews who moved in groups, completely oblivious of their surroundings were indeed awestruck by the different inventions, most of which were all originally manufactured by the SDS team.
From writing desks, chairs and tables, laboratory rooms, theme park for children’s gaming and learning, remote controlled audiovisual learning and monitoring screens, to writing tablets, markers, door accessories, display boards, lockers, mini table tennis court for toddlers where they can practice their motor skills, etc, to study labs, Maths labs, Biology labs Physics labs, ideas incubation clinics, arts and curios for learning and study, it was indeed a eureka moment of sorts for the media guests who were completely bawled over by all what seem to be unfolding before their eyes; something not commonplace and totally foreign to Nigeria!
Interestingly, all SDS products from chairs, desks, writing tablets, markers, audiovisual equipment are crafted and designed with the school environment in mind.
An elated Isiani who was besides himself with joyous ecstasy, later shared important milestones about the dream he envisioned some years ago.
“SDS was born 27 years ago in June,” Isiani recalled, adding emphatically that the company was indeed a child of necessity.
“I was 28 years old when I set up SDS International 27 years ago. I didn’t plan to go into teaching in the first place but it was through divine direction that I found myself inside the classroom and I became a classroom teacher par excellence. But then, I knew that if I stayed there for 20 years or more, nobody was going to discover me, to the extent of making me a school principal because I didn’t have the requisite educational qualifications to stay in the classroom for that length of time. So with that in mind, I left teaching and joined an oil servicing company. But just within 30 months I resigned my appointment and decided to do exploits in the classroom,” he stressed.
The Enugu-born engineer who says he has all it takes to conveniently start a school of his own, said he totally jettisoned the idea because of its limiting factor.
“I have got all the requirements for me to start a formal school on my own but I dismissed the whole idea because it was going to limit my vision and scope. But rather opted to remain a solution provider to all schools, which is a more broad-based assignment for me. The most important thing for me as an engineer is I want to support the industry to the best of my ability.”
According to the visionary and founder of SDS International Limited, his vision is to support humanity as best he can using his expertise in Education Engineering.
SDS International Limited, he said, “Is a maker of schools. If you want excellence in education delivery, top quality education materials, this is a Nigerian company perhaps the only one producing high quality education materials comparable to anywhere in the world. We have nine proven solutions that are original to SDS International and which you can’t find anywhere else in the world. Our ultimate objective is to give our schools quality materials that would make the teachers and students learn appropriately and efficiently too.”
Looking back 27 years after as a business, Isiani says he has reached a point in his career where he is no longer being propelled mainly by pecuniary gains but purely altruistic motives and that is why his major concern today is how to redouble his efforts in doing more philanthropic gestures by giving back to the society.
“As a business we have reached a level to start to grow and expand our vision on how to support humanity. For us, it’s no longer just about looking for money.We have done this for 27 years but this time we now said how can we give back to the society in providing better options to grow the education industry.”
Specifically, he said, “We are planning free training for teachers to better equip them on advance teaching methodology amongst other things we would unfold as we go along this journey.”
Lamentably, he said, “The nation’s education sector as handed down to us by our colonial masters was faulty and that’s why our socioeconomic development and growth has remained stunted.”
In his quest to address this seeming lacuna in the education sector, he developed a concept called The Trinity of Human Development thus: agriculture, education and engineering.
According to him, if any country earmarks resources to these areas and pays critical attention to same, there is no way such a country would ever go downhill except succeed in every other area.
Sadly, he said, these areas have remained the bane of the nation’s underdevelopment currently because of the lip-service being paid to these sectors by all tiers of government including the organised private sector.
“SDS has what it takes for possible immortality of humanity to bring them to better reckoning especially Nigeria, West Africa, the continent and the entire globe. We changed the approach of teaching and pedagogy by inventing the seamless teaching method. Seamless teaching as the name implies, starts from designing the materials which are tailored towards a particular study.”
Expatiating, Isiani said, “We’re transforming schools through creativity. At the risk of sounding immodest, I can tell you for a fact that no school that has ever tested us wants to leave. Once they come in they remain with us because of the level of trust they repose on us. SDS is not competing with anybody. We don’t import rather we create our own solutions through engineering design and production peculiar to us with a problem in mind. For instance, we integrate creativity into mathematics in such a way that the subject becomes easier to assimilate and understand. That’s what makes us unique.”
The inventor cum business incubation expert further revealed that in the course of time his team has been able to come up with a template which can help students better study and learn in and out of school.
Waxing philosophical, the mechanical engineer said, learning starts from such simple tasks as taking notes, listening to the teacher and reenacting the classroom episodes in ones mind.
“Learning starts from the notes then textbooks. But you can make the error of judgement by thinking that that’s all there’s to learning. No. The notebooks transmit three signals while the textbooks transmits only one. Notebook has the demo signal, voice is also recorded, the black and white signal unlike the textbook that has just one signal. Thankfully, with seamless methodology which we designed that has solved the problem encountered in learning the STEM or science subjects especially.”
Pressed further, Isiani said many students can’t study even when they get to the ivory tower their plights worsen.
“We have also developed a concept of studentship.”
The concept of studentship, he stressed, is a way of encouraging students to be able to study on their own using their God-given natural abilities to explore, discover themselves, their innate potentials especially.
“We want to take our studentship to immortality. To the point that a student can carry on his or her studies without the tutor even from the comfort of their homes. Immortality through studentship is the latest development of the study lab. Every study the child is taking there are three people involved: the child, the tutor and a parent all connected to the system the child is given to be able to monitor study and learning outcomes. A sort of monitored learning by students, with the caregivers in this case their tutors and their parents all in sync. It’s a win, win situation for everybody especially the society at large which benefits more if our students are able to develop their mental faculty to the extent that they can explore, discover themselves by themselves and then bring out their talents and allow it manifest.”
Expectedly, Isiani doesn’t believe he has all the answers yet but is open to collaboration with partners both local and overseas, all in a bid to impact humanity better, he says matter-of-factly.