Following the COVID-19 school disruptions across the world, a Non-Governmental Organisation, Excellence Community Education Welfare Scheme (ECEWS), has said that it has established a total of 367 community reading hubs in two local government areas of Enugu State.

The organisation said the reading hubs, which were established in Aninri and Isi-Uzo council areas as continuing learning spaces through alternate home and community-based platforms, were meant to help school children catch-up with lost academic grounds during the COVID-19 lockdown.

Project Coordinator Mrs. Catherine Osho, who listed the achievements of the organisation during the closeout/exit meeting at the Enugu State Universal Basic Education Board, in Enugu, disclosed that 23,943 children benefited from the scheme, while 894 teachers were trained to provide psychosocial support, and 387 school-based management committees (SBMC) strengthened to improve sanitation and hygiene for safe school return, abolish gender-based violence and support home-based learning and monitoring activities.

Mrs. Osho praised UNICEF, GPE, and others for funding the project.

The Commissioner for Information, Prof. Uche Eze and the chairman of the ENSUBEB, Ikechukwu Asogwa, expressed the state government’s appreciation for the scheme, describing it as a fantastic job.

The commissioner, represented by the director of schools, Mrs. Ayogu Margret, said, “During the lockdown, we had pupils taught through the radios and television stations. But a lot of them didn’t have access to the media. That’s why this scheme was rolled out. Thank you for the number of pupils you were able to reach”.

The ENSUBEB chairman, represented by the board’s secretary, Dr. Hyginus Eze, described the choice of the two LGAs as best “because they are boundary communities with Ebonyi, Abia and Benue States which most times do not have access to radio signals in Enugu”.

The Lagos State Government has concluded plans to implement the Comprehensive Schools programme next year.

The initiative is aimed at helping pupils to follow their natural inclination early, thereby driving vocational education and grooming technical experts.

Explaining how the schools would run at a stakeholders meeting in Lagos on Tuesday, Chairman on the occasion, Mr. Peter Bankole, of the Lagos Business School (LBS), said the pilot phase of the programme would involve 12 schools from the six education districts.

He noted that broad subject categories for the pilot phase included Agriculture, Digital Skills, Building and Construction, and Media and Entertainment, among others.

The programme, expected to run for three years, would focus on practical training, handwork and internship.

“The aim is to build a new generation of technical experts, meet current realities of pupils and market and provide employment opportunities,” he said.

He said the programme was anchored on a “fit-for-purpose school model’ aimed at providing suitable career-ready skills set to pupils with different profiles of intelligence.”

Education Commissioner Mrs. Folashade Adefisayo, who joined virtually, stressed the importance of vocational education and called for support for the programme.

Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Mr. Abayomi Abolaji, said aside academics, pupils should have desired skills and competence to function effectively in the society.

“We want our youths to have marketable skills. We want to create a structured environment where pupils who drop out of school can go the way of vocational training,” he said.

Special Adviser to the Governor on Sustainable Development Goals Solape Hammond said the five technical schools in the state could only support 8,000 pupils of the 1.1 million in secondary schools, hence, the need to fill the gap with comprehensive schools.

Pastor Ituah Ighodalo, who lauded the Lagos State Government for the initiative, stressed the need for relevant and ‘fit-for-purpose education.

Niger State Government has revoked the approvals given to all private tertiary institutions across the state as a result of a contravention of stipulated rules and regulations.

The Nation learnt that the institutions set up satellite campuses without approval and charged high fees for provisional admission.

The government had earlier granted provisional approval to some private tertiary institutions, pending the fulfillment of needed requirements.

However, in a letter addressed to all proprietors of the private tertiary institutions, and made available to The Nation, the state government stated that the way the institutions contravened stipulated rules and regulations was disturbing.

The letter which was signed by the Commissioner of Tertiary Education, Prof. Baba Aliyu, stated that the institutions had abused the privilege of the provisional approval granted to them.

“The Niger State Government in her desire to enforce the guidelines and maintain the standard for the establishment of  Tertiary education in the state has decided to revoke the earlier provisional approval.

“However, each institution is required to reapply individually for their registrations and approval and such institution will be provided with a revised set of prerequisite conditions which they are expected to comply with”, the letter reads.

The Director- General, Office of Education Quality Assurance (OEQA), Mrs. Abiola Seriki-Ayeni, has counseled Spelling Bee winner and One-Day Governor, Jemimah Marcus to stay focused and remember the honour that came with acting as the governor of Lagos State for one day.

Mrs. Seriki-Ayeni spoke last week Tuesday when Jemimah and other top winners of the 2020 Lagos State Spelling Bee competition visited Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, members of his cabinet, and other state functionaries as part of the prize.

Mrs. Seriki-Ayeni said the emergence of Jemimah of Angus Memorial Senior High School, Somolu, and runners-up, Ajose Sotin of Topo Grammar School, Badagry and Edeh Rhema of Nawar-Deen Senior High School, Oyingbo, as winners showed that they put a lot of effort, diligence and hard work into their studies.

She implored the Jemimah, the 19th winner of the competition, to keep the flag flying while not resting on her oars.

Mrs. Seriki-Ayeni said records showed that most of the winners of the Spelling Bee were doing well in the society, thanking the state government for continuing the laudable initiative aimed at grooming future leaders.

When she addressed members of the Lagos State cabinet, Jemimah described Sanwo-Olu as a transformational governor in his leadership style, especially in the deployment of technology in teaching techniques for the delivery of quality education.

She urged the Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, to increase surveillance on COVID-19 to curtail the spread in the state.

At the Office of the Chief Judge of Lagos State, Honourable Justice Kazeem Alogba, Jemimah commended the government for upholding the vision of ensuring the delivery of quality education through the Spelling Bee.

The Judge said the competition would inspire young ones to give their best, which would check social vices. He advised the winners to remain diligent and focused in the pursuit of their careers.

The One Day Governor also visited Offices of the State Head of Service, Mr. Hakeem Muri-Okunola, the and the Education Commissioner, Mrs. Folasade Adefisayo, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Mr. Abayomi Abolaji.

The high point of the event was Jemimah’s visit to Somolu Local Council Development Association (LCDA), where she was honoured by the Chairman, Mr. Abdul Hamed Salau and her alma mater, where she was received by the principal Mrs Tijani Olaide and pupils of the school.

The agricultural exhibition organised by the Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board (LASUBEB) last Thursday gave some public primary schools the platform to showcase the produce of their school gardens.

They were among 51 public primary schools from 11 local government areas that got funds from the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) to implement agricultural practices in schools.

The pupils from the various LGAs displayed local vegetables commonly used in indigenous delicacies like ewedu, okro, spinach, pumpkin leaves, efo tete, efo shoko, yam, and others. For animal husbandry, they showcased chickens, grass cutters, piglets and cat fish they reared. The produce were bought by officials who witnessed the exhibition.

Chairman, Lagos SUBEB, Mr. Wahab Alawiye-King, said he was impressed by the harvest and the learning the pupils got from the farming activities.

“This is the harvest time. The Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC, as part of the intervention programme for 2018, gave funds for agricultural activities. Fifty-one schools from 11 L.G.As benefited from the funding. It is to improve the agricultural skills; to show that education is not only centered on cognitive and affective domains alone but includes the psychomotor.

“That is why certain percentage of the intervention fund was marked for agricultural activities. This is the second in the series. As you can see, it is a bumper harvest. This is just to encourage the pupils to know that agriculture is the main stay of our economy,” he said.

The Lagos State Coordinator for UBEC, Mr. Sunday Arema, said the exercise would promote entrepreneurship among the pupils.

“We want to encourage entrepreneurship so that at the end of the day as they are graduating from the basic education level, they can do something on their own.  By the time they graduate some of them can even study history but they will be self-reliant,” he said.

Head Teacher of AUD Primary School, Oniwaya, Agege, Mrs. Alice Afolabi, said the agricultural activities were really valuable for the pupils.

“When we started it some of them did not know the difference between ewedu and weed.  But we started teaching them the practical aspect.  When we want to do the clearing of the garden we took some pupils who can differentiate the vegetables from the weed, while others learnt from them,” she said.

A teacher from Igodo Primary School Somolu, Mr K. Tijani, said the pupils had portions they cultivated in the school garden.

“We have a school garden where we plant all these things.  We have different portions.  We have for vegetables; we have for bitter leaves; we have for cassava; we have for coco yam; we gave a little corner we use for the poultry.  We fully take part class by class.  Primary Three up to Primary Six classes have their portions. If you ask them any questions about planting, they answer you,” he said.

LAGOS State National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Coordinator Mr. Eddy Megwa has said the proposed NYSC Trust Fund law would go a long way to protect funding of the scheme.

The proposed NYSC Trust Fund (Establishment) Bill 2021, being considered by the National Assembly, if passed, would mandate companies to donate one per cent of their profits to the fund, in addition to funding from the Federal Government and states and local governments. These would be to fund the scheme, provide skills acquisition, training and start-up capital to corps members, train and retrain workers of the NYSC, develop orientation camps and other facilities, among others.

Underscoring the importance of the NYSC to national development, at a media parley at the Amber Residence, Ikeja, last week, Megwa said the trust fund would enable the scheme accommodate the ever-increasing number of fresh graduates deployed for national service.

“We are working with government to approve the NYSC trust fund because we know that the number of corps members that are engaging into national service will keep increasing.  The burden of finance is so much and so, the NYSC trust fund, if approved, will go a long way to help the scheme sustain the financial requirement to carry on with this scheme,” he said.

But for the NYSC, Megwa said many hospitals and schools across Nigeria would be without doctors and teachers, especially during strikes by various unions.

“When doctors went on strike, the Federal Ministry of Health gave out instruction for corps doctors to take over and all of them took over. Down there, the health sector would have collapsed. Go to the North, without corps members, the education sector would collapse. Some corps members are principals. Even in Lagos here, about 40 or 50 per cent of our corps members are deployed to the education sector and government is paying them,” he said.

Megwa also praised corps members posted to Lagos for their roles during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown last year, saying they mobilised to produce facemasks and raised funds for palliatives distributed to thousands of residents across the state.

“After we sent them home because of COVID, they called us that they were tired; that they wanted to do something to contribute. We started producing face masks and hand sanitisers.  Then they said people were hungry and they started donating their allowance and we started buying food.  Some moved out to raise funds.  We distributed the food all over,” he said.

The University of Calabar has said it will pay earned allowances to the academic staff members before the close of work on Friday.

This is contained in a statement issued by the university’s Registrar, Mr Gabriel Egbe, and made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Calabar on Wednesday.

The statement was addressed to the Chairman of the university’s branch of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, Dr John Edor.

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It read in part: “The management of the university has acknowledged receipt of complaints by some academic staff whose names were inadvertently omitted in the payment of the last tranche of the Earned Academic Allowances.

“The omissions were caused by problems encountered in the payment platform remittals.

“Efforts are being made to ensure that all the affected members of staff are paid on/or before the close of work on Jan. 7.’’

Egbe conveyed the management’s sincere empathy with the affected staff members and appealed for their understanding.

(NAN)