Category: Education

American University of Nigeria (AUN) and the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to develop a new agricultural innovation hub in Adamawa State to serve the Northeast region.

In a statement by the Executive Director, Communications at the AUN, Daniel Okereke, the university said the MoU establishes a partnership between the two institutions for research opportunities and for donor-funded projects on nutrition, training for farmers, and education for vulnerable women and children.

The statement said the President of AUN Dr. Margee Ensign, and Deputy Director-General, Partnerships for Delivery of IITA, Dr. Kenton Dashiell, signed for the two organisations.

The signing was also attended by the Adamawa State Commissioner for Agriculture, Umar Iya Daware, a representative of the Vice-Chancellor of the Modibbo Adama University, Yola, Dr. Abdullahi Tukur, members of the Adamawa Peace Initiative (API), and the AUN Community.

President Ensign described the AUN-IITA partnership as a life-changing opportunity not only for both institutions but more importantly for the people, farmers, women, youth, and children in the Northeast, and all of Nigeria.

“In America, we call this a marriage made in heaven.

“Without enough to eat, and the ability for individuals to learn, a society cannot advance,” she said.

She added: “The American University of Nigeria’s mission as a Development University is to train bold leaders to solve societal problems and to improve education—in all its different forms—especially in Northeast Nigeria.

“We have come together to partner to work on these two fundamental challenges: food insecurity and poor education.”

President Ensign lamented the grim statistics about education and nutrition in the Northeast region.

UNICEF, she pointed out, concluded that Nigeria has the second-highest burden of stunted children in the world, with a national prevalence rate of 32 per cent of children under five.

“Every year in Nigeria, malnutrition contributes to more than 33 per cent of the deaths of children below five years, and these deaths mostly occur in the northern geopolitical zones where nearly 50 per cent of all children below five years are stunted,” she said.

President Ensign said numerous projects are being considered under the new partnership.

“The IITA motto is zero hunger. Ours at AUN is Education for all. The projects will give IITA the opportunity to have a research station in Northeast Nigeria. Crop testing and performance variation under different ecological conditions on land inside the campus of AUN in Yola will enable IITA to complete its ecological coverage of Nigeria.

“AUN has contributed 100 hectares of our land for this effort, and an office for IITA. We can together develop radio and mobile programmes to educate women on nutrition and health, and farmers to increase agricultural productivity,” the President said.

President Ensign said AUN would work with its peace network, the Adamawa Peace Initiative (API), to introduce these agricultural practices in conflict-prone areas.

IITA’s Dr. Dashiell said: “We have some commonalities with AUN, but we also have some distinct areas that would be     highly complementary. We work on the business incubation platform, youth, agro-business, development and delivery, mechanisation, communication, and capacity development.

“The IITA is one of the world’s leading research partners in finding solutions for hunger, malnutrition, and poverty.

“The IITA works with international and national partners to improve livelihoods. On the other hand, AUN nurtures and gives knowledge, skills, and practice of civic values and has a reputation for offering assistance to its community and in blending community development with academic research.

“Their mission is to enhance the food security, income, and well-being of resource-poor people in the Northeast and sub-Saharan Africa by related activities to increase agricultural production, improve food systems and sustainably manage natural resources.”

A firm, Gradely Technology Solutions Limited is poised to improve learning outcomes for 20 million students by 2030 with the launch of its N500 daily remedial school in Ajah, Lagos.

Announcing its partnership with educational institution, Ehizua Hub, the firm said the school would promote high-quality personalised learning across Africa.

According to the Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Gradely, Boye Oshinaga, the school is a room  with 20 internet-enabled computers where pupils can easily access the Gradely app daily at N500.

He noted that it would  help  pupils who have learning difficulties as they prepare for entrance exams such as Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (SSCE), Post-UTME, and Common Entrance.

He added that it was fit  for children who  attend low-cost private schools, or are homeschooled due to financial struggles and therefore don’t have proper access to quality education.

“Gradely is bringing digital learning closer to people’s neighbourhoods with our Remedial School. By ensuring that internet access is not an issue, we can impact students who will normally be excluded from digital learning revolution.

“We are partnering innovators, educators and sometimes educational institutions like Ehizua hub to do it,” he said.

Oshinaga said the plan is to create multiple schools  across local governments in the country to cater for a good number of students.

“Our plan is that one school can cater to 100 students and we can do up to 10 per local government areas and have 100 schools set up with partners across multiple local governments across various sections of the country,” he said.

The co-founder and Growth Lead, Gradely, Seyi Adelaju, noted that limited access to digital devices and internet service was a stumbling block to learners,hence, the remedial school would fill the gaps.

“Limited access to digital devices and internet are a barrier for most learners – especially the ones that need it the most. The Top Graders Remedial School solves this in a way that is both sustainable and scalable,” he said.

The Chairman, Ibeju-Lekki Local Government Area, Abdullahi Sesan Olowa, has also pledged  to support the cause with over 500 students. He lauded Gradely for the initiative.

He was represented by former Vice Chairman,Mushin Local Government,  Monsuru Ajasa at the launch of the school.

“This is a great initiative. The price is quite affordable,N500 per day; which technically translates to N10,000 per month. People in this community will like it and it will really help them,” he said .

All facilities are in place for the University of Jos (UNIJOS) Simulation Centre to commence operation.

This follows an understudy programme and training undertaken by members of staff of the university who will serve as facilitators to enable the process commence in the university.

Medical simulation is the acquisition of clinical skills through deliberate practice where tools serve as an alternative to real patients in which a trainee can make mistakes and learn from them without the fear of harming the patient.

The Simulation Centre is a contiguous system designed to simulate the patient flow process with a pre- hospital room, emergency room, operating room, intensive care unit and pharmacy.The process which has become a key tool in the training of doctors, allows experts to plan complicated operations and assess perioperative risks.

The facilitators undertook the training at the Mbarara University of Science and Technology, Uganda as part of a collaboration between the two universities aimed at improving the quality of Medical training and employing advanced technology at the Medical College.

Receiving the delegation at the Vice-Chancellor’s Boardroom, Administrative Building, Naraguta Campus, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Jos, Prof. Tanko Ishaya, said the collaboration would impact positively on the  health sector and encouraged the facilitators to train others to reach a point of full adaptation.

Ishaya, in a statement by the Deputy Registrar, Information and Publications, stressed that Simulation has become an important tool in the training of Medical Personnel and maintenance of patient safety hence the need to focus on joining the global community towards addressing particular health challenges.

He encouraged the University’s College of Health Sciences to ensure that the project impacts positively on Medical Students and encouraged them to attract more interventions for the utilization of technology to enhance academic and research quality.

Initiator of the project and a Lecturer with the Mbarara University of Science and Technology, Uganda, Dr. Data Santorino said the importance of Simulation for life development course training cannot be overlooked as it has become compulsory and examinable for the training of doctors in Uganda.

Santorino said the visit is to support the University of Jos become a full-fledged Simulation Facilitator Centre equipped to propagate the new methodology in the institution.

 

After six years at Olashore International School (OIS), Iloko-Ijesa in Osun State, Mr. John Toscano bowed out as principal last week. In this interview with KOFOWOROLA BELO-OSAGIE, he speaks on promoting excellence, addressing bullying and other challenges

Can you share with us your Olashore journey?  How it started, how it went and where we are now?

Well, I joined the school just after New Year in January 2016 as vice principal under the then principal, Mr Derek Smith. And one of my initial assignments as part of the school’s improvement programme was to take the school through membership of the council of British International schools, which is very important for the development of the school. it shows that our policies and procedures are in line with the highest international standards, particularly in the area of safety.

In 2019, Mr Smith left and I took over as principal. So, I am now in my third year as principal and I will be leaving shortly having taken the school through some significant and positive changes.

And I think what it has been all about is bringing everything we do in line with best modern practice, which is changing rapidly. And so, it has been six years of change, development and improvement.

What would you say was your biggest challenge managing an eliite  school like OIS?

We are an international school but with very deep roots within the local community. This is reflected in our curriculum, we follow mostly United Kingdom curriculum but also Nigerian curriculum as well. We try to find a balance by upholding traditional Nigerian values, while we are a member of Council of British International Schools, we try to bring in a number of modern practices.

I think the balance we found is very good and I think that the people who come to Olashore having visited other Nigerian schools find our students to be very open-minded and knowledgeable. They are also very respectful and still uphold those traditional Nigerian values.

Recently, issue of bullying came to the fore with the death of a pupil in one of the popular private schools over allegations that the victim was bullied by some senior students.

How do you tackle the problem of bullying at OIS?

There is a lot that goes on in a boarding school. Even with the most vigilant staff in the world, there is still a certain amount you are going to miss and anybody who works in a boarding school and says there is no bullying in their school is living in a dream world.

But at the same time, we have had policies and systems in place for a long time that will reduce bullying to the barest minimum and also to deal with it firmly and effectively when it does happen.

Recently, the association of international school educators of Nigeria introduced a strategy of having anti-bullying weeks in international schools and when this was discussed, I had to say that we have been holding such in  Olashore even before I joined the school.

It is a week where students come together,  have discussions and come up with their own strategies for dealing with bullying. This is a very important aspect of it, the students themselves are the best placed people to collate this.

We rely a lot on educating our students and making sure that they all know that there are trusted adults across the whole community that they can talk to when they have a problem.

We also work on educating them well, providing avenues to share their experiences and building a positive atmosphere. if you have a strong, positive resource in the school, then bullying will be minimal. So it does go on but when it happens, we deal with offenders quite harshly, while we try on the other hand to remedy the problems.

If there is tension between groups of students, we try and find out the causes and put things right, so it doesn’t repeat itself. And I can proudly say that bullying in OIS is minimal.

What kind of punishment do you give those caught bullying?

Early this year we had a case involving a group of five boys, what started off as a play turned into something else, as they ended up pinning one of their colleagues down, verbally abusing and pushing him around. We gave each of the five students involved in the internal suspension,  what that meant was that  for five days,  they were kept in isolation and after school were required to do manual work. They were also mandated to apologise to the victim.

One of the most interesting aspect is that two of the parents of the affected students objected to this punishment, they thought it was too harsh. I had to explain to them that if you are standing next to someone who is verbally abusing another person while you do nothing, you are part of the group and will be punished as part of the  group.

But the most important aspect is that those boys were counseled, had mediation meetings with both groups to rebuild the relationship because while punishment is necessary, the most  important thing is rebuilding trust and relationships to forestall a recurrence.

Between 2016 and now, what are some of the challenges you encountered and what are some of the problems you think need to be fixed in our secondary education system generally?

In talking about the school programmes, I would look at three different elements. The first is the academic programme and there has been a lot of developments in this area.

Trying to maintain this balancing act of delivering the Nigerian curriculum effectively and keeping pace with changes in the international curriculum we are following is a big yak but our results have been very successful.

In 2019, we had the top student in the world in IGCSE mathematics, so in the area of academics, it has been a period of rapid change in development.

Every student in Olashore now has a personal IPad. So developing skills in our teachers so they can make use of the IPads during their lessons has been very important to us. That is on the academic side, which has been very successful.

We have also been trying to widen our extra-curricula programmes, particularly our leadership programme to give it an international touch.

The other aspect I am going to mention is safety. This and child protection have changed rapidly through the six years I have been in the school. Procedures are now expected to be more tighter, so we have had to develop internal systems to keep pace with that.

For example, three years ago, we set up a body in the school called the students welfare group and this brings together counsellors, head of boarding, the school doctor, head of junior and senior students, to meet regularly. Welfare  has become so important, because as you dig deeper, you would  find that many students have personal issues that affect their progress in school. It is a difficult age being a teenager and helping them through those times go a long way in getting them through school.

Boarding school is a challenge in itself, because you have to meet expectations of parents, living away from home, so it is a lot to deal with.

Issue of safety is a major concern presently. What is OIS doing to keep its pupils and teachers safe?

It begins in the hostels and we expect our hostel staff to know students in their care  well. We have a very healthy ratio of hostel staff to students, so, there is a lot of personal interactions, as all the students interact closely and regularly with their hostel parents.

We expect students to attend meal times, and if a student is not eating them,  we expect the hostel parent to take some actions and if necessary, involve parents in that discussion.

But the whole approach to health and safety runs right across the school. We expect our staff to be mindful of student’s safety, it is a priority. We have  counselors and students have easy access to them if they want to talk about issues bothering them.

If a student has a problem, for instance if they are unhappy with the way they are interacting with a particular teacher, there is somebody they can go and talk to.

So, the clinic staff, hostel, teaching and extra-curricular staff, all have special relationships with the students it runs across everything we do and health and safety is a priority.

And as far as I am concerned, the welfare of students is our top priority.

Recently, an alumna complained about how a case of sexual abuse case against her was handled 18 years ago. How do you handle cases of abuse in the school?

The particular case you are referring to was in 2004. The difficulty we have with her is just trying to find exactly what happened because the record on it is very limited.

Child protection documents are not kept for 18 years that is not good practice. And whichever country you look at you will see that child protection regulations would not expect you to keep critical documents for a long period of time. So it is difficult to comment on the specifics of that case because we don’t have the information to have what exactly happened at that time.

But what I can say is that any incident that comes to us, there hasn’t been a reported case of abuse since I joined the school, we would immediately investigate by trying to find as much information as possible.      We will set up a disciplinary committee, take statements from witnesses, interview them and t try and put the facts together as much as possible before deciding on the cause of action to take.

But the actual cause of action is largely dictated by our disciplinary policy and the summary of flexibility in the policy in the example I gave, physical assault on student by another student is a level four offence and  there are sanctions.

But trying to untangle events that happened 18 years ago is a challenge.

Zaccheus Onumba Dibiaezue Memorial Libraries (ZODML), last Thursday launched its free online library – www.zodml.org , in a room full of students from public tertiary institutions’, its trustees, and the media.

The platform by the Lagos-based non-profit organisation provides access to over 300,000 online resources free of charge to users – in addition to 2,455,498 resources available in its community library.

Co-founder and Chairperson, ZODML, Mrs. Ifeoma Esiri, said the organisation’s work is inspired by the life and legacy of Zacchaeus Onumba Dibiaezue (born in 1914), who through self-learning and access to libraries was able to transform his life and those of others.

“ZODML was set up to espouse the legacy of Mr. Zacchaeus Onumba Dibiaezue. The story of his life revolved around self-learning.  Because he was unable to attend secondary school, he had to fill that gap himself by reading books from libraries,” she said.

She said the launch of the digital library, in addition to ZODML’s community library, 34 school libraries and 19 libraries in correctional centres across Nigeria, is to provide free access to digital resources, information and learning tools for young Nigerians, particularly those attending public universities, to acquire knowledge and thrive in their studies and future careers.

“ZODML is invested in spreading a love of books and the acquisition of the literacy and technological skills vital to a modern economy; especially amongst Nigeria’s children and youth.

“The success of the soft launch of zodml.org last November, reaffirmed our belief that our platform is needed, and we will continue to build on what we have,” she said.

A highlight of the launch was a testimonial by Janet Abakpa, a law student at the University of Ibadan, and a beneficiary of ZODML’s second local government primary school library.

“I discovered ZODML as a pupil in Ireti Nursery and Primary School, Ikoyi and received a library card after attending one of ZODML’s programmes. Over the years I have read almost all the books in the children’s section and I greatly benefitted from them. I have gained so much and grown so much intellectually, I have joined the online library and I am excited about the possibilities it offers for students who, like me, are eager to learn,” she said.

IN about a week, the Lagos State government will unveil the new Vetland Junior Grammar School, Ifako Ijaiye- Agege.

Chairman, Special Committee on Rehabilitation of Public Schools (SCRPS), Mr. Hakeem Smith, said in an interview that the containerised one-storey modular structure will be the first smart school in the state.

The former conventional school buildings was pulled down last year to make way for the new school which Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu is expected to inaugurate from next week.

Smith said in an interview that the smart school, which would have 12 classrooms, three laboratories, four staff rooms –  all  powered by solar panels, would provide cutting edge technology-aided education to the pupils.

He said the school represents the long-term plan for what future schools will be like.

“The objective is to build school of the future – schools that can actually compete with international schools. We have seen that I.C.T has changed the world. The new currency we are talking about now is data. We are trying to ensure that our kids are grounded in the use and application of I.T. We also know from COVID, how can we learn out of school? Virtual learning is now trending. The driver of that initiative is that we learn in school or out of school. How do you do that? There is an interactive screen that is installed in each of the classrooms and the kids will have tablets that they can work with.  That is the school in the future. We bring in physical infrastructure. We bring in I. T. We bring in sports so that we can have an all-round school,” he said.

Speaking more about the new smart school, Sir Gbolahan Olayomi, whose firm, Equipment Hall Group, is the contractor in charge of the construction, said.

“Here is a state of the art 21st century learning environment.  This is going to be the first school in Nigeria public or private that will be full running on interactive technology.  Everything here will run on touch and it will appeal to all the five senses.  So, anyway a child learns, whether by video, reading, auditory, whatever type of learner you are, this facility is ready to train you.

“The four Cs of 21st century learning – Creativity, Collaboration, Communication and Critical thinking that are required in the 21st century work place will happen here.

“COVID or any such disaster won’t stop learning from taking place any more.  Classes will be recorded so it is not a problem for those in terminal classes anymore.  If you are a really good teacher, you can seat in this school and teach thousands of students,” he said, adding that the teachers of the school had been trained to deploy the technology that would be in operation in the school.

Olayomi said containers were used for the modular building because they are readily available, cheaper, faster and easier to integrate with technology.

“The speed of development was very important to us and the ease of building.  But more importantly, we could easily integrate all our technology and wiring and just deliver to site,” he said.

Olayomi said each of the 12 classrooms would be fitted with shatter and scratch proof interactive boards by Wowbii – a subsidiary of Equipment Hall which provides interactive technology for e-learning.

Speaking on why the state government was prioritising education, Smith said the Sanwo-Olu-led administration’s commitment to ensuring that education works for every school-aged child informed the concerted effort being made to put public school infrastructure in a good state.

He said: “When Mr. Baba Sanwo-olu came on board, they felt the need to bring back this committee because they saw that all through the four years, I think nothing was done with respect to school infrastructure, so it had lot of damage, a lot of dilapidation.

“When we were inaugurated, we started going round the schools, doing some infrastructure assessment, looking at the state of the schools; and we come up with bill of rectification for the schools, ensure that  all the services are in place, and that where there are not enough classrooms, we construct additional classrooms; and that the schools have adequate  furniture for students and even the principals and teachers so they can be conducive for learning.”

Since the committee was re-inaugurated in 2019, Smith said it had rehabilitated about 1,000 classrooms, constructed many school buildings, provided thousands of classroom and teachers furniture, hostel beddings and furniture for the model colleges, and watch towers to improve security.

“We have almost 927 classrooms. These classrooms are new. We have about 1,400 desks spread across the 16 model colleges,” he said.

Smith also said almost all the over 600 junior and senior public secondary schools across the state have been touched by SCRPS.

“If you give us any project to do, we make sure every district has one. If paradventure it gets to an odd number, we give the biggest district preference. It is usually Alimosho most times. In terms of rehabilitation, early 2021, we must have done about 160 schools under rehabilitation – not construction. We touched everywhere. There is no district that will say that did not benefit from us. And as we are doing that, we are also introducing furniture.’’

We have made in excess over 160,000 furniture in Lagos state and we are still counting,” he said.

He said the committee initially intervened in junior and senior secondary schools after proper assessment of their states.  However, he said rehabilitation, construction of classrooms, provision of school furniture, fencing, sports facilities have also been extended to primary schools and technical colleges across the state.

“When Lagos State introduced Eko EXCEL, primary school teachers were trained to balance the curriculum so that you are studying equal curriculum for all pupils whether in Ikoyi, Badagry, or Ikorodu.

“Having spent so much to establish such a project, we felt that okay, we can’t have tablets, teachers have been trained and environment ia not conducive.  So we made a solution that it is better for us to try and clean out some of the environment these primary schools are operating from and that was how we went to the rehabilitation of primary schools,” he said.

It was excitement galore when 15 students of Ijesa origin were awarded N1.5 million bursary award from the Mind Builders Education Trust.

Presenting the bursary at Roots Club house Ilesa, Osun State, Chairman of the Trust, Mr. Bosun Falore, said the objective of the award was to alleviate the financial burden of the selected Ijesa students.

Having studied the peculiar challenges of most undergraduates in universities closely, Falore said he found that assistance in various ways could make a difference in their educational pursuit.

Falore, who is the Chairman of Mind Builders Schools, Lagos, challenged the beneficiaries to be the best in their academic pursuits and ensure that the make judicious use of the funds received strictly for their education.

One of the awardees, Mr Ademiju Adegbola, a 400-Level Industrial and Production Engineering undergraduate of the Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA), thanked the benefactor and promised he and others would encourage Falore to continue by having good grades in their examinations.

 

An Associate Professor in the Department of Mass Communication, University of Ilorin, Saudat Salah-Abdulbaqi, has been appointed as a member of a Committee set up by the Kwara State Government to look into the circumstances surrounding the recent crisis, which led to the killing of a student of the Oyun Baptist High School, Ijagbo over the use of Hijab among secondary school female students in the state.

The appointment of the renowned Mass Communication scholar was contained in a statement signed by the Chief Press Secretary to the Kwara State Governor, Mr. Rafiu Ajakaiye.

Other members of the Committee, which would be presided over by a former Provost of the Kwara State College of Health Technology, Offa, and currently a Director at the National Open University of Nigeria, Dr. Shehu Omoniyi, are the Secretary-General of the Ijagbo Descendants Progressive Union, Mr. Emmanuel Adebayo Fatola; the Special Assistant to the Governor on Religion (Islam),Alhaji Ibrahim Zubair Danmaigoro; Pastor Modupe Oreyemi Agboola and a representative of the Office of the Special Assistant to the Governor on Religion (Christianity) while a Director in the Kwara State Ministry of Justice, Mr. Ishola Olofere, would serve as the Committee’s Secretary.

Dr. Abdulbaqi, who is also a former Head of the Department of Mass Communication, University of Ilorin and the Chairperson of the Kwara State Chapter of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), was also a member of the Justice Idris Abdullahi Haroon’s Committee, which probed the incidence of excessive corporal punishment meted out to a student of an Arabic School at Ganmo in the Ifelodun Local Government Area of Kwara State last year.

 

Dr Akintoye Akindele, the Executive Chairman, Atlantic International Refinery and Petrochemical Ltd., has announced a gift of N5 million each to the best two graduating students of Caleb University in the 2020/2021 academic session.

Akindele, who is also a philanthropist announced this while delivering the convocation lecture of the university with the title: ‘ The Rhetoric and Reality of Youth as Game Changers’ on Saturday in Lagos.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Iredia Ejehi of the Computer Science department was announced the overall best graduating female student with a Cumulative Grade Point Aggregate (CGPA) of 4.92.

Also, Ifezue Humphrey of the Computer Science department bagged the overall best graduating male student with 4.84 CGPA.

READ ALSO: Adebogun at 64: Ogunsan extols Caleb University founder

Akindele pledged to work with some partners to jointly sponsor 22 indigent students from the university from next year to support the current efforts of the university.

He tasked the university to establish the school of African History, Heritage and Archeology to encourage a lot of research into the history, artifacts and a better understanding of the society’s past and project into the future.

According to him, a partnership will also be entered into with the school to build an innovation Incubation Centre.

“Caleb University’s ICT students are known for excellence because they are usually certified even before they graduate and can start innovation as well when acquiring those skills.

” With an incubation center, the students can transform their ideas into reality, so that before they graduate, some of them are already entrepreneurs and business owners, creating jobs.

” With this, we will be marrying education with entrepreneurship and innovation, ” he said.

The university‘s Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Nosa Owens-Ibie in his response, thanked Akindele and said that he was optimistic that the philanthropist would deliver on his promises, following his track record and love for education. (NAN)