Category: Education

By Kolade Adeyemi, Jos

The Executive Secretary, Nigeria Christian Pilgrim Commission, (NCPC), Rev Dr. Yakubu Pam, has called  on youths in Gyel District of Plateau State to stop mining and return to school.

He said the get-rich-quick syndrome would adversely affect their educational pursuit.

Rev Pam gave the advice while speaking at the public presentation of a letter from the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, (SGF), on the proposed remodeling of the Government Secondary School (GSS), Gyel to an Information Communication Technology Centre, (ICT) in Plateau State.

The Executive Secretary said youths in the area should take advantage of this facility when completed to further their education as it was the only way to attain their lofty dreams rather than depend on mining for easy cash.

He regretted there were lots of dropouts and secondary school leavers who had not been able to further their education because they had embraced mining as a short cut to make it in life.

“Illegal mining activities have taken away the interest of children from school. Let me say education remains the future of Gyel. It is important for all to know that and I want to advise we find ways to promote the district in our places of authority,” he said.

Pam also attributed the lack of interest in education to alcohol consumption by young people and sought the closures of sales points in the area.

“One of the impediments to education in our state today is that the young people have taken to too much consumption of illicit drinks thereby causing them to drop out of school or refused to continue with their studies due to their drinking habit.

“I advocate for the closure of all drinking joins that have hindered educational progress in the land.

“The importance of education which bridges communication and relationships must be encouraged amongst the youths. Education is human empowerment and the district must encourage that.

“I call on Plateau people to promote education to curtail banditry, terrorism and kidnapping. Promoting education will enable our youths to contribute positively to the nation,” he said.

The Cleric thanked the governor for siting the project in the district.

“I appreciate the SGF and the governor for aiding in the approval of this ICT Centre in Plateau State. This school will bring about other development in the area especially the road,” he said.

He also thanked the Paramount ruler, the Dagwom Rwey Jos South, Da Dr. Nga Dangyang for promoting education in the district.

Pam said there were remote places in Gyel where people had organised themselves to provide extra lessons to learners during holidays.  He urged parents to take advantage of them to educate their wards.

In their remarks, both the ex-Chairman of the council, Ambassador Gideon Dung Dandereng and the All Progressives Congress, APC, Chairman in the local government, Dalyop M. Pam, eulogized the Executive Secretary for his commitment in attracting developmental projects to the locality and assured him of support.

Responding, the District Head of Gyel who is also the Davwom Rwey of the RH Da Dr Nga Dangyang expressed gratitude for the laudable project. He said it would the first school planted  in Gyel.

He said tin mining affected the progress of education in Gyel District and praised the church for aiding education.

He hailed the NCPC boss for the peace advocacy to crises-ridden spots.

He called on the people to give respect to their leaders even as he said the scripture encourages that.

On her part, the Principal of the school, Mrs Dakul Rifkatu JohnBosco and the Chairman, Parent teachers Association, PTA of the school, Hon. Lawson E. Mafuyai thanked the ES for paving the way for such a laudable project.

President Gyel District Development Association, GDDA, Mr Yakubu I. C. Gam, described Rev Pam as a hero in Gyel and a pathfinder of peace.

By Joseph Eshanokpe

The executives of King’s College Old Boys Association (KCOBA) have called on the Federal Government to hand over the premier institution to them for management.

President of the association, Alhaji Kashim Ibrahim-Imam made the demand during the 112th Anniversary of the school recently. He contended that the government had no business running secondary schools, adding: “We are ready.”

Ibrahim-Imam, who is Mutawallen Borno, called for a bill on the matter. He pledged that if their request was granted, they would maintain the character of the school.

”We guarantee that 10 pupils from each of the 36 states would be admitted under the management. We will retain the school’s character. And that this could also affect the other unity schools,” he said.

He urged the Speaker of the House of Representatives Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, to assist them in sponsoring a bill on the matter to give the issue the legal teeth.

Read Also: Akeredolu praises ‘Ajograms’ alumni for upgrading school

Ibrahim-Imam decried the infrastructural decay in the school which was once the pride of the nation and its seeming neglect and abandonment by the government, its owner. He recalled that the school, which has produced many greats, had one objective: to unify pupils from different parts of the country, in spite of their background, though they must be good academically. These pupils include former Federal Works and Housing Commissioner, Chief Olufemi Okunnu; retired super federal permanent secretary, Philip Asiodu; immediate past Emir of Kano/Central Bank Governor Alhaji Lamido Sanusi, notable accountant and cleric, Pastor Ituah Ighodalo,, Chuma Anosike, who was chairman of the Anniversary and former Managing Director Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), now Chairman, Fidelity Bank, Mr. Mustafa Chike-Obi. Others include Dr Leke Oshunniyi, and a lawyer Rotimi Aladesanmi.

The president painted a gory picture of the school, saying that this led to the association stepping in to give a helping hand to provide and repair some vital infrastructure and employing temporary teachers and workers.

The school’s Principal Andrew Agada said the school has 66 temporary teachers and 78 non-teaching staff members and that more workers were needed to handle some vital areas such as vocational and technical subjects as well as the clinic.

He noted that the school has 3141 pupils, adding that almost 5,000 apply to the school yearly but that  more could not be admitted due to their capacity.

Gbajabiamila promised to assist KCOBA if it would help to build the school, especially to meet its objective.

By Kofoworola Belo-Osagie

Educators, parents, and experts will discuss mental health issues among young adults during the fourth Olashore International School Alumni (OISA) Foundation Mental Wellness Conference tomorrow at the Radisson Blu Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos.

Speaking on the propriety of the conference theme: “Adolescent Mental Wellness & Resilience in An Unequal World” during a pre-event press briefing held virtually, the chairperson of the foundation,     Princess Olapeju Sofowora, said the COVID-19 pandemic had exacerbated the issues of inequalities as many pupils had to navigate online learning during the lockdown.

“Though the twin objectives of creating awareness amongst parents and caregivers of the mental pressures and challenges faced by their children in today’s society and providing practical guidelines to tackling these challenges have been achieved by the success of the three previous editions of the conference, there remains a lot more to be done to help school administrators, parents, caregivers and children develop a better understanding of the mental issues that negatively influence young people and highlight the mental health services and treatment options that are available,” she said.

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She said the foundation, through the conference, hopes to provide information to teachers, parents, caregivers and others around the school system while working to build support structures they could refer to in future.

The conference will feature a discussion panel that includes Psychologist and life coach, Mr Lanre Olushola, Dr. Taiwo Lateef Shiekh, Dr. Lola Dare and Mr. Derek Smith among others.

The conference, which will also be open to online attendees, would be used to commemorate the World Mental Health Day, celebrated globally on October 10, 2021.

By AbdulGafar Alabelewe, Kaduna

The 1974 Class of Kaduna Capital School Old Students Association has awarded scholarship to indigent pupils of the school who could not pay their fees following recent hike in school fees by the Kaduna State government.

Chairman of Board of Trustees, Suleiman Adamu, said at the reunion of the Class of 74, annual general meeting, album launch and election, that the gesture was aimed at ensuring that brilliant pupils who cannot pay their fees are not denied quality education.

Adamu, who is Minister of Water Resources, said the Class of 1974 came together to cater for their own welfare and give back to the school from which they all benefited.

Read Also: Kano govt increases students’ scholarship by 50%

“We found ourselves in Kaduna Capital School; we left the school in 1974. We all dispersed into the world and decided to come together to find ways to pay back to the school.

“We realised that the standard of the school is being raised by the state government; the fees have been increased, we will get bright students who cannot pay their school fees and we would sponsor them. We want to give scholarship to some deserving students.  We hope to introduce mentorship programme, career talk for our secondary school, see what we can do for the school.”

Ondo State Governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, SAN, has praised old students for rehabilitating moribund structures at Ajowa Community Grammar school, Ajowa Akoko.

The alumni body, under the current executives, has upgraded classrooms, the library and restrooms to modern standard, while some of its members facilitated the provision of well-equipped laboratories and ICT centre through the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and National Communications Commission (NCC).

Impressed by the humanitarian development, Akeredolu said the timely intervention of the alumni to rescue students from imminent collapse of buildings was highly commendable, noting that the education sector required a huge financial obligation before any significant impact could be achieved.

The governor spoke during the 46th anniversary of the school last Friday.

Akeredolu, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Ondo State Ministry of Education, Lola Amuda, expressed satisfaction at the yeoman’s job, stating that paucity of fund occasioned by the economic downturn created a gap that Public Private Partnership Initiative (PPP) could fill.

He said: “I am impressed with the level of intervention of the Old Students’ Association in the area of promoting the infrastructural and academic standard of the school.

“Unfortunately the poor state of the economy has undermined appropriate funding of the education sector. This laudable and kind gesture from the alumni of this could not have come at better time than this, when education sector is being ravaged by poverty and copiously needs a wide range intervention from individuals, Aassociations and NGOs.”

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“It is noteworthy to mention that this noble association with amiable personalities paid for NECO examination of SS3 students while scholarships were awarded to deserving students of the school.”

In his welcome address, the National President of Ajowa Community Grammar school Old Students Association (ACGSOSA), Major General Temidayo Olukoju (rtd) thanked the members of the association for contributing to the school’s development despite the unfavourable economy with its concomitant effects.

He said that the body sank a solar-powered bore hole for the use of staff, pupils and residents of the agrarian community.

Also speaking, media adviser to the Osun State Governor, Sola Imoru, said the transformation happening in the school was as a result of the conscious efforts of the old students.

Deiverina a lecture titled, “Ajograms in Transformation: Responsibilities of the Old Students”, Imoru said the service delivery carefully distilled into infrastructure, health care delivery and capacity building for teachers and students of the school is a significant component of the agenda of the association.

“Part of the capacity building efforts of the association is the annual facilitation of corps members—an average of 15 per year. The Association takes care of their welfare, including stipends, provision of accommodation and beddings”, he said

Akeredolu was bestowed with an excellence award for his performances in the socioeconomic development of the state.

Attendees at the event included the Chairman, Akoko North West Local Government, Chairman, Elder Akande; the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Mr. Tokunbo Ayejoto; Rear Admiral Ilesanmi Alade (rtd.); Bishop A. B. Dahunsi.

 

By Sampson Unamka

Dettol Nigeria has announced plans to commence its Dettol School Hygiene Education programme, an SDG Six initiative under the Dettol Clean Naija campaign to create awareness, educate and encourage primary school pupils to inculcate hygienic practices in their daily lives.

This announcement was made during the Dettol School Hygiene stakeholders’ workshop in Lagos recently which featured the programme’s vision and implementation plan.

In his goodwill message, the Chairman, Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Wahab Alawiye-King said good hygiene was part of the government’s programmes to keep pupils safe in school.

“That is part of the safe learning environment initiative of Mr. Governor – to ensure that we enlighten and educate our pupils on the reason why they must know about hygiene, particularly school hygiene. We all know what COVID-19 has done across the world and we must continue to tell them to abide by all the safety protocols as laid down by all the national and local agencies,” he said.

This year, the programme would feature the deployment of a specially developed Hygiene Curriculum created by the Dettol International team, consisting of comics and worksheets that aim to convey the hygiene message to pupils in a fun and engaging manner; the introduction of the Programme Impact assessment, which will see Dettol use scientific measurement tools to determine the impact of its hygiene education on the pupils, their teachers and parents; and, in line with Sustainable Developmental Goal 17, partnerships for the goals, Dettol has partnered with the Lagos State office on SDGs, Dean Initiative, World’s Largest Lesson and Slum and Rural Health Initiative (SRHIN) to help drive the programme implementation and adoption.

Read Also: Lagos SUBEB sensitises communities on enrolment

General Manager, Reckitt Sub-Saharan Africa, Mr Akbar Ali Shah said this year the programme was expanded because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Over the past six years, we have directly reached over five million primary school children in Nigeria with our hygiene education.  However, with the need for an intensified hygiene consciousness due to COVID-19, we are evolving from a model where we had just a one-off contact with the students, to one where there will be repeated interactions based on lessons from the Hygiene Curriculum. Our aim is to emphasize the need to enable a sanitized environment and to create the importance of water, hygiene and sanitation in preventing the spread of infection amongst children,” he said.

In his speech, the Senior Special Assistant on SDGs to the Lagos State Governor, Mr. Lekan Fatodu, said children were more vulnerable to hospitalization for infections so would benefit from the hygiene programme.

“Statistics has shown that half of all general practitioner consultations and 12 per cent of all hospitalizations among children aged 0-14 years are from infections. Hence, I am enthusiastic to see the huge benefits the knowledge shared here today will have on the physical well-being of our pupils”.

The Dettol Clean Naija Initiative was created by Dettol Nigeria as an integrated multi-level campaign aimed at creating awareness, education and driving hygiene behavioral change to achieve a cleaner and healthier Nigeria.

 

Agency Reporter

A Nigerian Teacher, Dr Peter Ogudoro, has won an award by Facebook as one of the world’s amazing virtual community managers for developing a “most helpful and engaged educators’ platform called Nigerian Teachers’’.

This is contained in a media release made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) by the platform, Nigerian Teachers.

The platform said that the award by Facebook makes Ogudoro a member of the multinational corporation’s elite group of 131 outstanding community managers in the world.

The platform, the statement said, focuses on online teacher-training and attitude modification, has over 240,000 teachers from around the world, and provides free continuous professional development opportunities to them.

“The platform is a peer-support community for teachers, who use the platform to follow trends in teaching, classroom management and school leadership.

“Parents also use the platform to learn effective parenting styles that enable them to collaborate with teachers for global competitiveness of young people.’’

The statement said that the award was given under Facebook’s Community Accelerator Programme, under which the awardees receive resource support to scale their operations and promote engagement within their communities for a better world.

It said that the Community Accelerator Programme was designed to guarantee about one year of sustained support for the award winners’ communities by Facebook.

Ogudoro, the platform said, created the group in 2016 as a positive response to the frustration he experienced while trying to get education policy makers in Nigeria to adopt and promote learner-centred approaches to teaching and effective career management systems.

It noted that Ogudoro’s methods could save the country billions of dollars and make Nigeria a net exporter of educational services.

Ogudoro expressed gratitude to Facebook for the Award, and revealed that he was scaling up the platform to help governments around the world to train and retrain teachers for globally competitive education.

“Through globally competitive education, we can deliver the pace of development that will banish poverty, and guarantee a more inclusive, prosperous, and harmonious world.

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“I am excited about the fact that a powerful tool for the promotion of functional education in the world has come from Nigeria, a country that has been facing enormous development challenges for decades.

“The award will provide me the platform for a one-month learning tour of the Scandinavian countries including Finland with focus on their education system.

“The objective is provision of the intellectual tools that will help Nigeria and the rest of the developing world achieve the demographic dividends they need to lift millions of their citizens out of poverty within the next few years through result-oriented pedagogy,’’ Nigerian Teachers quoted Ogudoro as saying.

It disclosed that Ogudoro is an alumnus of the University of Reading in the United Kingdom where he earned a PhD in Education with emphasis on Career Management, Attitude Modification, and Diffusion of Innovations in Education.

Ogudoro, according to the statement, has benefitted from elite education development experiences at over 10 research-intensive institutions across the world.

Agency Reporter

The Federal University Kashere in Gombe State on Tuesday announced the expulsion of 23 students over their involvement in forgery and examination misconduct.

The university management also approved the rustication of one other student.

This is contained in a statement by Suleiman Malami, Head of Information and Protocol of the university, on Tuesday in Gombe.

Malami said that the action followed the recommendations of the senate of the university during its 68th regular meeting.

He said, “the Senate University at its 68th regular meeting held on Sept. 23, 2021 had considered and approved their expulsion and rustication with immediate effect,” he said.

Malami said that the erring students were found wanting for forging results and examination misconduct.

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The statement also quoted Alhaji Kabiru Garba-Aminu, the registrar of the university, as saying that arrangements had been concluded for smooth resumption of students for the second semester 2020/21 academic calendar.

Garba-Aminu called on parents to ensure that their wards return to school on good time as academic activities would commence immediately.

He reiterated the commitment of the university management to provide conducive learning environment towards ensuring a hitch free semester.

The registrar further urged the university host communities to cooperate and support the management as well as the students.

By Osagie Otabor, Akure

A former Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Universities Commission (NUC), Professor Peter Okebukola, has argued on why universities should be not be allowed to operate satellite campuses.

Okebukola said satellite campuses were responsible for producing poor, half baked and unemployable graduates in the country.

Okebukola said he would close down all satellite campuses like he did 20 years ago when he held sway at the NUC.

He spoke on: ‘Does Nigeria’s Development Cap fit the Nigeria University System?’ at Ilara Mokin, Ifedore local government while delivering the 4th and 5th convocation lecture of the Elizade University.

Okebukola stated that the severe financial handicap inflicted especially on state-owned universities made them to literally sell their certificates through running poorly delivered courses in poorly-resourced campuses far from the main campus.

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He said the institutions ended up admitting all manner of persons into the satellite campuses to make up for shortfall in revenue thereby bringing the quality of education down.

According to him: “Those are places we are demeaning quality of our university education. Graduates from satellite campuses are less than half baked.”

Okebukola said universities would respond in greater measure to the needs of the society if adequately funded.

He said the country must rethink its investment model in university education as sell as provide sustainable funding for the universities.

His words: “I say the Nigeria university system fit the development cap to the extent that it is delivering value for the quantum of money invested in it. The cap has some sectoral fit especially in human capacity development.

“The Nigeria university system also does not fit the development cap because its huge potential to better respond to the development agenda of the country is weakly explored owing to paltry investment.”

Nigeria High Commissioner Ambassador Sarafa Tunji Isola has received a 30-man delegation of the 2020/2021 Chevening Scholars.

The delegation paid a courtesy visit to Nigeria High Commission London.

The Chevening award is the UK government’s global scholarship programme offered by the UK’s Foreign & Commonwealth Office.

The Chevening scholarships support study at UK universities, mostly one-year Masters’ degrees for students with demonstrable potential to become future leaders, decision-makers and opinion formers.

Paulinus U. Nwokoro, Minister/Head (Consular, Education & Welfare) welcomed the scholars to the High Commission.

He confirmed informed 47 Nigerian students were successfully enrolled for the 2020/2021 Chevening Scholarship programme.

The leader of the group, Miss Hawa Ocheni, thanked the High Commissioner for taking time out of his busy schedule to receive them.

She also noted that the Chevening Scholarship, which began in 1983, is not restricted to academics alone, but is a program designed to develop leadership qualities in individuals who must have performed creditably in their respective fields or profession for two years.

She added that most of the courses undertaken by the scholars are aimed at broadening their developmental skills.

Ocheni expressed hope that they would be able to contribute to the development of Nigeria through the knowledge they garnered for the benefit of Nigeria upon their return home.

Tunji Isola expressed his appreciation to the Scholars for their decision to visit the High Commission.

He noted that he was happy to receive them at the Mission as High Commissioner and as someone who has passion for mentoring the youths.

While stressing that the youths have a greater role to play in the development of Nigeria, the High Commissioner implored the scholars to inculcate and deepen the virtues of values in their behaviour to enable them excel in life and in leadership positions.

He equally recalled that he also benefited from a similar program in his youthful days under the full sponsorship of the Government of the United States of America.

He noted that he visited over ten cities in the United State of America including the Capitol Hill and the Department of States, where he undertook leadership development studies that eventually prepared him for leadership roles later in life, becoming a Local Government Chairman at 36 years and a Minister at 46 years, amongst others.