By Damola Kola-Dare

 

Pupils of Lagos State Model Senior College, Meiran and Jakande Estate Comprehensive Senior College, Abesan, Lagos State were impressive at the STEAMUP Lagos convention  2021 held last Thursday at Radisson Blu Hotel on Victoria Island, Lagos.

Timileyin Adegoke, David Ayodele, and Miracle Odejide, all SS1 pupils of Lagos State Model Senior College, Meiran, developed a waste-detecting robot which  not only checks for waste, but picks it  and disposes in the incinerator.

“This is a robot which helps to check for waste or refuse. Apart from being able to check and detect waste,it can also properly dispose it in the necessary place. It has been programmed to look out for waste and dispose it. This will aid waste disposal in the state,” said Adegoke, leader of the team.

Kehinde Ajasa, an SS 3 pupil at Jakande Estate Comprehensive Senior College, Abesan, developed an automated trash bin. He noted that improper waste disposal in the state inspired the invention.

“I  developed this self-opening trash bin as a result of improper waste disposal in the state. When you move towards the bin,it opens without you touching, then when you throw refuse inside, it closes automatically,” he said.

Another pupil at Jakande Estate Comprehensive Senior College,   Oluwadamilola Davies, who is in SS 2 invented what she termed ‘Smart Walker’.

According to her, the device is to assist blind people in properly navigating their way.

“The Smart Walker is an aid for blind people.  When there is an obstacle on the way, it alerts the person holding it. Therefore, it helps a blind person move away from obstacles.  It gives such a person confidence to walk unaided,” she said.

The Science, Technology, Engineering, Art & Mathematics (STEAM) UP Lagos project is tandem with the Education and  Technology component of the “T.H.E.M.E.S” agenda of Lagos State Governor, Mr Babajide  Sanwo-Olu. It is an education intervention targeting public primary and secondary schools  in Lagos State.

The project is aimed at encouraging young Lagosians/Nigerians to become inventors and problem solvers. It is anchored on four important pillars, namely curriculum design and integration,teacher training in modern STEAM pedagogy, set up of STEAM laboratories and engaging students in learning and boosting extracurricular STEAM activities.

beamed live on the resuscitated Total Education Show on television.

The Senior Special Adviser to Lagos State Governor on Education, Ms. Adetola  Salau underscored the need to boost the capacity of young people to solve problems in various  sectors of the state. She added there will be incentives for pupils who are creative and innovative.

“We will have annual Lagos STEAMUP competition where we will give prizes to students who are innovative,” she said.

The pupils also performed a playlet to spice up the event.

 

Digital payment and commerce company Interswitch, has urged prospective candidates to take advantage of its various payment gateways to register for the 2021 Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB)/Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME) to meet up with the May 15 deadline.

Candidates who would like to register for the 2021 JAMB/UTME examinations, can easily obtain their e-PINs and forms from enabled Interswitch platforms such as Quickteller Mobile App/Web, Quickteller Paypoint (Agents), payment with Interswitch WebPAY on JAMB’s website and payment using Interswitch Paydirect at any bank branch nationwide.

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Tomi Ogunlesi, Group Head, Corporate Marketing at Interswitch advised prospective candidates and guardians to make use of enabled Interswitch platforms which has been specifically designed to make the JAMB/UTME registration process easier for them. He said: “We have provided a variety of payment platforms that are reliable, user-friendly and very secure. Candidates have varied options across the Interswitch platforms. This includes a payment collection solution that allows them to make payment at any bank branch nationwide, Quickteller Mobile App and Web, including Quickteller Paypoint (Agents)”.

“Interswitch has, for 19 years, successfully delivered digital payments solutions in Nigeria with footprints across East Africa and Gambia. The JAMB UTME registration across the Interswitch platforms is not only easy and stress-free, it is also very reliable and secure,” Ogunlesi added.

By Kofoworola Belo-Osagie

 

Community members have been told not to give in to demands for illegal fees from head teachers when enrolling out of school children in school.

They were told to report illegal fees they are requested to pay to the Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board (LASUBEB) at a training organised by the Human Development Initiatives for grassroots stakeholders on monitoring basic education projects.

The programme tagged One-Day Tracking Campaign (ODTC) was attended by members of School-Based Management Committee (SBMC), Parents Forum (PF) and some grassroots stakeholders, including artisans, on Monday and Tuesday at the R&A City Hotel, Ikeja.

While sensitising participants on their roles of in ending the out-of-school crisis, HDI Human Resource Officer, Ms. Bola Dare, said the NGO usually assists in picking children off the streets and sending them back to school and pays no fees.  She encouraged them to help get children who drop out back to school.

However, some of the participants said head teachers used to demand for registration fees – sometimes as much as N10,000, or ask them to pay for uniforms or supply uniforms for the new pupils – a commitment they may be unable to make.

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Responding, Ms. Dare urged the participants to refer pupils in need of support to HDI or other NGOs that operate in such communities. Nevertheless, she told them they should not pay unapproved fees to head teachers.  She said LASUBEB only charged fees for children transferring from private to public school or from outside the state.

“When we had a day out with the Chairman, he said any school where you are asked to pay, report the school to SUBEB.  HDI usually takes children to school and we don’t pay. We only buy uniforms and other things the children need.  If you are taking children from the streets in Lagos State, you should not pay,” she said.

She urged the participants to monitor projects in schools in their community to ensure contractors do good jobs.

A second session by Mr Edidi Ayodeji, an engineer, exposed the participants to the basics of building construction so they are able to assess the quality of infrastructural projects.

Executive Director of HDI, Mrs. Olufunso Owasanoye said the training was to get more community members involved in ensuring that all children go to school.

“If we want to go with the Lagos law of leaving no child behind, we found out that they are still some children in the streets. And to support this initiative we decide to add artisans because they too they live in the communities so that we can sensitize them to support in bringing these children back to school,” she said.

 

By Emma Elekwa, Onitsha

 

Ten students of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, in Anambra State have benefited from a one-year scholarship from the Chairman, GSS Group of Companies, Chukwudi Ezenwa.

Presenting the award to the deserving students in Awka, Ezenwa, an architect, described education as the bedrock of development of any society seeking change.

He decried high rate of poverty in society which he said had constituted hindrances to students’ access to quality and tertiary education.

“I  feel pained whenever I see people who are bright and should attain tertiary education but unable to  because of paucity of funds. That’s why I go out of my way to help as many as I can whenever I see opportunity,” he said.

Congratulating the beneficiaries on the award, the benefactor charged them to be of good behaviour and take their studies seriously.

“While in school, acquire basic skills, sharpen your USP, and look for side hustles that would help sustain your journey in the university,” he said.

Ezenwa, an alumnus, selected the students following an interactive session with them at the induction of the Faculty of Environmental Sciences.

He assured them of his continued support and urged other alumni to support indigent and bright students achieve their goals.

President, Faculty of Environmental Sciences Students Association (FESSA), Victor Okeke, thanked the benefactor for the gesture, describing him as a role model to many young people.

He urged the awardees to justify the scholarship by studying hard.

One of the beneficiaries, Miss Esther Ndubisi, showered encomiums on Ezenwa, describing him as God sent.

 

 

“I deeply appreciate Chukwudi Ezenwa for this uncommon generosity. God will continue to bless him. Yes, problems do not end but God will handle any problem or challenging issues in the company.

“It is my prayer that long life and strength will be his portion. We’re grateful to him for not just awarding us with scholarship but also taking time to open our eyes about real estate,” she said.

 

From Ernest Nwokolo, Abeokuta

 

Authorities of the Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta (FUNAAB) have disclosed that the institution had written to the “appropriate quarters” seeking the return of its management courses by the Federal  Government.

The university Vice-Chancellor (VC), Prof. Kolawole Salako, said the Alake of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Gbadebo, was at the forefront of the push to have management courses back.

He said the institution’s argument for the restoration of the courses was that the Federal Government should check other specialised universities in advanced countries, including South Africa, to see what prevails there and re-examine its decision on FUNAAB.

Salako said it would be a “human tragedy” to scrap the management courses from FUNAAB after the institution had gotten the approval to run them.

Salako, who spoke last Wednesday after the conferment of professor emeritus to two retired professors  – Olufunmilayo Adebambo, who nurtured the department of Animal Breeding and Genetics since its inception in 1993 and Michael Adetunji, a soil scientist and Soil chemist who worked on rock phosphate using natural resources found in Ogun State.

The VC said if the nation wants to practise agriculture for commercial purposes, management sciences must be returned to FUNAAB, saying the erroneous concept that agriculture is about hoe and cutlass or putting maize in the soil and waiting for it to mature, informed why some people concluded that agric varsity don’t need management courses.

He bemoaned the fate that awaits both the graduates and lecturers of the FUNAAB’s College of Management Sciences, saying scrapping the programmes would rob the students a  sense of identity upon graduation while the lecturers already employed to teach would also need to hunt for other jobs.

He said: “There is a humanitarian angle to the issue. One is that those students if they fizzle out completely, then it would be difficult for them to ever explain that they graduated from FUNAAB. It means that they are not going to have a home base. Let us look from the angle of the old teachers colleges, they are no more existing but people attended those colleges.

“The other aspect is that the lecturers who have been employed will need to be looking other jobs if the government does not get it back. But above all, the scientific argument we are pushing is that government should check what is

By Olabisi Salau

 

Principal of Princeton College School, Surulere, Lagos, Mr. Steve Obiako described Victory Yinka-Banjo, the 17-year- old that won scholarship awards to 19 prestigious schools as an exceptional student and an all-rounder when she was in the school.

Victory graduated from the school last year, achieving A1 grades in nine subjects in the 2020 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) – a result Obiako said was unprecedented in the school.

He, however, said her performance was no surprise as she had maintained outstanding academic performance from when she joined the school in 2014.

“She came into the school in the year 2014 and she was admitted into the Jss2 class. She was the Best Overall Academically in JSS2, JSS3, SS1, SS2, and SS3. She had an honourable mention in the Trust for Sustainable Living Essay competition and was the Most Influential Student at a Leadership Training Organised by the African Leadership Centre in partnership with King’s College London.

“Also, a Recipient of the First-Ever Outstanding Excellence in leadership Award at Princeton College,” he said.

Not only did Victory graduate as the valedictorian for her set – a testament to her academic prowess – Obiakor said she was a leader who influenced other pupils positively.

He said Victory helped strengthen the schools’ Students’ Representative Council (SRC) and got to serve as secretary from SS1 even though positions were for only SS3 class.  She graduated as the Senior Prefect of the school.

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“It was during her time in the school that she strengthened the (SRC).  She was the secretary to the council.  At the time she was in SS1,” he said.

Victory’s English teacher, Mrs. Nkechi Okechukwu, was one of those who wrote recommendation letters for her scholarship entry.  She said Victory was someone she could vouch for.

She said: “I was one of the teachers who wrote her a recommendation letter for her scholarship applications. Victory was a student I could vouch for anywhere and anytime. She was not only outstanding but awesome among all her peers.

Okechukwu said Victory was made an Ambassador for a year after winning the competition for the Youth Industry Ambassador to South Africa Airway also the youth Ambassador for Travel and Business News.

“There a whole lot she had achieved and this is just the essays competitions. She won the first position in the South Africa Airways Essay Competition, Gold award at Queen’s wealth essay competition, first position in the national travel essay competition where I was present and followed her to the airport when she was leaving for the competition,” she said.

Senior Prefect of the school, Akuma Omma said Victory was a role model to her and others.

She said “Victory would organise the students by bringing them together for different projects.  With a lot of help from the school and other students, she procured a water dispenser, organised social, academic and leadership programmes.

“The school supported her by providing an enabling ground for her and so many other students to excel.  She was never the type to segregate students.  She was an amazing person also in the academic light she was extraordinary,” Omma said.

 

Agency Reporter

The Yaba College of Technology in Lagos State has described as laudable winning of $100,000 Ford Foundation grant by three of its researchers/staff members.

A Deputy Registrar of the college, Mr Joe Ejiofor, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Lagos that the fund would further support efforts to develop the institution.

Ejiofor listed the three researchers who jointly wrote a proposal that won the grant to include Dr Adeleke Abiodun of the Department of Chemical Science and Dr Funmilayo Doherty of the Department of Biological Science.

The other researcher is Dr Odun Orimolade of the Department of Fine Arts, according to Ejiofor.

“The researchers have done well; we are proud of them for not only bringing honour to YABATECH but also for achieving something that will be of great support.

“This year’s funding will support further development, art exhibition and presentations that relate to issues of advocacy for youth development, sexual harassment and gender-based violence, in addition to other planned activities,” Ejiofor said.

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According to the deputy registrar, who is also the institution’s Public Relations Officer, the research team also won a similar grant two years ago.

“The first grant they won in 2019 was used to develop an institutional policy on sexual harassment and gender-based policy, as well as set up a museum for the college.

“We have proposed to use this second grant for the Yaba Art Museum.

“The Yaba Art Museum has been recognised and listed as one of the Lagos State Tourism Sites,” he said.

Ejiofor said the museum would host an archive presentation of “Living Blue” on the life and work of Chief Nike Okundaye, who was committed to youth development and gender advocacy.

“It will also accommodate Yaba Cartoon Nation which will present archives of cartooning as a tool for social justice advocacy in Yaba alumni pursuits.

“We sincerely thank Ford Foundation for finding our institution worthy of the grant.

“It is a thing of honour to our reputable college, and we are happy to be associated with the foundation,” Ejiofor said. (NAN)