The Nation Newspaper

Category: Lekan Otufodunrin

  • How to get paid for what you know

    With the present economic situation in the country when jobs are hard to get, one of the ways to earn a living is to know what you are good at and know how to get paid for it.

    Years ago, I saw a newspaper advert of a training for pastors on various aspects of ministry work.

    I noted that there was no topic on use of new media and I took the chance of showing up on the first day of the programme to ask if I could be allowed to share my knowledge about how pastors can maximise use of the Internet.

    The programme officer told me it was too late to accommodate my request, but he agreed to ask the bishop of the church if he was interested in my proposal.

    The bishop liked the idea and altered the programme schedule to accommodate my lecture.

    I left the venue paid more than I was expecting and with the contacts of many potential clients who wanted personalised coaching.

    The above incident happened during one of my desperate moments of trying to survive ‘on my own’ after resigning from where I used to work and was guaranteed monthly pay.

    Most of my anticipated revenue streams did not work out as planned and I had to think deeply about what else I could get paid for. My mastery of the new media when it was still relatively understood by a select few like me came in handy and ever since continued to be a good-paying side hustle even when I returned to take a regular job.

    Many people are very knowledgeable about various skills and other areas of human interests but they don’t know how to get paid for what we know. They think they can only earn a pay from a regular job or when they start a business of their own.

    If I didn’t ask for the opportunity to speak at the pastors’ conference I would have missed the chance of getting what I was paid and others contacts I got.

    It is not enough to have experience or knowledge which we can brag about, there is need to find where to share them and get rewarded for what we know.

    To get paid for what you know, however, you must really be the expert you claim you are.

    You must know more than the basic information available to any pretender in your area of specialisation.

    Your depth of knowledge must by authoritative and valuable to those who want to pay you.

    You must keep abreast of latest developments and keep researching your subject area.

    You must have personal practical experiences and other case studies you can share and not only theories about what you know.

    New jobs are indeed hard to get nowadays both in the public and private sector and it is necessary for anyone who have bills to pay to know he or she is good at, which does not have to be what they studied.

    Organisations and people pay for services and knowledge and only those who can offer them are guaranteed of getting paid.  More than ever before, graduates of higher institutions have to know how to turn their education into offering services they can be paid for.

    The entrepreneur course which is now compulsory in universities and polytechnics has to be more aimed at making the students understand the business sides and opportunities  of their main courses and not only teaching them the basic buying and selling.

    Graduates should be able to come up with new ways of offering services in the courses they studied or other endeavours.

  • Worrisome state of the media

    I recently wrote a facebook post in which I commended the managements of The Punch and The Nation newspapers where I worked for 12 years each and have been paid all my entitlements, including pension contributions.

    Ordinarily, my not being owed salaries for the 24 years I worked in the two newspapers and other payments should not be an issue since that is supposed to be the case, but unfortunately that is not the experience of many journalists in various media houses.

    Apart from a few media organisations like The Nation and The Punch, the tales of woes of journalists who are supposed to be the watchdogs of the society are unimaginable. Despite that many companies don’t pay commensurate salaries considering the work load of journalists, workers have to wait endlessly to be paid for as long as one year in some cases.

    Standard conditions of service that protect the interest of workers in accordance with the labour laws of the country are not applicable in many media houses. Many journalists who worked for years have been sacked or forced to resign without any entitlement. No one is sure of what he or she is entitled to if sacked or voluntarily resigns.

    Read Also: Breaking: Lawan drops Adedayo as Media Adviser

    There are many cases of journalists who have died of various illnesses due to their inability to pay their medical bills. Many, especially men, are unable to cater for their families and pay necessary bills because of lack of regular payment or non-payment.

    It is ironic that journalists who fight for the rights of others, including minimum wages and other entitlements, are subjected to all manner of injustices that have turned many to paupers.

    The Lagos State Council of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) in a communique at the end of its June congress expressed concern about the growing number of debtor media houses and threatened to take all actions possible, including picketing the companies. The union had in the past voiced its concern about the conditions of service of its members, but not much has been achieved in ensuring that journalists are not treated like casual workers.

    More than ever before, the NUJ and other media groups like the Nigerian Guild of Editors, have to take the welfare of journalists more seriously. There is need to ensure that media owners not only pay journalists promptly, they should pay salaries that match the qualifications and work schedules of their workers like other professionals.

    The media groups should educate their members on the labour laws of the country and ensure that media establishments abide by the requirements. It is wrong for media organisations to have journalists working for them for years without former letters of employments or any agreed payment as it is the case in the industry. The exploitation of desperate journalists seeking means of livelihood is unfair and should be stopped.

    A media organisation in the country once launched its newspaper in South Africa but had to shut down as it was not allowed to owe workers’ salaries as it does it Nigeria.

    While the state of the economy might have impacted on the fortunes of the industry like others, there is still room to improve managements of the debtor companies and be good corporate citizens.

    The media should be concerned about removing the log in its eyes before having the moral authority to demand for the removal of the speck in the eyes of those it reports.

    It’s not realistic to expect journalists to meet the required high standard of performance when they cannot afford basic things they need to keep soul and body together.

  • Ensuring cordial executive-legislative relationship

    Following the election of Dr. Ahmed Lawan as Senate President and Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila as Speaker of the House of Representatives, the preferred candidates of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), many are optimistic that the executive led by President Muhammadu Buhari will have it easier dealing with the National Assembly unlike under the immediate past leaders.

    This position is informed by the belief that the emergence of the former Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, and the former Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, against the wishes of the party, which they originally belonged to before defecting,  put the federal legislature and executive at loggerheads for most of the tenure of the  last administration.

    Even before defecting, the animosity was apparent and it was not just going to be possible for the two arms to work harmoniously.

    There are those who accused the Saraki-led Senate doing everything to sabotage the Buhari administration. Budgets were not approved early and like the executive wanted it. Approvals were not given for some appointments promptly and some bills took ages to be passed.

    It is believed that if the APC had had its way like it has done now in 2015, the Buhari administration would not have had any problem getting whatever it wanted approved from the National Assembly.

    The other fall-out of the recent election of National Assembly leaders is the assertion that the Buhari administration will no longer have any excuse not to live up to the high expectations of the people who are yearning for the fulfilment of many promises of improvement of the  standard of living and good governance at all levels.

    While the above two expectations may be justified with the assertion of the APC truly being the majority party in the assembly, I would caution that the party and executive should not take the support and understanding of the National Assembly for granted.

    Notwithstanding party membership, the various arms of governments, the executive, legislative and judiciary are supposed to operate independently. As much as they are supposed to work harmoniously, each arm must not fail to perform its checks and balances role in accordance with the democratic principles.

    I do not totally share the claim that the Saraki-led Senate deliberately frustrated the Buhari executive in anyway. What does not seem to be clear to many are the principle of separation of powers with requires that each arm must work in accordance with the constitutional provisions.

    There are laid down guidelines for getting the approval of the National Assembly on any issue irrespective of which party the leadership or members belong to which must be diligently followed. As much as the legislators want to cooperate with the executive, it should not carry out its function in a way that it ends up being a rubber stamp assembly.

    The problem the executive had with the last legislature was in many instances due to its inability to do what it should do at the right time. If budgets were submitted late as it was usually the case in the last four years and with lots of gaps that needed to be sorted out at public sittings, there is nothing the assembly can do about it to hasten passing the budgets.

    The executive needs to put its house in order and ensure that passage of its budgets and bills are as seamless as possible.

    What was also missing in the last dispensation was lack of enough pre-consultation at caucus level to sort out points of disagreements before issues come to the floor of the houses. There were many supposedly loyal members of the National Assembly who also did not support the position of the executive on some issues.

    While there is room for a lot of optimism with the ascension of leadership by Lawan and Gbajabiamila, executive and legislative disagreements cannot be ruled out if there is no mutual respect for the role of each arm, more so there are other party members in the assembly.

  • What’s SPECIAL about media aide appointments?

    With the inauguration of the president and governors across the country, some journalists are being appointed as Special Advisers, Special Assistants (Media and Publicity) and Chief Press Secretaries.

    The appointment of sometimes top journalists as media aides has, however, been a cause for concern regarding what is so special about the jobs to warrant the appointees abandoning the newsrooms for government houses.

    Indeed, the president, governors and other office holders need excellent professionals to be their media aides, but the media should also be able to keep its good hands, especially when they are known names in the industry, whose careers and reputation could be ruined by their role in government.

    The point of this piece is not to in any way suggest that media aide jobs are not special, rather, it is to stress the need for spokespersons to be allowed to perform their special tasks professionally as the go-between their principals, the media and the general public.

    There is no point appointing accomplished journalists as special media ‘whatever’ and not giving them the necessary enabling environment to perform their duties.

    The job of the media aides, particularly those designated as Special Advisers, is supposed to be a top-level function that requires that they are part of the inner cabinet team decision and policy-making process where they would be able to offer expert opinion on the implications of any decision taken by the government or on any other issue of public interest.

    Media advisers should be confidants of their bosses, even more than some other appointees considering the sensitive role they play in managing public perception and their advice should be taken seriously.

    It should not be that the damage has been done, as it is in many cases and the media adviser is called in like a fire-fighter when he or she could have prevented the fire based on strategic plans.

    If the media aides are indeed special as they should be, they should usually have unhindered access to necessary information on any issue of public interest to be able to adequately respond to media enquiries and issue official statements.

    For the avoidance of doubt, the appointment of a media aide from a media house is not a guarantee against unfavourable publications and broadcasts. Those who appoint journalists as media aides should know this and not expect any ‘story killing’ magic.

    Taking up a media aide job in some cases is a career sacrifice for the professionals concerned and the assignment should not be made difficult by poor performance by their bosses.

    One advice for journalists who get media adviser roles is that they should understand that they are no longer the ‘big’ newsroom bosses who cannot be questioned by reporters. They must be patient to listen to journalists who want explanation and justification for everything as they should.

    The media adviser job is also more than just responding to enquiries and issuing statements. It is a total public relations role which media management is just one aspect of it. How they write and speak matters, especially in this new media age when a single slip can go viral.

    Their bosses should know when to speak, when not to speak and how to speak in public as every word counts.

    The media to be managed now is not only the traditional media but the ‘gateless’ new media platforms where virtually everybody is a ‘journalist’ and commentator.

    I can imagine how difficult the special job of being a media aide is now. My best wishes to colleagues who have what it takes to be one and do it well.

  • Media: Elixir for societal decadence?

    As a country and people who care about the future, we need to urgently address the slide in our moral values which we used to be very proud of but which we are gradually, totally losing for want of better way to describe it, ‘modern times’ .

    Such is the level of societal decadence that too many things are not just right starting from the family, lifestyle, government, politics, among others.

    A decadent society will be one that sinks below a former level of standard and values for which it is known. The decadence, according to Wikipedia, refers to decay in standards, morals, dignity, religious faith, or skills among members of a social structure.

    It used to be that we valued our family names and pedigrees and we will do everything to protect them. When people are given any major task; whether in government, politics, business or whatever, they are constantly reminded to remember of the child or who they are. They are told not to do anything to dent the good name of the families.

    Not again these days when nothing matters and people, including the youths, go to any length to get whatever they want. When people are told to ‘o shaprarapa’ and shine their eyes to grab whatever they can get.

    Some of the crimes we hear of these days are mind blowing and they are clear indications of how low we have sunk as a society that needs to return to the good old days when living above board was the norm and not the exception.

    Corruption, malpractices and all forms of misdemeanours have eaten deep into the fabric of our society, unfortunately, despite being one of the most religious countries in the word.

    Given the worrisome state of our society, what can the media do? Can the media be the elixir for societal decadence and compass towards a sane community?

    I had to double check the meaning of elixir to attempt to answer this question. Top Google search results shows that elixir is a magical or medicinal potion. It adds: Miraculous, magical, and maybe a little mysterious solution.

    We may be right to equate that definition to the all-solution drugs hawked on our streets to cure all diseases!

    The role of the media in any society is undoubtedly crucial as it is meant to inform, educate and entertain.

    Given the known role of the media, especially in its traditional sense, I have no doubt that it can play a major role in being an elixir for societal decadence and compass towards a sane community. What I am not sure of is, if it can be a magical or miraculous solution to our societal decadence.

    I earlier referred to the media in the traditional sense. What I mean is that the media that will play the role we desire must still uphold the traditional ethics which make it accountable to the society.

    It cannot be the ‘gateless’ media where everybody has become information disseminator without restraints or any guide about what is fit to be published or broadcast on any platform.

    While the media can be partly blamed for our societal decadence due to its content, which is a true reflection of our society and what it has failed to do, there is need for the media to wake up to its responsibilities and contribute to the much-needed sanity in every aspect of our lives.

    The media must be conscious of its developmental roles and be the true watchdog of the society instead of being the lapdog, in the words of Professor Ralph Akinfeleye of the University of Lagos.

    The media must set agenda for good governance and hold the government and leaders at all levels accountable for their deeds and misdeeds.

    To be the compass for a saner community, good conduct and best practices should be celebrated and acknowledged by the media instead of giving undue coverage to issues contributing to decadence in our society.

    People of questionable characters and those whose sources of wealth cannot be ascertained should not be celebrated by the media and should not be projected as role models.

     

    • Excerpts from speech at Convention of National Association of Campus Journalists in Abeokuta.

  • Coverage of national assembly

    Following wide condemnation, the recently issued guidelines for accreditation of journalists and media organizations to cover the National Assembly have been reportedly withdrawn.

    Among other requirements, the controversial guidelines spelt out the number of journalists/correspondents to be accredited for print, electronic and online media for Senate and House of Representatives. It also listed a number of requirements for permanent accreditation which included circulation figures, functional Bureau in Abuja and income tax return.

    There have always been guidelines for accreditation of journalists covering the assembly, but this new one includes some sections that are clearly ill-advised and may be difficult for the authorities concerned to ascertain.

    While the existing guidelines may be outdated considering the changing media landscape that has given room for the emergence of new media platforms more than the traditional ones, nothing should be done to suggest any attempt to limit the freedom of the press in the country to perform its role in the coverage of any arm of the government.

    The role of the National Assembly and the legislators in ensuring good governance in a democracy is crucial and its activities should be well covered in and out of session. As many major media organisations and those that specialize in reporting the legislative matters should be accredited.

    Though the new guidelines may be well-intentioned to ensure that only the right media organizations and representatives are accredited, insisting on a circulation figure for newspapers and page views for websites may not be realistic. In a country where we do not have an Audit Bureau of Circulation, how can the National Assembly ascertain the copies circulated daily?

    For those who are familiar with the low circulation figures of newspapers in the country, the question has been how many papers circulate up to the required figure?

    The requirements that media organizations applying for accreditation must have experience of covering proceedings of the National Assembly for at least two years before applying for permanent accreditation and that all online media must have at least 5,000 viewership per day, the site must have been in operation for five years and provide satisfactory evidence to this effect with clippings of the news utilized (especially parliamentary news) may also edge out particularly new media organisations.

    However, while we should demand for the review of the some of the sections like the ones mentioned above, we cannot totally dismiss the need to accredit journalists to cover the National Assembly like it is done in some other major coverage points in the country, including Aso Villa and State Government Houses.

    If every journalist or media organization that wants to cover the Assembly is to be allowed, there may be no space to accommodate them in the gallery.

    There should be agreed criteria based on consultations with media groups for determining which organization should be fully accredited. Some accredited journalists in the Assembly no longer have any business covering the assembly as their organizations are defunct and engage in all kinds of unethical practices.

    Sometimes ago, the National Assembly Correspondents Association defied the directive of the Nigeria Union of Journalists not to give awards to some legislators because of the composition of the membership of the Association.

    I do not have any problem with the demand for income tax return and some other basic documents which any good corporate organization should have.

  • Delayed exam results

    After waiting for more than one year after completing their studies, students of a department in a state university had to return to their school recently to protest the delay in releasing their results.

    Due to the delay, the affected students had missed the opportunity of proceeding for the compulsory National Youths Service Corps (NYSC) like their colleagues in other institutions.

    It took the protest for the school authorities to summon the head of department to find out what caused the delay and give a directive given to expedite the compilation for approval by the Senate of the institution.

    If the students had not protested, they would have continued to wait endlessly and not be sure when they will go for the national service. Already some of the students are no longer eligible to serve having clocked the 30 years age limit. Some, especially female, have opted for marriage due to unplanned pregnancy attributed to idleness.

    Without the NYSC certificate, the students cannot seek employment and even those who have become overage, need exemption certificate after the release of the result.

    The issue of the delay of release of results has unfortunately become common in many institutions. Instead of promptly releasing results of examinations, lecturers take more than enough time to submit their marks and careless about the implication of the delay for the students.

    Apart from delay, there are also cases of shoddiness in compiling results which deny students of the marks they actually scored or forced them to retake examinations they have passed.

    I am aware of the case of a final student of another institution who scored A in a course, saw the score in the manual compilation, but was told that he did not register for the course, though he did.

    The problem was that the lecturer did not input the scores in the school portal, but the poor boy had to get his parents to pay another fee for a semester to retake an examination he earlier scored high marks. Due to the mix up, he will also not be mobilised for NYSC along with his mates.

    If the parents of the student, having managed to pay his fees while three-year course lasted, are unable to pay the extra semester fee, his education would have been derailed due to a lecturer who was not diligent with his assignment.

    It is important for lecturers and authorities to ensure that results which determines the future of the students are given the attention it deserves. Students don’t have to wait and resort to protest for results of their examinations.

    In the case of the students of the state university, the school authorities should have known that some departments have not submitted their results for consideration. If other departments can submit earlier to enable their students be enrolled for the youth service, no department should be allowed to truncate the career of others. Lecturers who are responsible for the delay should be penalised to serve as a deterrent to others.

    If results are released promptly, there will be enough time for sorting out whatever compilation error could occur which lecturers usually refuse to take responsibility for.

  • Poor state of public varsity libraries

    Last Monday, a report by The Punch newspaper painted a not surprising grim picture of the state of Libraries in government-owned universities in the country.

    According to the report, the state of libraries in many public universities has not only affected research and learning in the institutions, but also their global ranking. The investigation revealed that in some public universities across the country showed that many of them were stocked with outdated books, lack e-learning facilities and conducive environment for learning and research.

    Due to expanding student population without commensurate funding, the report also noted that seating capacity of most of the libraries can only take 10 percent of the students.

    Even without this investigation, it is well known that most public institutions and their facilities are no longer what they used to be. Not even the education sector which is supposed to be source of new knowledge in a constantly changing world is spared in the rot that has eaten deep into the state of affairs in our country.

    The quality of education in the country at all levels has continued to deteriorate due to many reasons, including poor funding which has made it impossible to provide crucial facilities like libraries. Without access to current books and journals, by both the lecturers and students, quality teaching, learning and research cannot be guaranteed.

    According to the President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Professor Biodun Ogunyemi, the union insisted that during negotiations with the Federal Government that 10 percent of the university budget should be devoted to equipping and stocking libraries with current books and journals.

    Unfortunately, the government has not been able to allocate enough funds for universities to enable libraries get its due share for providing conducive environment for quality research work and new knowledge.

    Even the limited funds provided by Tertiary Education Trust Fund for developing libraries cannot be accessed by some institutions due to their inability to meet some requirements.

    It used to be that the university libraries were the pride of their institutions, but that is no longer the case as the reports from the various campuses visited revealed. Not only do they not have current books, they lack other facilities of modern libraries.

    Since good libraries are also part of requirements for ranking higher institutions, the best of our institutions have continued to be missing among highly rated universities in the continent and globally.

    It’s really sad that at a time the higher institutions globally are scaling up library facilities to include use of latest technologies, we are still battling with providing basic facilities. Good libraries are so crucial to the ability of higher institutions to deliver on the promise of providing quality education and it should get the desired priority.

    For our universities to produce top rate graduates, the lecturers must have regular access to latest research findings in their field of study in books and journals and also acquire new media skills that can enable them source new knowledge whenever they are available online.

    Lecturers cannot afford to be recycling outdated concepts to be taken seriously by their students and in academic circles.

  • Danger of disinformation

    Last Friday, this year’s World Press Freedom Day was marked globally with the theme Role of media in Elections and Democracy. One of the sub-themes of the celebration which I had the opportunity of speaking on at one of the events in Lagos organised by the Civic Media Lab was Journalism and Elections in the times of disinformation.

    Disinformation which is defined as a type of untrue communication that is purposefully spread and represented as truth to elicit some response that serves the perpetrator’s purpose has become a major issue of concern more than ever before.

    Especially with more channels for disseminating information in digital age, fake news and other false information are now so common that it is sometimes difficult to know what to believe even in the traditional media. Individuals, organisations and government are engaged in all forms of disinformation.

    While the traditional media with trained journalists used to be the main gatekeepers of information, practically everyone that has one gadgets or the other can now share information without verification.

    The freedom to share information by all has unfortunately led to disregard for the ethics journalism which should guide the practice of the profession even by trained professional who should uphold them.

    The preamble to the code of ethics for journalists in Nigeria states that journalism entails a high degree of public trust, and to earn and maintain this trust, it is morally imperative for every journalist and every news medium to observe the highest professional and ethical standards. In the exercise of these duties, a journalist should always have a healthy regard for the public interest.

    “Truth is the cornerstone of journalism and every journalist should strive diligently to ascertain the truth of every event,” the code stated.

    In sourcing information and various content, it is necessary for journalists to avoid being purveyors of disinformation which is a present danger that must be curtailed. Nowadays, false claims are made by government officials and the media is fed with falsehood by supposedly reliable sources that have ulterior motives.

    How can the federal government for instance justify the claim that Boko Haram insurgents have been decimated and peace restored to some parts of the country where killings continue on regular basis?

    We have had claims that some sections of the country enjoy 24 hours electricity supply, unbelievable amount of money spent on feeding the detained Shitte leaders among others what government officials want us to believe.

    Except journalists become more discerning, it will further erode what is left of its credibility and loose the public trust and patronage.

    Journalists need to be more vigilant and refuse to be used to mislead the public. There is need for more fact-checking of claims and pronouncements. It shouldn’t be that government, especially, is allowed to get away with questionable claims.

    The more government officials and other members of the public know that their claims will be subjected to necessary scrutiny, the more they will be more careful about attempting to churn out falsehood.

    Journalists should shame those who engage in disinformation through fact-check reports for the public to know the truth of any issue of public interest.

    The good old rule of journalism practice is that when in doubt, leave out. This should still be the case instead of competing with faceless online platforms to encourage disinformation.

  • Ensuring inclusive, quality, free education

    To mark the global action week on Education in Nigeria, a tweet chat was held by a Non-Governmental Organisation, Human Development Initiatives (HDI).

    The theme of the week is making the right to an inclusive, equitable, quality, free education a reality.

    I was the guest speaker at the chat session during which I responded to some questions. Excerpts from the chat are reproduced below.

    What can you say about the theme of Global Action Week on Education: Making the right to an Inclusive, equitable, quality and free public education?

    It is very appropriate considering the state of education in the country. Gradually education is becoming the right of only those who can afford it and that should not be the case.

    The theme should guide governments at all level in measuring how well they are doing with their education programmes.

    More than ever before, we need to keep in view the need to achieve all the expectations of the theme for this year.

    We need to keep in focus the need for inclusiveness, equity, quality and affordability to education to be meaningful.

    Is the right to an Inclusive, equitable, quality and free public education achievable in Nigeria?

    It is achievable if there is the will and allocation of required resources by the government and other stakeholders. The National and state policies on Education provide for this but unfortunately the pronouncements are not backed with the resources needed.

    Education is so important to every other aspect of our lives that we must strive to ensure that education is available to all.

    It used to be that girls were denied education on the basis that they should be more concerned about becoming wives, but we have more than enough examples of accomplished women who have made a lot of difference due to education.

    What are the major bane of free, equitable, quality and free public education in Nigeria?

    Again lack of enough commitment by the governments at all levels. Budget allocations to education over the years have been below the 15 percent recommended by UNESCO. There are not enough institutions, facilities, equipment and even trained teachers #GAWE2019.

    What many state governments call free education is questionable. Many facilities are not provided and parents have to support to ensure that their children get something close to quality education.

    Why do government publicize expenses on education as a favour to the people, and not a right?

    This should not be the case. It is due to culture of secrecy inherited from the military. The public deserves to know expenses to education.

    It should be part of the citizen’s right to know which should not be denied them. Without full disclosure it will not be possible to monitor the performance of the government and know what is being given more priority than education.

    How relevant are the Citizen’s participation in the achievement of free, equitable, quality and free public education?

    Citizen’s participation is very critical considering that it is our constitutional role to hold the government accountable on every issue including education. The government needs feedback to know how well it is doing and what can be improved on.

    Citizen’s should constantly examine the education policies and programmes and demand to the right thing to be done. When there are false claims, we should speak up.

    What are the media doing to ensure that government provide an inclusive, equitable, quality and free basic education?

    The media is devoting a lot of space and airtime to coverage of education and demanding for all that is required.

    I am aware of many special and investigative reports that have focused on how inclusive, free and equitable education is across the country.