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Tag: Education

  • Education is strongest tool to fight poverty – Betta Edu

    Education is strongest tool to fight poverty – Betta Edu

    The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr Betta Edu has noted that the educational foundation remains the strongest tool to deploy against poverty.

    Edu hosted the University of Calabar ALUMNI and some management staff led by the Vice Chancellor, Prof Florence Banku Obi on Friday on a visit to her office.

    The visit was primarily to congratulate the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr. Betta Edu who is an alumnus of the University of Calabar.

    Edu in her remarks disclosed that over the years, the University of Calabar had been a major hub in producing leaders with excellent records across the country and she remains most grateful for the institution and its stride.

    According to her, the ministry is working on full detailing of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu Action Plan as regards the Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation Ministry which includes eradicating poverty.

    “Resources will be mobilized across the board to enable a robust humanitarian and poverty alleviation intervention. We will be reaching out to development partners, the private sector, institutions, and well-meaning Nigerians. We are also going to verify and review the social register to ensure that truly it’s the poorest of the poor that are on the list, this will commence soon,” she stated.

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    She appreciated the Vice-Chancellor and her management team for coming to celebrate with her while assuring the institution that she would not fail in her latest national assignment.

    The Vice-Chancellor who was accompanied by the top management staff of the University, the Registrar, Mr. Gabriel Egbe, the Bursar, Mr. Joseph Odum and the Alumni Relations Officer, Mr. Donklaimz Enahme assured the minister of the institution’s willingness to assist in fighting poverty using the classroom and every other means available to them.

    According to her, the university is glad to be associated with all her achievements starting from her early days as Vice President of the Students’ Union Government at the University of Calabar to her role as Special Adviser to the Governor, DG, and Commissioner For Health and most recently APC National Women Leader.

    Highlights of the visit were the presentation of gifts by the Vice Chancellor and  University Relations Officer, Mr Donklaimz Enahme, alongside other management staff.

  • Education is greatest tool to fight poverty, says Betta Edu

    Education is greatest tool to fight poverty, says Betta Edu

    The minister for humanitarian affairs and poverty alleviation, Betta Edu has said that educational foundation remains the strongest tool to deploy against poverty.

    Edu hosted the University of Calabar Alumni and some management staff led by the vice chancellor, Prod Florence Banku Obi on a courtesy visit to her office on Friday. 

    The visit was primarily to congratulate Edu who is an alumni of the University of Calabar.

    The minister in her remarks disclosed that over the years, University of Calabar has been  a major hub in producing leaders with excellent records  across the country, saying that she remain most grateful for the institution and its stride.

    According to her, the ministry is working on full detailing of President Bola Tinubu action plan as regards to the humaintarian affairs and poverty alleviation ministry which includes eradicating poverty.

    She said: “Resources will be mobilized across board to enable a robust Humanitarian and poverty alleviation intervention. We will be reaching out to development partners, the private sectors, institutions and well meaning Nigerians. We are also going to verify and review of the Social Register to ensure that truly it’s the poorest of the poor that are on the list, this will commence soon.”

    Read Also: Group hails Tinubu for saddling Betta Edu with poverty alleviation

    She appreciated the vice chancellor and her management team for coming to celebrate with her, while assuring the institution that she will not fail in her latest national assignment.

    The vice chancellor, who was accompanied by top management staff of the University, the Registrar, Gabriel Egbe, Bursar, Joseph Odum and the Alumni Relation Officer, Donklaimz Enahme assured the minister of the Institution willingness to assist in fighting poverty using the classroom and every other means available to them.

    According to her, the University is glad to be associated with all her achievements starting from her early days as Vice President of the Student Union Government in University of calabar to her role as Special Adviser to the Governor, DG and Commissioner For Health and most recently APC National Women Leader.

    Highlights of the visit was the presentation of gifts by the Vice Chancellor and  University Relations Officer, Donklaimz Enahme alongside other management staff.

  • Education: Not tea party for Tahir Mamman

    Education: Not tea party for Tahir Mamman

    Hundreds of millions of children and young people remain out of school globally. Billions of those in school are not even acquiring the basic education. Girls continue to encounter discrimination in education and, as elsewhere, the most vulnerable and marginalised – low-income groups, persons with disabilities, migrants, refugees and displaced persons, among others – are being hit hardest. These are uneven and negative indices of our time, according to the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF).

    In this imbalance, Nigeria is ignobly confronted by high number of out-of-school children, learning crisis, low infrastructure, low budgets and incessant strikes by unions on campuses, amid dwindling revenues to implement party’s manifestoes.

    Therefore, for Vice-Chancellor of Baze University, Prof. Tahir Mamman, who was on Wednesday night unveiled as the new Minister of Education, it would not be a tea party! So also for the commissioners for education coming on board in states.

    In Nigeria, free education seems utopian for the citizenry, owing to paucity of funds in the face of national competing needs. In the midst of this, Mamman is taking over at the centre on Monday.

    It would not be business as usual as the country is confronted with high number of out-of-school children, learning crisis, low infrastructure, low budgets and incessant strikes by unions on campuses at federal and state levels in the face of dwindling revenues.

    Poor funding

    To address the rot and decadence in basic education, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) recently asked the Federal Government to ensure that the country allocates between 45-50 per cent of the nation’s education budget to primary and secondary education.

    Chief of Education, UNICEF Nigeria, Saadhna Panday-Soobrayan, who made the call in Abuja, lamented that the poor investment in basic education in the country had tremendously affected the learning outcomes at that level of education.

    Poor national education outlook

    A report by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, in partnership with Global Education Monitoring Report, showed that the number of out-of-school children in Nigeria had risen above 20 million from about 12.5 million recorded in 2021. The data showed that sub-Saharan Africa remained the region with the highest out-of-school children.

    The introduction of the Better Education Service Delivery for All (BESDA), targeted at reducing the figures of out-of-school children in the country, seemed not to have reduced the figures.

    Read Also: Lagos education agency gets ISO certification

    The report stated: “Nigeria holds the unenviable position of being the country with the largest population of out-of-school children of primary school age: 9.6 million in 2020, up from 6.4 million in 2000 and 7.5 million in 2010. The number of out-of-school children continues to rise.” The statistics might have changed now.

    This spark, according to educationists, calls for an urgent intervention by the government to arrest the situation so that many pupils can return to school.

    High out-of-school in northern states

    Despite accessing all their funds for basic education from the Universal Basic Education Commission, most northern states continue to boast of high figures when it comes to issues of out-of-school in Nigeria. According to the 2021 Multiple Indicators Cluster Survey 6 (MICS 6), the highest out-of-school rates are found in Kebbi (65 per cent), Zamfara (61 per cent) and Bauchi (61 per cent). The lowest rates are found in Ekiti (two per cent) and Imo (one per cent).

    UNICEF’s Chief of Measurement for Results (M4R), Claes Johanson, at a two-day media dialogue on MICS 6 results, in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, noted that the share of children that are out of school in primary schools was still 25 per cent. The MICS 6 was carried out in 2021 by the National Bureau of Statistics as part of the global MICS programme. It covered 39,632 households.

    The poverty link

    In Kebbi State, the Programme Assistant on Education, Youthhub Africa, Peter Ogah, linked the rising figures in the state to increase in poverty.

    Ogah said: “A key contribution to this for me is the increase in poverty rate (parents preferring to survive than send their wards to school), very low quality of teaching, and a gradual decline in interest for education. Kebbi, for instance, is not plagued with insecurity as the other states, but yet has an alarming figure.

    “I had a conversation with a parent and traditional rulers while in Kebbi and he said he would rather send his wards to neighbouring states where the academic standard is high than have them study in Kebbi State.

    “Based on UBEC’s guidelines, huge chunks of the fund accessed are used for renovation and construction with just a fraction going into teachers’ training and retraining, robust curriculum development and other factors that truly drive the quality of education in a state.”

    Alarming numbers of unqualified teachers

    The roles of teachers in shaping the future of tomorrow’s leaders are important, and that is why Teachers Professional Development programmes are vital to the teaching profession. It helps to enhance the capacities of teachers to deliver quality teaching to pupils.

    According to the National Personnel Audit of the Universal Basic Education Commission 2018, the quality of teachers is in short supply across all educational levels and incoming minister and commissioners of education must tackle this fast.

    According to UBEC, 27 per cent of the teaching staff in the country is unqualified. The commission noted that in the North East, there are 33 per cent unqualified teachers and in the North West, there are 39 per cent unqualified teachers.

    The lack of quality teachers has further fuelled the learning crisis in the country. According to the World Bank, about 70 per cent of pupils in the age bracket of 10 are not learning.

    The bank noted that globally, 125 million children are not acquiring functional literacy or numeracy, even after spending at least four years in school.

    Tertiary education unions’ crisis

    Last year was dominated by the strike by the four university-based unions – the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU); the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU); the Non-Academic Staff Union of Allied and Education Institutions (NASU) and the National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT).

    On February 14, ASUU’s leadership declared a four-week warning strike, which was subsequently extended. The union was soon followed by the other three university-based unions. But after a series of meeting with the Federal Government team, the three other university-based unions – NAAT, SSANU and NASU called off their strike.

    For ASUU, what started as a warning strike soon snowballed into an indefinite one, crippling academic activities in the nation’s public universities.

    ASUU on one side insisted that the Federal Government must meet its agreements on funding for the revitalisation of public universities, payment of earned academic allowances, reconstitution of the FGN/ASUU 2009 Renegotiation Committee, University Transparency Accountability Solution, UTAS, and withheld salaries and non-remittance of check-off due.

    The Federal Government on the other side insisted that most of the demands had been met and only refused to pay the union their salary for not working for six months; a decision that led to further extension of the strike by the union. The university lecturers insisted on full implementation of their demands.

    There were a series of meetings between the government team and the leadership of ASUU. At some point, negotiations between the leadership of ASUU broke down.

    But after a series of meetings with the ASUU leadership, the Buhari administration found out that reaching an agreement with ASUU was not going to come easy. It invoked the Trade Dispute Act and referred the matter to the National Industrial Court.

    The industrial action was an offshoot of the alleged failure of the Federal Government to fully implement the 2020 Memorandum of Action after the union called off its strike in December of the same year.

    The union had protested the decision of President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration to migrate all public service workers to IPPIS. After a few years on the platform, ASUU began to develop resistance to IPPIS.  It cited irregularities in the payment platform for the resistance.

    The union proposed UTAS as an alternative platform for the payment of salaries for its members following discrepancies it highlighted in the use of IPPIS.

    The Federal polytechnics and colleges of education also have various axes to grind with the federal and state governments. For the new minister and commissioners for education, it would not be a tea party!

  • Edo investment summit targets education, business, healthcare, others

    By Ambrose Nnaji

    Edo State has become an investors’ delight in the last three years with reforms being spearheaded by Governor Godwin Obaseki. From November 8 to 12, Nigeria’s business community will converge on Benin City, for the third edition of the Alaghodaro Summit, which showcases the landmark achievements in education, primary healthcare, business and other sectors, being recorded in the state, writes Ambrose Nnaji

    When Governor Godwin Obaseki, during his inauguration on November, 12, 2016 identified agriculture, education and industrialisation as strong pillars on which the Edo state’s economic revolution would stand, many believed it was one of the plausible and chimerical chants sung by politicians, with little or no intention of fulfilling them.

    Justifiably, the belief may have held some water because since the advent of Nigeria’s democracy in 1999, most governors have been widely adjudged to have performed poorly, despite uninterruptedly completing their two-terms of eight years in office. While some were found to be somewhat power drunk, corrupt and without a strategy of implementation of policies, others chiefly think more about self, family and loyalists than the populace.  But in barely three years, Governor Obaseki is already rewriting history, bringing governance and its dividends to the doorsteps of Edo people.

    Unlike what was attained in the past, there is an exciting breath of fresh air in various sectors of the state including education; economy; infrastructural, human capacity and industrial development; agriculture and rural development. The governor has touched almost every nook and cranny in the state in terms of developmental projects that are visible for ‘any doubting Thomas’ to see.

    More so, apart from bringing panache and dignity to governance,  Obaseki through his populist and people-oriented reforms has elevated the face of leadership and redefined politics to be able to make government respond to the yearnings of the suffering masses, which ordinarily should be the penchant of any government in power.

    A visitor in Edo State will be astounded by the rate of massive industrial and infrastructural developments, as well as the strategic execution of laudable policies and reforms, which prescient observers say have repositioned the state to investor’s destination, tourism hub and construction site. With a pellucid vision, the Obaseki-led administration is pulling every string available to attract investors, build local capacity and create wealth for Edo State and its people.

    Alaghodaro: The Summit

    Right from the electioneering seasons, the governor has remained resilient and focused on his visions and aspirations to transform Edo State to a business destination haven. Almost on a daily basis, the ‘wake and see’ governor, unveils policies and strategies to break the ground in fast-tracking the state’s industrialisation and economic diversification.

    This is one of the reasons for the birth of the Alaghodaro Summit. With the theme, “Delivering to Our People, The Next Level”, the 2019 edition will create an avenue to evaluate how the Obaseki-led administration’s policies, programmes and initiatives have been able to transform the lives of ordinary Edo people and articulate aspirations for further achievements.

    Alaghodaro, meaning progress, started in 2017, bringing big ticket investors from all parts of the world, thereby exposing the state to more investors and expanding its economic space. Last year, it was a “People’s Summit” that brought all Edo people and residents together in one place, face-to-face with their governor to discuss on challenges confronting the state and identify peculiar and innovative ways to tackling them. But the 2019 edition of the summit will enable the government to assess the impact of the people-centred policies, programmes and projects of the governor on job creation, youth empowerment, basic and technical education, healthcare, food security, among others.

     

    Agriculture Revolution

    Already, impacts of the governor’s effort to unlock the state’s potentials are eminently felt in all sectors. One of Obaseki’s blueprint for development in the state is the harnessing of agriculture’s immense capacity to accommodate more hands. With a vision to create over 200,000 jobs after his first tenure at the helm of affairs of the state, he has gone all out to craft policies and initiatives to get more youths into agriculture through a value-chain driven agricultural development model designed to ensure smooth commodity-to-market flow.

    In Edo, the government is building a strong nexus linking youths, agriculture and jobs. The state government believes that tapping opportunities from its vast arable, loamy land to provide jobs for teeming youths would quell job crisis. The idea is hinged on the thinking that agriculture has a huge potential for job creation, which affords the people better life.

    Already, the farmers in Agenebode axis of the state have started reaping from the bouquet of policies of the Obaseki led administration, harvesting several metric tons of rice in farms cultivated in partnership with the state government, who provided inputs and technical support for the farming season.

    The farms were captured under the state’s Agriprenuer programme, which prioritises the cultivation of a number of crops, including maize, cassava and rice. Over 10,000 hectares of land in various locations across the state are being cultivated under the agripreneur programme. The state government intends to harvest 17,000 metric tons of rice by cultivating 4,000 hectares of land at the end of the planting season in 2019.

    The state government also boasts a Fertilizer Plant. Governor Obaseki said during the opening ceremony of the Edo Fertilizer Plant, that the plant was a key peg for engaging youths in the state, especially as it provided needed input to fast-track agricultural development. According to him, “This achievement is an open call to other investors to bring in new technology, create more jobs and expand our economic opportunities.

    Also, the industrialisation plan pursued by the Obaseki-led  Edo State Government is quite grand and encompasses a wide range of strategically connected projects which does not only targets to see the rise of the state as an economic hub, but as a cynosure of all those seeking to make an industrial city from a lowly civil-service state.

    The government has been committed to its grand plan to reincarnate the state as an industrial city serviced by gas-powered power plants, housing refineries, seaports, industrial clusters, innovation hubs, smart neighbourhoods and a number of other investments.

     

    Revamping Technical Education

    As Obaseki goes around courting investors, an extensive overhaul of the Government Science and Technical College, formerly known as Benin Technical College is still ongoing. The revamp is in order to train a new breed of technicians and scientists that will be absorbed by investors in the new companies expected to sprout from the Industrial Park and other projects that will be requiring technical manpower. The government has, in the same vein, been training youths in enterprise development and other critical skills required in the 21st century workplace through its EdoJobs platform.

    A critical sector that the state government has beamed light is the education sector, which is expected to supply the needed manpower for the lofty ideas of the government. Reforms in basic and technical education are ushering in a new breed of human resources to drive the state’s development efforts.

     

    Re-enacting basic education

    with Edo-BEST

    One specific reform in the sector that has continued to earn the governor accolades and recognitions is the Edo Basic Education Sector Transformation (EDOBEST) programme spearheaded by the Edo State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB).

    Aimed at transforming the basic education sub-sector and consequently improving learning outcomes in schools, the project recently earned the governor a national honour by the Nigeria union of Teachers (NUT). The feat has attracted the international community as the governments of Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania have sent representatives at different times to Edo State to understudy the Edo-BEST initiative. Just recently, Lagos State Government adopted the Edo State Basic Education model after officials of the state came to learn how the programme works.

    So far, the programme has impacted 11,300 government teachers, reaching 918 schools and around 300,000 children. A recent study conducted in the state showed higher academic attainment among children in the project. Governor Godwin Obaseki, said the programme will, “develop a highly-skilled teaching workforce by training, supporting and motivating Edo State teachers to succeed in the classroom of tomorrow, empowering our children to compete effectively in the world of work. The programme will leapfrog the basic education delivery systems by leveraging technology to gather and utilise accurate and timely data to drive policy and planning decisions.”

    Guests on parade for Alaghodaro 2019

    All these and many more are part of the reasons the Alaghodaro Summit was put up, examine the success of the three years of project execution of the Obaseki-led administration and identify new paths to be explored in improving the lives of the Edo people. The events will bring together all Edo sons and daughters, home and abroad, as well as businessmen, investors across the globe.

    Some of prominent guests expected at this year’s Alaghodaro Summit are the Managing Director of Shell Nigeria, Mr. Osagie Osunbor; Executive Director, Dangote Group, Halima Dangote; Chairman, Nosak Group, Dr. Toni Ogunbor; Toni Adepoju of KPMG Nigeria, among others.

    According to Special Adviser to the Edo State Governor on Media and Communication Strategy, Mr. Crusoe Osagie, “In the last three years, Edo people have witnessed an incursion of businesses into the state to take advantage of the reforms being implemented by the Governor Godwin Obaseki-led government. One of the iconic things we have done for the business community is to ensure that that we respect the sanctity of contracts and also make doing business in the state seamless.”

    “The people know what this administration has done with the fight against human trafficking, through which our children are now free from the grip of human traffickers. Investors are coming to the state to harness prospects in projects such as the Benin River Port, the Edo Modular Refinery, Edo Innovation Hub, Edo Production Center, and the Benin Enterprise and Industrial Park.”

    Osagie continued: “The governor has continued to receive commendations on job creation with the opening of the Edo Production Centre, skills acquisition training programmes for youths which have benefitted over 150,000 persons, support to farmers to boost food security and other laudable initiatives to drive industrialisation, economic expansion and create wealth for Edo people.”

    “The interesting thing about the 2019 Alaghodaro Summit is the focus on how the Obaseki-led administration has continued to deliver dividends of democracy to Edo people and residents.”

  • Stakeholders chart way forward for education

    By Damola Kola-Dare

    Some senior government functionaries have underscored the need for Nigerians to support government to improve the sector.

    The trio of the Chairman, House Committee on Education, Aminu Sulaiman; Executive Secretary, Tertiary Educaiton Trust Fund (TETFund), Prof Suleiman Bogoro; and the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Abuja, Prof AbdulRasheed Na’Allah, all noted that “Rebuilding  Nigeria’s  Educational  System  Towards  Global Competitiveness  in the 21st Century” required collaborative effort.

    Bogoro who featured on a panel with Na’Allah, as well as the founder, Help for School Foundation, Mrs Bunmi Oreaje-Ogbori; and the General Secretary, National Union of Textile Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria, Comrade Isa Aremu, said the out-of-school crisis was a blight on the country’s reputation.

    “It is necessary to rebuild the education sector. It is an embarrassment for the nation that there are over 10 million out-of-school children. In fact, the north has the highest number and this is a call to the government to address the issue,” he said.

    He also called for increased funding in an innovative way like TETFund.

    He said: “Something has to be done as regards funding the education sector. ASUU went on strike last year because of unpaid salaries. We need to create another innovative way for the budget system just like TETFUND was created to support infrastructure in our schools,” he said.

    On his part, Na’Allah said parents should actively participate in the education of their wards to keep authorities on their toes and move the sector forward.

    He said: “All stakeholders including parents must take active role to move education forward and dialogue must continue to ensure education is repositioned. Then we must utilize solutions developed in the country, Nigerian-based solutions.”

    Commenting on the theme, Hon Sulaiman urged all Nigerians to do their part to rebuild the education sector and not just be critics.

    He said: “We cannot change the system outside the system. Everybody should be involved. We should not leave it for government alone. Our attitude of being permanent critics should change.  We should all strive towards changing the face of education in the country.”

    Speaking on private sector participation, Mrs Oreaje-Ogbori called on philanthropists to provide funding for low cost schools to make education accessible to all.

    She said: “We need proper funding of the education sector, particularly for low cost schools, to make education accessible to all. This is a call to private sector and philanthropists to assist in the transformation of the sector.”

    Aremu talked about education in driving science and technology and ensuring global competitiveness.

    He said: “Education is not only key to global competitiveness, but also digital economy, science and technology.”

    Lending his voice on the issues raised, Prof. Lere Baale, CEO Netherlands Business School, urged that the curriculum used in our schools should be reviewed.

    “When I was in school, what I was taught in the curriculum had no relevance to my field. We need to change our curriculum.  You cannot be teaching people outdated things in the 21st century.  Then people with practical experience in the industry must be involved in teaching.”

    He stressed the need to include entrepreneurial studies in the curriculum from Primary level to the University level.

    On the issue of sex-for-grades,the general  consensus  was zero tolerance for such misconduct, the need for students to be able to evaluate  lecturers,and putting in place stricter punitive  measures for offenders.

  • ‘Education structure not speaking to job market’

    By Lucas Ajanaku

    A group, Aksara Foundation, has said the products of the nation’s education curriculum do not fit into the  labour market.

    Its founder, Mrs. Gulnar Vaswani, who spoke on the side during the donation of a refurbished Information Communication Technology (ICT) Centre to Iyana Ipaja Girls Junior Grammar School, Lagos, said emphasis should shift to competences and skills detection and nurturing in students.

    The centre has over units of 20 computers, security wall set up, air conditioners. The Foundation also gave scholarship to four students.

    Mrs Vaswani said the foundation is seeking to redefine how students view leadership and how to face the 21st century challenges rather than the usual curriculum which doesn’t adequately prepare the students for modern future.

    She said: “Aksara Foundation is talking about competencies, skills, learnings and paradigms that are not covered by most curriculums either at the university,  undergraduate, high school or junior high levels. No one is taught  the skills that are needed to survive and thrive in today’s global complex technology connected world.”

    According her,  the education of today is that of 18th century with students  still learning by examination, teachers rating intelligence by the highest score, and still beleiving that the smartest girl or boy deserves the scholarship.

    Mrs Vaswani said: “We think that there are other drivers of success that education is not capturing. We want to help build those skills, talents and competencies and make the students understand that they are all leaders and they all have untapped potential to give. Whether they are A, B, C or D students doesn’t matter.

    “The selection of the school was based on appropriate numbers of students, it must be a public school, decent security record. There is also need to kick-start the initiative with a school within our area of operation, which is Ikeja in Lagos.”

    She said the selection started  when the Foundation  said it wanted to partner a school that has a  maximum of number of students and schools around the Foudation’s head office.

    “Because we are in Ikeja and we tour schools around Ikeja and Agege axis and we found this school- Iyana Ipaja Junior Girls Grammar School, which is a big school with a large number of students,  we chose  help this school,” she said.

    She thanked the school management for the opportunity to impact on the lives of the girls.

  • Banky W, Osei, others for Nexford Open Day on Saturday

    Award-winning actor, singer and entrepreneur, Banky W; and the Founder, She Leads Africa, Afua Osei, are among the panellists for the 2019 Nexford University’s Open Day.

    Organisers of the Open Day, which will hold at Oriental Hotel, Lagos on Saturday, said that the panellsts would discuss critical job skills needed in workplaces and for entrepreneurs.

    The panelists include the Founder of Business Lab Africa, Tricia Ikponmwonba; the Lead at Teach for Nigeria, Bunmi Adefisayo; and Mark Igbinedion from Get Qualified.

    The others are Miss Olamidun Majekodunmi and Dr Robin Johnston from the Nexford University.

    According to the organisers, Saturday’s Open Day is tailored towards addressing the needs of small businesses/startups.

    A statement explained: “The Open Day will give participants high-quality, affordable, dynamic enlightenment that prepares them for the global workplace.”

    The Nigeria Country Director of Nexford University, Majekodunmi, signed the statement, which also stated that one of the reasons for hosting the Open Day was to curb youth unemployment through entrepreneurship.

    It reads: “NXU launches Lagos Open Day to curb youth unemployment. The goal is to empower and support the region’s entrepreneurs. In the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, more than one in eight of all 15- to 24-year-olds are not in employment, education, or training – Nexford Insights. The International Labour Organisation estimates that 75 million young people are unemployed.

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    “Estimates of underemployed youth could triple this number. This represents a huge pool of untapped talent and a source of social unrest if left unchecked. Local economies can’t meet rising job demands. To help with this, NXU equips learners with the skills they need to be globally competitive and tap into international economic opportunities.”

    The statement also quoted Nexford’s Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Fadl Al Tarzi, as saying, “With the rapid advancement of tech, skills are the only barrier between ambitious youths across the world and attractive economic opportunities. Our next-generation university focuses on this, precisely.”

    Justifying its investment in curbing unemployment and aiding entrepreneurship, the university said, “The university surveyed Fortune 500 companies and analysed millions of job vacancies to create a curriculum focused on job skills. Nexford’s online learning model bridges the skills gap between graduates and employers.

    “Students can choose from elective courses or specialise on hot topics such as Sustainability, Managing Hyperconnectivity and Doing Business Across the World – Nexford programs overview. Learners pay a flat-fee monthly tuition, similar to a phone or data bill.”

    It added: “No long-term commitment or huge lump sum is needed. They pay the same monthly fee regardless of the number of courses or credits taken. The faster they go, the less they pay, which gives students an incentive to finish on time.”

  • Poverty, unwanted pregnancies keep 51 percent Adamawa children from school

    Fear of fees by poor parents has been identified as a leading reason why most children of school age in Adamawa State are not in schools.

    Only 49 percent of school-age children in Adamawa State are in school, according to a nongovernmental organisation, African Centre for leadership Strategy & Development (Centre LSD), which did a research of school enrolment in the state.

    The acting Executive Director of the NGO, Mr Monday Osasah, who made the disclosure in Yola during a training conference for education sector stakeholders towards raising school enrolment, especially for girls, said girls are particularly affected.

    This, she said, is because they suffer from a widespread impression that education for girls is a waste as they would sooner than later be married off.

    Osasah, who delivered lectures to community leaders during a two-day workshop in Yola on enhancing school enrolment, drew his conclusions from a research initiated by his NGO and published with funding from Malala Fund, with focus on three LGAs: Maiha, Song and Numan.

    Read Also: How poverty keeps girls out of school

    The report on the research, which our correspondent obtained, shows that while total population of persons of school age in the state in 2018 was 1,736,546; only 849,912 (49%) were enrolled in primary and secondary schools.

    The report shows that while the total population of females aged 5-19 in the state was 843,024, only 383,380 (45.5%) were in school, leaving 459,644 out of school.

    The research, which paid particular attention to girl-child education in the state, also listed fear of being captured by insurgents, early marriage, unwanted pregnancy and indifference to western education as other reasons for high number of out-of-school girls.

    The research report recommends in-depth engagement of stakeholders to facilitate community action in favour of girl-child education, and critical interrogation of identified barriers by government and community stakeholders as some of the solutions to low school enrolment.

    Osasah, who fielded questions from newsmen during the conference for community and education leaders from Maiha, said similar train-the-trainer conference had been held for stakeholders in Numan and Song LGAs.

    The trainees, who are leaders with access to members of their communities, he said, would be expected to pass the education enrolment message to their people.

  • Kwara moves to sack unqualified teachers

    Plans are underway to sack unqualified teachers in the Kwara State Teaching Service by December.

    Mr Olumide Awolola, Deputy Chairman, Kwara House of Assembly Committee on Education and Human Capital Development, said this on Friday in Ilorin.

    He spoke when the Civil Society Action Coalition on Education For All (CSACEFA) paid an advocacy visit to the Assembly.

    Awolola explained that the step was aimed at reforming the state’s education sector.

    According to him, a circular has already been issued to that effect as the state government is committed to providing qualitative education.

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    He said the sack of teachers without professional qualifications would be carried out alongside other initiatives to restore the lost glory of the education sector.

    Earlier, the State Coordinator of CSACEFA, Hajia Nimat Labaika, urged the government to urgently address the rot in the education sector of the state.

    The rot, she said, was inimical to education and human capital development in the state.

  • Education: The trigger and the catch

    SIR: The glory of yesteryears education system in Nigeria has vanished like the vapours of a dewy morning. No vehicle can run indefinitely without a refuel, just as no tree can hope to remain sturdy without water and sunshine. The events of recent years have no doubt inscribed this truth deeply into the breasts of our near comatose education system. It is apparent that we are still practicing a backward oriented education system in Nigeria in this digital age. The current system has continued to fail the internationally recommended tests. A clinical assessment of the Nigerian education system calls for emergency and a 360 degrees mental disruption. The challenges that plague the education sector in our country are legion but a few highlights will be made.

    The over-westernised culture in the modern education curriculum is a welcome development but has retarding effect on our indigenous ones. The mad quest for British curriculum has deleted the necessary ingredients in the Nigerian scheme thereby rendering some core Nigerian subjects impotent in the classroom. Nigerian history has been totally obliterated from the educational curriculum. The real truth about Nigeria political pilgrimage has been stolen, the spiral effect is a generation of students who are ignorant of the political ecosystem called Nigeria. These students go into leadership offices totally oblivious of the political system since they are not well informed via tutelage.

    There is also the issue of infrastructural decay in our schools, chiefly public schools. A patriotic visit to most public schools in the country will leave you breathless. From cities to rural areas, the story is the same. It is very unfortunate that some students are learning seated on the floor without chairs. Some school structures are life threatening as they expose students to danger. Poor road network to schools, maladministration, bad governance and negligence have taken the Nigerian children into depression. Many of our public officials are interested in stealing money, take their children abroad and imprison the children of the poor in poorly managed schools manned by hungry teachers.

    Furthermore, the near absence of an education economy in Nigeria is sickening. The education economy will handle issues of non-payment of teachers, payment of peanuts to teachers and act as a catalyst that will encourage brilliant students who distinguished themselves in their different areas of academic endeavours. It is unfair that students who are academically outstanding are not recognised in Nigeria but reality TV show participants are celebrated, enriched and almost worshipped. The Nigerian system discourages academic investment in the education sector and encourages mass movement into the showbiz world.

    Finally, wrong policies by the government and companies lead to discrimination against individuals with Nigerian certificates as opposed to foreign ones. Individuals with foreign certificates are better positioned to pick most employment openings in Nigeria than those with indigenous certificates .This anomaly has triggered a high number of visa applications for tertiary institutions abroad in order to bridge the certificate gap leaving our home universities deserted.

    The government should as a matter of urgency declare state of emergency in the education sector so as to right the wrongs of the past years and emblazon our educational flag in the sands of time. The National Assembly should legislate the total restructuring of the education system to make our schools attractive and to discourage excessive travelling abroad for schooling. All public officials should be mandated to take their kids to public schools in Nigeria as that will fast-track government’s intervention to any of her plight. There should be a head count, enrolment and scholarships to all out of school children to encourage them to be better persons in the society. Government should equip states with standard library to instil reading culture and encourage students who are doing research. Educational grants should be constitutionalised to encourage indigent students. In Nigeria education sector, the government is the trigger while the schools are the catch.

    • Ikechukwu Agada,

    <bishopagada@yahoo.com>