The first edition of Smart vacance has begun from 20 to 22 July 2023 in Ouagadougou. In an interview, Larissa Nikiema, the promoter of the event, talks about the smart vacance programme. This senior expert in mining geology and environmental health and safety engineer talks about the objectives, the difficulties involved in organising the event and the outlook.
For Larissa Nikiema, Smart vacances is an extra-curricular and university event aimed at building the capacity of pupils and students in the geosciences. According to her, the motivation for holding such an event comes from her desire to popularise the geosciences. She points out that “this is a little-known field in schools and universities” because pupils and students do not have the culture to explore all the disciplines relating to the geosciences. According to Larissa Nikiema, the aim of smart vacance is also to “encourage vocations and facilitate the entry of pupils and students into the academic, professional and entrepreneurial world through the concept of geoscience”, she added.
In terms of the response to this first event, the promoter said that over 200 pupils and students had registered for the practical workshops. As for the content of the training sessions: “07 training modules were given to the participants in this edition of Smart vacance, including an introduction to remote drone piloting, geophysical measurement, macroscopic and microscopic rock reconnaissance, first aid training and an introduction to the use of GPS and cartography”, explained Larissa Nikiema. She went on to explain that the group had been split into sub-groups of 10 to enable them to spend the same amount of time in different workshops. “This will enable us to exhaust our programme and allow all those registered to benefit from all the programmes,” she explained.
For this edition of Smart vacance, the promoter points out that one of the difficulties encountered in organising this event is mainly communications-related. “This has led us to go into schools to give direct talks, mini events to explain what geoscience is, which is a little-known field that you have to understand before you get interested”, she said, noting that parents’ associations and the ministry responsible for education have been approached to help communicate the event.
In terms of prospects after this edition, Larissa Nikiema reveals that Smart vacance is not just reserved for high schools. Another event would be organised for younger children, especially those in primary school, using other learning methods. In addition to this, the organisation would like to hold the event in the 13 regions of Burkina Faso if the conditions are right. “We have the will, the experts and the themes, but we need material and financial support,” said the promoter, who is hoping that all those involved will get behind the event for the benefit of the youngest children.
As a reminder, the theme of this first edition of its kind was “Geoscience and technology, initiating challenges and prospects in the school environment”, and was aimed at pupils from 4th to final year of secondary school, as well as students.
Tiba Kassamse OUEDRAOGO
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