Category: Education

The National Association of Polytechnic Students (NAPS) has fixed November 26 – 28  for its National Unity Convention in Abuja to elect new leaders.

The umbrella body of polytechnic students said six aspirants had been screened for president and four for Senate President, among other aspirants.

According to the Chairman, Convention Planning Committee, Salahudeen Lukman, about 138 institutions, including polytechnics, monotechnics, colleges of health  and colleges of technology from the 36 states would take part in the convention.

In a statement in Abuja, Lukman said: “This year’s convention holding in Abuja for the very first time in the history of  over two decades of  of NAPS is not only significant, it also first-ever organised national convention of the polytechnic apex students body deviod of any political big or small wig sponsorship, the convention has been driven by goodwill and determination of critical stakeholders of the organisation including he national patron, matron and past leaders.’’

“We have settled for FCT  for the convention to enable easy access of all participating institutions which includes Polytechnic, monotechnics, colleges of technology and other allied  Institutions awarding ND and HND in Nigeria .

“Abuja is consider most secure place in Nigeria in most recent hence our resolve for FCT as venue, the accreditation will hold at Education Resource Center Wuse Zone 7 while voting holds at Old Parade Ground, Garki Area 10.

“There shall be presidential debate on Saturday before the voting commence, accreditation shall be digital, as we uses institutions electronic submitted Accreditation Form to accredit delegates.

A Group, Zaccheus Onumba Dibiaezue Memorial Libraries (ZODML), plans to establish online libraries in tertiary institutions in Anambra State.

Its Chief Executive Officer, Mrs. Ego Mgbagwu said the online libraries would aid real-time teaching, learning and research in the institutions.

She said the group had started discussing with the managements of the institutions on the modalities.

She said: “Some institutions in South Africa and other developed countries are responding to the urgent need by resorting to online teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Yet, we realised that during the lockdown, students and lecturers could not go to school in this part of the world. Recognising the importance of online library to higher education, we decided to invest in that direction.”

Mgbagwu noted  that the organisation had also set up and equipped over 24 libraries in primary and secondary schools as well as correctional centres in the state.

“Our goal is to provide the  young and old with access to learning resources and have a society where everybody can educate themselves.

“This gesture by ZODML has helped to revive the dwindling reading culture to eliminate illiteracy, keep history afresh and help students to be abreast of  developments around the globe,” she added

 

Mcpherson University, Seriki Sotayo, Ogun State will graduate 85 students during its sixth convocation on Saturday.

Its Vice Chancellor, Prof. Adeniyi Agunbiade said during a pre-convocation briefing via Zoom on Tuesday that the event would also feature a convocation lecture by Prof. Olufemi Bamiro, a former Vice Chancellor of the University of Ibadan, and the inauguration of a new female hostel.

Bamiro, a professor of Mechanical Engineering, will speak on the topic: “Transforming the Nigeria university system for graduate employability and sustainable socio-economic development”.

With the recent approval from the National Universities Commission (NUC) to run postgraduate programmes from the academic session, Agunbiade said Mcpherson University would start graduating postgraduate students from next year in Computer Science (PGDiploma and MSc.); MBA, and PhD in Computer Science.

Agunbiade said the institution’s programmes presented for re-accreditation were re-accredited, while the university got NUC’s nod for seven new programmes. They include: Cyber Security,  Software Engineering, Information Technology, and Medical Laboratory Science.

 

Making learning fun and engaging can be difficult, but it’s definitely rewarding when you pull it off.

Ideally, we want every student to be ecstatic about learning and school. Unfortunately, this is not always the case.

When lessons are interactive and apply to real life, students are more likely to follow along and retain what they learn.

As students are more engaged and have fun with lessons, a teacher also ends up enjoying class even more because it’s rewarding to see the positive impact their material is having on the students. It’s a win-win for everyone!

Below are seven ways to help make learning in the classrooms more engaging and fun:

· Encourage interaction

Two heads truly are better than one. When students are learning, it can be much more fun and engaging for them to work with a classmate. Look for ways for students to work with each other in the classroom. Think-pair-share activities are a great method. Give a student individual time to think, let them pair up and discuss with a partner, and then have them share ideas with the entire class.

You can assign partners or simply let students choose a learning buddy. You can also encourage students to change partners often. Set a timer and let them work with a person for two minutes. Once the time is up, they must pick a new partner. Do this for an entire activity, and a student may end up working with 15 others in the classroom. All of those interactions will make the learning process a lot more fun.

· Connect learning to real life

“Will I ever use this in real life?” Students never cease to ask this question. You’ll often hear this when students are learning new material, and it’s a very valid concern.

When you create a real-world connection to what students are learning, it will give them a greater understanding of why they need to learn it.

When teaching a mathematical concept like averages, for example, show students how they can use those calculations to find their average grades.

You can also link averages to sports statistics for students who are interested in athletics to help them understand batting averages in baseball and shooting percentages in basketball.

If you’re teaching students about plants, there are plenty outside!

Until you show that the material you teach has practical applications, students will most likely always treat learning as a chore.

· Engage all kinds of intelligence

Students have many different gifts to offer. To get students more engaged in a new concept, let them use their strongest intelligence to work through it.

In other words, whenever possible, give students a choice in the way they learn and demonstrate their knowledge. If you’re asking students to summarize a lesson, don’t just force everyone to write an essay or paragraph response. Instead, you could allow students to:

· Create a song to highlight important points of the lesson

Draw a picture to illustrate what they learned or found most interesting.

Deliver a quick, one-minute presentation in front of the class.

And, of course, simply write an essay response (because there are students who enjoy this!).

By giving students some choices, you offer them a variety of options, where they can choose what they do best and that sounds like fun and in the end everyone is better engaged.

· Encourage movement in the classroom

Let’s face it, nobody enjoys sitting still for hours on end. This is the reason students tend to get fidgety! But if your students are up and about, with due supervision, they’ll be more alert and engaged.

Whenever you can add some movement to a lesson, make it happen as it’ll make things more lively and exciting for everyone.

For instance, when teaching new vocabulary, in addition to writing it down (or creating an accompanying illustration), you could have students demonstrate a movement that relates to the word, sort of like a reverse game of charades. Your entire vocabulary list then becomes an exercise in movement!

Have students clap once for agree and two times for disagreeing or give answers in the form of a thumbs up or thumbs down.

If your school allows it and the weather permits, take your class outside for a lesson. They can sit in circles and work on something together in small groups. Students are often inspired by some fresh air and sunshine.

· Let them be creative

Let your class know that you’re open to assignments being changed or modified but must seek your approval first.

Oftentimes our students have better ideas than we do, so let them run those ideas past you. They may just put a creative twist on a lesson that you hadn’t thought of.

For the student, this “twist” will make the lesson more meaningful and fun, therefore, making them more engaged!

· Host some friendly competitions

Students have fun playing games. And sometimes, they don’t even realize that they’re learning because a game is so amusing!

Teachers can have prizes or incentives like homework passes for winners. Candy is always a big hit with students as well.

· Use technology in the classroom

In today’s world, technology is what students live and breathe every day. If you want to make the classroom the most interesting one that everyone loves to go to, then you must incorporate some kind of technology.

The Senate on Tuesday passed a bill seeking to establish a Federal College of Education, Bassambiri, in Bayelsa State.

The upper chamber said the institution, when established, would address the shortfall of teachers, particularly in oil-producing communities.

The bill titled: “Federal College of Education (Establishment) Bassambiri, Bayelsa State Bill, 2021” was sponsored by Senator Biobarakuma Degi-Eremienyo (Bayelsa East).

The passage of the bill followed the consideration of the report of the Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TETFUND.

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Senator Nora Daduut, who presented the report on behalf of the Committee Chairman, Ahmad Baba Kaita, said the establishment of the institution was aimed at augmenting the shortfall of career teachers in the country.

She added that the presence of the college of education in Bassambiri would meet the learning, research, instructional and teaching needs of the prospective students of host communities and Nigeria as a whole.

“The legislative framework designed for the college is to among other things offer Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE) and other certification in the areas of its core objects of interest on both full time and part-time basis”, Daduut said.

The lawmaker added that the Federal College of Education would, amongst others, provide the required manpower needs of Nigerians in the area of specialised education, as well as every aspect of education and fields of applied learning needed for the development of Nigeria’s education sector.

The Rector of Kwara State Polytechnic, Dr Abdul Muhammed, on Tuesday said the institution now print its certificates from overseas.

The Rector revealed this during a news conference to herald the Polytechnic’s 27th combined convocation scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 17.

“In furtherance of the Management’s efforts to sanitise the system and further enhance the integrity of the institution and its certificate, the Polytechnic’s Certificate is now being printed abroad by reputable printing outfit.

“It contains at least eight hidden security features to protect its integrity and make it forge proof.

“This will assist in providing a lasting solution to the issue of certificate racketeering in the Polytechnic by fraudulent elements.

“The first set of the certificates was issued to 2019/2020 set of graduates of the Polytechnic,” Muhammed said.

The Rector, while reading out the achievements of the Polytechnic in the past two years, said in order to optimise productivity of staff, attention was paid to their health through free medical screening for them.

“This was basically to evaluate health status of the Polytechnic’s work force and provide preventive counselling and interventions where necessary,” Muhammed said.

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Dr Muhammed also explained that in continuation of the Management’s efforts to restore the lost glory of the institution, the Polytechnic had resuscitated the Interim Joint Matriculation Board (IJMB).

He said the IJMB programme was suspended for more than a decade and kicked off again in the 2021/2022 Academic Session.

The Rector revealed that the Management has also obtained Kwara Poly Radio frequency License from National Broadcasting Commission (NBC).

“We have procured the transmitter, Dipol Antennae and construction of Mast to enable the Station to commence operations soon.

“This is one of the key requirements for HND accreditation,” Muhammed explained.

He explained that the 2,000-capacity bottled water production project which was already completed would be inaugurated by the Governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of Kwara on Wednesday.

He added that the institution was awaiting NAFDAC number for the product before commencement of production.

The Rector explained that Gov. AbdulRazaq declined the proposed naming of anauditorium his administration completed after him but directed that it should be named after the initiator of the project, Rear Admiral Muhammed Lawal. (NAN)

Some graduating students of the University of Ibadan have decried Nigeria’s premier university management’s decision to ban all, except first-class graduates, from its 2021 Convocation ceremony.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the university on Monday held its Convocation and Award Ceremony for the First Degrees at the International Conference Centre, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, with only the first-class graduates allowed in.

The institution had earlier announced that only first-class graduands and their parents would be allowed into the Convocation Hall.

However, some of the graduands with lower grades were seen in the university’s academic regalia taking pictures with their friends and families.

Those, who spoke with NAN, said that they felt cheated out of a very important milestone in their lives, describing the university’s action as “discriminatory and damning”.

One of the graduating students from the Faculty of Social Science, who simply gave his name as Bayo, said that he felt demoralised.

“The university asked us to pay all convocation fees but told us at the same time that we are not good enough to attend our own convocation ceremony.

“I bagged a Second Class Upper after spending close to seven years on school for a four-year degree; so you can’t tell me I didn’t earn the right to be in the hall with other coursemates and friends.

“What message are they trying to pass across, that we are not good enough?

“I am grateful that my parents are not condemning me in spite of this,” he said.

Another of the graduands seen lurking around the convocation grounds, Yemi of the Faculty of Arts, said that the university was only trying to create unhealthy rivalry among the graduands.

Also commenting, Jeremiah Bunmi, a graduand of the Department of Psychology, said that the university did what it thought was best in order to keep the graduating students and their families safe.

“I am excited to be one of the graduands of this reputable institution.

“I think they did what they thought is best for everyone, especially pertaining to the realities of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Bunmi said.

NAN reports that the university had earlier announced that it would restrict the weeklong 2021 Convocation and 73rd Foundation Day ceremonies due to the risk posed by the Coronavirus (COVID-19).

It said that inviting over seven thousand graduates and parents, guardians with their well-wishers into the venue would amount to flouting the rules and protocols of the Federal Government of Nigeria governing COVID-19.

The university had invited only first-class graduands and awardees to the ceremonies.

In his remarks, the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Kayode Adebowale, said that a total of 8,474 candidates would be awarded for various Degrees and Diplomas.

Adebowale said that the university was ranked number one in Nigeria and West Africa, seventh in Africa and top 500 globally in the Times Higher Education World University Ranking, 2021.

READ ALSO: Protest stalls announcement of new VC for University of Ibadan

“After the university contended with industrial action, there came further disruption in our academic calendar as a result of the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic, which led to the closure of our great institution.

“In view of the problem posed by the pandemic, we opted for the alternative visual-classroom learning after the last convocation ceremony.

“It is cheering that despite the news of the third wave of the pandemic, the university has successfully completed another session and our final year students for the 2018/2019 session have successfully completed their academic programmes.

“Some are participating physically, while most are joining virtually.

“Today, our graduands are from the Faculty of Arts, Science, Basic Medical Sciences, Clinical Sciences, Dentistry Agriculture, the Social Science, Education, Renewable Natural Resources, Distance Learning Centres, the affiliated, Technology, Law and Pharmacy.

“A breakdown of the list shows that approximately 3.1 per cent and 25. 5 per cent of our students finished with First Class and Second Class Upper Divisions Honours respectively.

“These outcomes are noteworthy, showing a lot of more significant improvements in the academic performance of our graduating students

“These graduands, who are being awarded the various degrees, have kept to the oath to which they subscribed during their matriculation.

“I charge you to be creative, courageous, enterprising and technologically sound.

“I urge you to acquire employability and professional skills in addition to your educational prowess; do not be afraid, but be focussed and be determined and success will be yours,” he said. (NAN)

The management of the University of Benin on Monday said that the institution would graduate 282 First Class students from the 2018/2019 and 2019/2020 academic sessions.

The Vice-Chancellor of the University, Prof. Lilian Salami, made the announcement in Benin while reeling out activities for the institution’s 46th and 47th combined convocation ceremonies, 51st Founders’ Day and Golden Jubilee Awards.

Salami expressed delight that the university ran the two sessions in a succession relatively without any hitches, after the COVID-19 lockdown and ASUU strike that grounded academic activities in 2020.

The vice-chancellor said that the two sessions had to be compressed in order to ensure that the students graduated as planned and that no student lost any year.

She said that the graduands included 8,996 from the 2018/2019 session and 8,521 from the 2019/2020 session.

READ ALSO: UNIBEN alumni to hold excellence award

According to her, Nov. 27 will be the climax of the activities with the inauguration of some recently completed projects in the university.

She said the university would on Nov. 22 install Prof. James Ayatse, the Tor Tiv in Benue as the new Chancellor of the university.

The vice-chancellor said five eminent Nigerians, including Lt. Gen. Theophilus Danjuma (rtd) and Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, former Edo Governor, would be conferred with Honorary Doctorate degrees during the programmes.

Salami said her administration recorded various achievements in the areas of academic, Information and Communication Technology, infrastructural development and staff and students welfare, among others.

She urged the media to continue to take a positive interest in the university and support all that it was doing to re-write its history. (NAN)

The 14th Governing Council of University the of Jos (Unijos) has approved the appointment of a mathematician and ICT expert, Professor Tanko Ishaya, as the university’s new Vice-Chancellor.

Ishaya, 57, is currently the Unijos Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic).

He takes over from Prof Gray Goziem Ejikeme whose term as Acting Vice-Chancellor expires on November 30, 2021.

A statement by the Deputy Registrar Information and Publication of the University, Abdullahi Abdullahi said this followed the Council’s consideration of the recommendation of the Joint Council and Senate Selection Board at the Council’s Special Meeting held on November 12, 2021.

His appointment takes effect from 1st December 2021, for a single term of five years.

Ishaya is a Professor of Computer Science with a Mathematics background and specialism and experience in Data Engineering, Computer Security and Forensics.

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He obtained his B.Sc. in Mathematics Education (2nd Class Upper Division) in 1992 at the University of Jos and began work as a lecturer in Mathematics at the College of Agriculture, Zuru, Kebbi State.

Prof Ishaya proceeded to the University of Manchester, United Kingdom to pursue an M.Sc. programme in Computation which he successfully completed in 1997.

He later enrolled for a Ph.D. in Computing Studies which he successfully completed in 2001. Eleven years later, Ishaya was promoted to the rank of Professor of Computer Science.

He has served in over 60 University Committees at the University of Hull and the University of Jos. A member of several professional bodies and associations, including being a Fellow of both the British Computer Society (BCS) and Nigerian Computer Society (NCS), Professor Tanko is seasoned, multi-skilled IT professional equipped with over 25 years’ experience.

Prof Ishaya, from Zuru, Kebbi State, is happily married to Sharon Ishaya and they are blessed with three children.

It was a great delight for 16-year-old Joy Abahi Amuh of St. Paul Secondary School, Otukpo, Benue State,  who was  handed a prize of N500,000 for emerging the best graduating  (of Benue State origin) in last year’s West African Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).

The ceremony, which held in Makurdi, the Benue State capital, was part of the sixth Annual Literacy Project organised by a Non-Governmental Organisation, Eunice Spring of Life Foundation (ESLF), in partnership with Benue Investment and Property Company (BIPC).

BIPC Group Managing Director Alex Adum  noted that it would aid her educational pursuit temporarily truncated by lack of funds.

Adum stressed the need to handsomely reward sterling academic feats instead of  focussing on persons in the enter tainment industry alone.

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Benue State Governor’s wife and founder of ESLF, Eunice Ortom, congratulated the awardee and urged other girls to emulate her remarkable achievement.

Amuh expressed joy and profound gratitude to BIPC and ESLF for their kind gesture which, she said, would help nurture her dreams.

Principal of her school, Mr. Peter Emaikwu noted that she was a hardworking, dedicated and focused student who deserved the award.

Although she graduated with an excellent  result, she was unable to register for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) due to lack of funds.

The 16-year-old teaches at a nursery and primary school in Otukpo where she had tried to save money to further  studies.