The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Education

  • Education is foundation of good things – Unilorin VC

    Education is foundation of good things – Unilorin VC

    The Vice Chancellor of the University of Ilorin, Prof. AbdulGaniyu Ambali, has identified education as a critical foundation of every good things in life.

    Ambali said this in Ilorin at the foundation stone laying ceremony of the Pen School, a brainchild of the Kwara State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).

    He, therefore, urged parents and other stakeholders in the education sector to give their children the best form of education, especially at the basic level.

    The Vice-Chancellor, who was represented by the Deputy Director, Corporate Affairs of the University, Mr. Kunle Akogun, said the event showed a paradigm shift in the perception of NUJ as a professional body.

    He said the ceremony also testified to the fact that journalists were responsible citizens whom were contributing their quota to the growth and development of education in the society.

    Ambali urged members of the NUJ to cooperate with the leadership of the union in the state to ensure that the laudable project did not die.

    “Journalists here are at the forefront of living up to the mantra of saying that education is the foundation of every good thing in life,” he said.

    He also said that apart from the fact that the school was an epoch-making event, it also showed that journalists in Nigeria were no longer what people used to think of them.

    The Chairman of the Kwara NUJ, Malam Abiodun Abdulkareem, assured that the project would be completed before the end of the year.

    He said the school would offer qualitative education to its pupils.

  • Teachers seek review of legal education curriculum

    Teachers seek review of legal education curriculum

    The Nigerian Association of Law Teachers (NALT), has called for an immediate expansion of the curriculum of legal education in Nigeria. The proposed expansion, meant to insulate Law graduates from the ever expanding unemployment market, accommodates new areas such as Agriculture, Medical Science, Physiology, Nursing, Sociology, Psychology and Marketing among others.

    This was contained in a communiqué issued at the end of the association’s 48th annual conference held at the Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD), over the weekend.

    NALT reasoned that improving and expanding the curriculum would guarantee rapid development of different facets of the society, while making law graduates employable across varying fields.

    The communiqué signed by NALT President, Smaranda Olarinde an associate professor, also seeks conscious efforts to adopt the comparative and global perspectives to legal education in Nigeria both at the law faculties and the Law School against the current trend which focuses mainly on domestic/municipal laws but which cannot guarantee legal practitioners who can respond effectively to the growing challenges of globalisation.

    Olarinde, who is also the Provost, ABUAD College of Law, equally advocated practicing Nigerian lawyers who desire to play at the global level to tow this path.

    In addition, NALT wants members to pay more attention to ethical issues in the admission of candidates into the law programme of universities, graduates into the Law School and above all, admission of Law School graduates into the Bar. This, according to NALT, is to checkmate “infiltration of men and women of questionable character into the legal profession and ensure the sustenance of the sanctity and nobility of the law profession.”

    Against this background, Olarinde suggested that the teaching of professional ethics should start from institutions’ law faculties and be consolidated upon at the Law School before lawyers are finally released to practice.

    In view of the importance of the legal profession to national development, NALT said henceforth, those to be admitted to study law should be mature with broad knowledge in Arts and Sciences as is the practice in the United States and Europe, where Law is studied as a second degree to ensure those offered admission to study Law are matured minds.

    Olarinde also urged universities in Nigeria to ensure that undergraduates, especially in Law, undergo entrepreneurial training to endow them with skills and competences capable of making them job creators.

    She said there is an urgent need to re-evaluate and re-engineer the Nigerian postgraduate education in Law in terms of designing more suitable research methodologies with a view to accommodating new frontiers of knowledge, Information and Communication Technology, as well as entrepreneurial studies.

  • MTN workers invest in education for 21 days

    MTN workers invest in education for 21 days

    It is easy to criticise pupils participating in quiz competitions for not getting certain ‘simple questions’ right.  However, some MTN workers had a feel of what it is to be on the hot seat during the flag-off of the firm’s 21 Days of Y’ello Care last Monday.

    The theme of the initiative, which is a workers’ volunteerism scheme that requires them to commit time, resources and skills to better their communities, is Investing in Education For All.

    Three members of each of the firm’s nine divisions (Human Resources; Network Group; Sales and Distribution; Marketing, Brands, Customer Relations, CSD, Enterprise Solutions; and Finance) participated in the 80-question quiz competition that featured mostly secondary school level and general knowledge questions.  Who wants to be a millionaire host, Frank Idoho, was the quiz master, while Music sensation, Nyanya, was the time keeper.

    Some of the quiz questions included: “How many lobes does the brain have?”; “What is the longest river in the world?”; “What theory is Albert Einstein most popular for?” “What year was Wole Soyinka born?” “When did MTN arrive Nigeria?” “What vitamin deficiency is scurvy?” “Who are the governors of Delta/Akwa Ibom states?” “How many Senators are elected into the National Assembly?” “How is the chemical name of Helium written?” among others.

    Like in any competition, some of their answers were wrong.  But it did not detract from the excitement of the workers who cheered their representatives during the competition held at the headquarters of the firm in Falomo, Ikoyi, Lagos.  At the end of the two-round competition, Sales and Distribution won with perfect scores in each round. Human Resources came second.

    Speaking on the significance of the 21 Days of Y’ello Care, which would end in 10 days, the Managing Director/CEO, MTN Nigeria, Mr Michael Ikpoki, said the programme enables the firm to connect to communities it serves in 22 countries in Africa and the Middle East in a special way.

    He added that the initiative’s focus on education in the past four years is in line with the company’s desire to improve digital learning.

    “As limited access to quality education continues to plague Africa’s growth and development, the role of digital learning in this ICT era is becoming more compelling.  This is because digital learning brings to the table, immediate, diverse and customized access to world-class education and beyond that, a multiplicity of opportunities for advancement,” he said.

    Corporate Services Executive, Mr Akinwale Goodluck, urged the workers to give financial assistance to support the initiative.  He announced a short code they could use to give directives for deductions from their salaries.

    In the course of the week, the firm donated digital libraries to Port-Harcourt Technical College Ahoada, Rivers State, Model County Junior Secondary School, Ikwerre Etche, Rivers, which were also painted in MTN colour by its workers.  The pupils were trained to use the computers.

    Other schools lined up for the digital libraries include: Government Secondary School, Enugu; Nike Grammar School, Enugu; Gbaja Girls Senior High School, Surulere; and Government Girls Secondary School, Dutse, Abuja.

    The initiative also covers teacher-training workshop for 100 teachers at New Era Secondary School, Surulere, book reading sessions in select schools, and The Y’ello Tutor initiative, an e-learning hub that will be made accessible to primary and secondary school pupils across the country to access learning materials, tutorials, examinations practice questions and other educational resources.

    Top management executives of MTN like the Human Resources Executive, Mrs. Amina Oyagbola; Corporate Services Executive, Mr Akinwale Goodluck; Sales and Distribution Executive, Mr. Tsola Barrow; Chief Marketing Officer, Mr. Olubayo Adekanmbi; General Manager, Enterprise Marketing, Mrs Onyinye Ikenna-Emeka, among others, witnessed the flag-off.

  • Increase education vote, NANS tells Buhari

    The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has congratulated President Muhammadu Buhari on his inauguration, urging him to increase funding to education.

    In a statement by its president, Tijani Usman, NANS said improving education allocation would bring development, adding that the president should look into the fees paid at Federal Government-owned institutions to make tertiary education affordable to all.

    NANS also appealed to Buhari to renovate facilities and equip laboratories to produce excellent graduates.

  • Punish parents who compromise education, says politician

    Lagos State Progressive People’s Alliance (PPA) chieftain, Mrs Pauline Adegbe, has urged parents to desist from engaging their children in trading during school hours.

    Addressing reporters in Lagos, she said a situation where children who are supposed to be in school loiter around motor parks,  highways and other places, hawking not only exposes them to criminal activities but the risk of being killed.

    Mrs Adegbe said: “Parents who use their children as means of earning a living should stop doing so. That is not the purpose of God who gave them to us. As parents, it is our responsibility to cater for them.

    “This is one area I want to call on the Lagos State government to look into. There should be stringent laws to punish parents who try to compromise the education of their children by preferring to allow them to hawk instead of being in school.”

    The PPA chieftain urged Lagos State government to increase its financial budget for education, noting that it will lessen the burden of parents who are not able to cater for their wards’ education.

    “With government increased budgetary allocation to  education, it will be affordable by parents with minimal effort to send their children to school. School enrollment will increase, this will benefit the state and the entire country in the long run.

  • ‘Functional education, justice, will help curb Boko Haram problem’

    How do you classify and define Northern Nigerian writing?

    There is nothing different between me writing as a Northerner and those of my colleagues from other regions of Nigeria. The only noticeable difference today is the features of their local peculiarities like names and what defines them as peoples from southern Nigeria in terms of cultural settings. For example, if I use Fatima here, a writer from southeast Nigeria will use Nnenna or another writer in Southwest will use Shola or Tobi. To me, talking about Northern Nigerian writers means writers residing in Northern Nigeria. Take one Mr Tunji for example from Osun, he was born in Minna, all he has written are from Minna or Niger State, where do you place him. There is nothing Northern about the contemporary Northern writer or literature because the problems of Nigeria are the same from the North to the South, the East to the West. What you call poverty here is what is called poverty in the South. Problems of sexuality here are the same in the South. These are the things writers write about whether north or south.

    What do you have to say about the Northern literacy, which some say has given birth to the boko haram crisis?

    It is not the cause of Boko Haram at all. Politics is responsible for Boko Haram. The issue of whether literacy or illiteracy is responsible for Boko Haram is not true because Islam states that we should love one another. For me, it is politics, struggle for control of resources or even poverty. Imagine in Iraq, they are educated yet there are so many problems. I don’t know why people find it difficult to believe that poverty and injustice have a lot to do with crises in the society.

    What can be done to curb this?

    Justice is the main thing in any society, if you remove that from peoples’ lives, people will become violent. Equity distribution of resources is also important. Functional education should also be encouraged. If there is functional education and justice, there will be little problem.

    How did the book agency sought to promote the indigenous languages in the state?

    We have started with Nupe and Gbari languages. We need textbooks in order to teach the languages. We are capitalising on the efforts of I.B Ibrahim (Nupe writer) and Sheikh Umar Dada Paiko in accelerating the development of indigenous languages so that if we say study Nupe or teach Nupe, we will have our textbooks for them to study. I. B. Ibrahim has written textbooks in Mathematics, Literature, Grammar, Biology and many others in Nupe language. But most of them are yet to be published. Before my departure, the agency had shortlisted some of them for publication but funds didn’t come. Ambassador Solomon Yisa, who is also a writer in Nupe unveiled Nupe dictionary on July 20, 2013 in Abuja. There are also several people who are making efforts to encourage the learning and teaching of Nupe. I also invited Sheikh Dada to start something on Gbari or Gbagyi. He informed me of his effort to translate part of the Qur’an into Gbari. There was another Gbagyi who has done a few things in his language, which we wanted to support but it is the question of releasing the approved funds.

    What are some of the agency’s achievements?

    Many! There were the establishment of Bookhawker Scheme; Establishment of an ICT training centre, Cyprain Ekwensi Library, Minna Creative Writing Class, and the construction of a fence round the Hill-Top Arts Centre, Minna and its general renovation. There was also the establishment of two series such as the Minna Literary Series and the Nigerian Writers Series, and the organisation of annual MBA International Literary Colloquium that held four times, among other things.

    How far has the agency been able to bridge the gap in the reading culture in the state?

    If there is constant release of funds for creative works as put in the budget, Bookhawker Scheme and the Minna Literary Series should gain immediate frequency for the right impact on reading in the state. Without books proliferating the neighbourhoods, the agency will lose the rhythm we have created there.

    Tell us more about the Minna Literary Series?

    We thought we needed to replicate the Nigerian Writers Series in Niger State for writers here. So, we invented that for which the governor approved N10m last year, it was not released. Again, this year (2015), there is another N10m for the Minna Literary Series. I hope they will release it to the Agency because about 29 manuscripts of young, new writers are waiting there. I am a restless character when it comes to capacity building of young writers. I foresaw this non-release of funds and decided that each time there was colloquium we would safe for the series. We did and published six of them including a girl from Osun, another girl from Kogi and one young man from Benue. The other three are from Niger State but all of them reside in Minna. The Osun girl was born here, eighteen years ago. The name Minna Literary Series is just a name, any Nigerian who is a writer resident in Niger state can be published. Even corps members serving at the agency have been shortlisted. We just want to stimulate Niger environment through books for development. And boys and girls have started talking to the society, vigorously.

    The scheme just started last year with Saddiq and Paul’s book. Two months ago we added Fodio’s book and shortly before my exit another three were added.

    What is new in the Minna Literary Series?

    The writers are new! The writers are good. They already command national profiles of their own, some even international profile because their works have been published in many, many international Journals. The authors under the scheme started out from secondary schools. They first got published while in secondary schools through the Hill-Top Arts Centre I established while still a teacher in Hill-Top Model School. This is new. Many things are new about the scheme. Remember Abubakar Imam from Kagara? The man had a wife from Bobi or was it his mother? A writer has emerged from Bobi village near Kagara; a girl of 26yrs, Maryam with a novel called Bongel. The unravelling of tomorrow’s Imams, Gimbas and Zainab Alkalis is what is new about the series. And that reality is here. Those of us who are older should take note and stop antagonising tomorrow.

    How is the book hawker project coming?

    Bookhawker is low now. We have the bookshop, the tricycles but few books. The fund to operate it is not there, no enough manpower at the bookshop. Funds approved for the agency were not released. So, for the last part of my stay there, we just concentrated on publishing new writers from colloquium funds. Bringing forth new writers is a fundamental objective in the law establishing the agency.

    How can the projects be better sustained and operated?

    We have the operational manual up to Local Government level which we submitted even before we embarked on the construction of the bookhawker. Funding is the main thing.

    How has been your experience as DG in the past few years?

    Being DG from December 2012 to May 2015 was exciting and full of activities, exciting because we got a ‘home’ as writers, we got an institution where we could experiment many ideas we had nursed as individuals and as a group over the years. Indeed, we did many things for which some commissioners, Permanent Secretaries, even an SSG didn’t understand: they didn’t understand why government should spend money on creative writing, intellectual activities and the development of young writers in the state. But the excitement of seeing how our young ones and their parents felt when the books their chaps have written came out is unprecedented. Remember, the agency is the first and the only of its kind in Nigeria, that is hyper-exciting, isn’t it? We were also excited when the state house of assembly passed the law establishing it and the governor assented, immediately. At the agency, I had time to experiment ideas which were basically on capacity building of the young ones. I concentrated on them, enthusiastically as usual. I will do the same at any point of my private and public engagements in the future, inshaAllah.

    Could you share your journey towards becoming the DG of the book agency?

    It is the story is of a journey from being the Senior Special Assistant to the state governor in 2009 when I was invited to serve in a new unit created by the then Secretary to State Government, Prof Yahaya Kuta. Afterwards, I was elevated to the Executive Coordinator of the same unit that is Projects and Programmes Documentation Unit (PPDU) in the office of the SSG. Later, I was elevated to the Head, Research and Documentation in the governor’s office. That’s how I have moved from 2009 to December, 2012 when the agency was created to specifically care for writers and the documentation of government activities in professional ways. At each point of the journey, I didn’t lose sight of the fact that my being there was an opportunity to promote writers and writing. My activities were purely cognitive. Of course, I wasn’t going to go around shouting at rallies, I think they recognised my background as an artist and left me alone to concentrate on the intellectual crusade of book development and documentation. It was after the 2012 MBA Colloquium when Soyinka commissioned the Cyprain Ekwensi Library that I sent a text message to Prof Kuta that we needed a place for writers and to domicile the intellectual capital project of the state government which he brought up and we amplified through numerous book activities. He requested for a design which I drafted and sent to him. Today, we have an agency for writers in Nigeria.

    What has been the agency greatest challenge the agency has had to face?

    Release of funds, in 2014 budget, monies for the arts gallery, multi-media centre and 29 books were not released. 2015, they are yet to release N10million for creative books. Last year, our budget was N50million, this year, it is only N10million. And the young ones said: ‘they have started’.

    What was the greatest challenge of the job?

    Some petty writers in Minna suddenly constituted themselves to antagonising our programmes. I didn’t know why. Strangely, they found one or two alliances in the writer’s fold in Minna. It was disappointing to me. Even some older members who ought to know you better gave-in to the mischief of people who arrived at the association five years ago. In fact, they went as far as recruiting one Tajudeen Lasisi Amusa, a student of Federal University of Technology, Minna to do their dirty job. They wrote fictions about me and gave to the boy to publish on social media, all in a bid to draw us back at the agency. When I got tired, I filed a case against the boy and got a ruling in my favour. That was a distraction I didn’t like. It appears they are not done yet because I would be contesting for the office of the National President of ANA but I will not be tired of going to court too. They have gone to hire another petty unserious writer in Lagos, one Mudiaga who my young ones here are better than to conduct mischievous interviews with one Farida Mohammed to make fictional and infantile allegations against me. My antagonists from Minna found a South-south fellow of theirs to launch a new war on me, they will fail. So, because of my bid for the National Presidency of our association, they have intensified their campaigns of calumny. Even a Permanent Secretary in the state is housing one of them. Incidentally, the Permanent Secretary is one of those who don’t like the idea of a book agency for writers. They are just wasting their time because my friends across the country know my antecedents; they know my ways with the young ones. By the grace of God we shall win the presidency and continue to demonstrate the national reach we have established for over 25 years now.

    What advice do you have for the new administration on how to improve the operations and reading culture and circulation of books?

    They should go and understudy, physically, what we have done there and why. Serious minded people should do this; academics and artist should be sent there not civil servants or politicians and take reports back to the governor. They should assess the activities done there; weigh the nobility behind establishing the place, what are the impacts, etc., before deciding what to do. They should return the young graduate-writers there to avoid collapse. Funds should be increased and released regularly.

    There are fears in some literary quarters over the fate of the agency in the new dispensation, what say you?

    Well, I don’t believe that the new government in Niger State will just throw away a landmark that Global Writers like Wole Soyinka, Atukei Okhai, Odia Ofeimun, Prof Rasheed, Shamsuddeen, Ayindoho of Ghana, Pius Adesanmi, Unoma have commended as an example for Africa. These world scholars came here, you know. It gave us a global image and prestige. More than any MDA, the book agency documents the activity of Niger State government. They are stuck in the Cyprian Ekwensi Library there. We designed IMPACT Magazine for MDAs which popularised activities there. Even Ministry of Information, the parent ministry didn’t do as much as we did. The reason is that, over 98% of the staff were political appointees; were writers, journalist and artists. So the interest to document was there. Now, something needs to be made clear, the agency is not like another MDA elsewhere, this one is a specialised one to institutionalise the literary heritage of Niger state. Until you have something to do with Literary Art and other artistic forms of expression, you have no business being there. Dismantling the agency will translate to dismantling Nigerian Writers. I doubt if they will take it lightly from across the world. But the saddest thing is that only about seven staff is left at the agency now. All the efforts made to absorb the young graduate-writers there were fruitless. All those published and more worked there as political appointees, about thirty of them. They are all out now. I think it is important to get them back there. That’s just an advice. For me, I am back to the IBB University, Lapai, where I came from.

  • Stockbrokers to engage government on investment education

    The Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers (CIS) would engage the new administration of President Muhammadu Buhari on the need to integrate capital market operations into the entrepreneurial schemes of various government agencies, especially the National Youth Corps Scheme (NYSC).

    The CIS stated that such investment education and empowerment would avail fresh graduates more comprehensive exposure to the capital market operations and provide them with necessary knowledge to take useful decisions.

    The Federal Government has institutionalized entrepreneurial training in the NYSC scheme to enable the fresh graduates develop a new capacity aside from their academic background. This is part of the strategy to promote self-employment for the youths by de-emphasizing dependence on white collar jobs

    Head, research and technical, Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers (CIS), Mr Arinze Nwobu, who led a team in continuation of the institute regular enlightenment programme for youths at the 2015 Lagos State NYSC orientation camp Batch B , said the fresh graduates can make a career in the capital market.

    According to him, many of the young graduates could make career in the capital market after their NYSC primary assignment as it will broaden their scope on the capital market operations. Already, CIS has been at the forefront of investor education for the NYSC members every quarter. Many of the fresh graduates lack in-depth information about opportunities provided by the capital market and how they can take advantage of such.

    Nwobu said that serving graduates who had passed through universities and polytechnics are eligible and qualified to explore the benefits and opportunities in the capital market and could later take up jobs as stockbrokers, securities analysts, investment bankers and portfolio managers who are currently the major players in the capital market.

    He therefore urged the Corp members to take advantage of the programmes of the institute by enrolling for the CIS professional examination while serving the Nation.

    While appreciating the CIS, State Coordinator, NYSC Lagos, Mr. Cyril Akhanemhe remarked that it was quite thoughtful of the Institute to have brought great opportunity for the Corp members.

    He urged the Corp members to take advantage of exploring the opportunities available to them during their service year.

     

  • NPC to interview 30,000 for education survey

    NPC to interview 30,000 for education survey

    The next eighty-three days will be busy for field workers of the National Population Commission (NPC) as they move around over 30,000 households, pan-Nigeria, to conduct the National Education Data Survey (NEDS).

    The survey is a follow up to the Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) carried out in 2013, which involved women aged 15-59, and men aged 15-69.

    NPC Federal Commissioner for Lagos State, Mrs Abimbola Salu-Hundeyin, said at a briefing held at the commission’s conference room in Lagos on Tuesday that the survey, which took off on May 4, would examine the educational status of children aged four to 16 in those households visited in 2013.

    Reading a speech on behalf of the NPC Chairman, Chief Eze Duruiheoma,  Mrs Salu-Hundeyin, said the commission hopes to record the education data of 45,000 during the survey.

    “The survey expects to interview a total of at least 30,000 parents/guardians aged 4-16.  The interview will focus on reasons for not attending school and for dropping out of school, frequency of absenteeism, and reasons for missing school, cost of schooling, and other issues,” she said.

    She said 850 households in Lagos would be visited and urged the respondents to cooperate with the NPC field workers.

    Highlighting the benefits of the survey, Mrs Salu-Hundeyin said it would provide political leaders with veritable data to plan and address problems in the education sector.

    “This survey will help us to know the educational status – whether truly we are improving educationally.  It is going to increase awareness.  It is going to help the government.  Don’t forget that population commission is the best authority on demographic data.  So this data will help the government of Lagos State in particular and Nigeria as a whole to plan in the area of education,” she said in an interview.

    At a similar briefing in Ekiti, the Federal Commissioner for the state, Adeniyi Fadairo, also urged the respondents to supply truthful answers to the officials.

    He further explained that the purpose of the survey is to seek out reasons for low enrolment, attendance, and poor learning outcomes, among others.

    “The outcome of the 2015 NEDS will inform programming that would improve levels of student enrollment and attendance, as well as facilitate equitable access to quality schooling for all children in Nigeria,” he said.

    The survey, which is conducted once in five years, would come up next in 2020.

  • Our approach to education is holistic

    Its approach to education is to engender spiritual, rational and emotional intelligence in its students; and this is why every programme of Regenesys Business School is weaved around its motto-‘awakening potential’. The philosophy is to have people discover their innate potentials and consolidate on same to build better leadership.

    “We believe that every human being has great potentials that are blocked by our fears. Our role is to block those fears so that people can now achieve their aspirations. Our mission is making the world a better place by developing and becoming better leaders. The problem the world is involved in today is lack of dedication and leadership in management skills; so by developing leaders, we are creating a ripple effect for families, organisations,” said Regenesys Business School Chairperson, Dr Marko Savania during a one day seminar on Effective Strategy; held at Eko Hotel and Suites on Friday last week.

    “It’s holistic education  is one of the initiatives of Regenesys,” Savania continued. “We approach education holistically by developing rational, emotional and spiritual intelligence of our students”.

    Savania said the seminar  would be a forerunner to several other similar programmes Regenesys would be rolling out especially in facets of business and human resources.

    The theme of the seminar, Savania explained, is not only tailored towards Nigeria’s needs alone but stretches globally since organisations now face stiff competitions.

    “The initiative is not tailored to Nigeria alone. Globally, competitive strategy is compelling.Companies are competing not only within their immediate locality but across the globe. So there is a clear need to develop a robust strategy that allows you compete and also think globally. It is to expose people to global best practices, to inspire participants to share experiences as well as to learn,“ he added.

    Regenesys Country Head, Supo Fawole, noted that the Regenesys, though started in South Africa yet  birthed in Nigeria two years ago, aligning its strategy in two key areas of leadership and management.

    According to Fawole, Regenesys offers service in three key areas of academic qualification-post graduate diploma, executive education as well as short skills programme.

    The seminar was being replicated all through last week in Mumbai, Johannesburg in South Africa and Nigeria.

    “If you look at where Regenesys is located-India, South Africa and Nigeria are three key emerging markets each with a potential to make significant impact in the world. So taking this programme to a different location simply shows there is a lot we can learn from each other. The market is so huge and the challenge of education is so big in Africa generally that the space is big enough for everybody to play,” Fawole said.

    At present, Fawole said Regenesys enjoys scholarships from Microsoft to run two of its programmes across 10 African nations. This is in addition to an agreement with global communication outfit MTN’s I-learning platform in which Regenesys provides exclusive and high quality educational content across 14 African countries, among others.

    “Participants will go away with impact that gives you confident about the future,” said Savanja on expectation of participants at the seminar. “You can achieve your dreams. Things that were being discussed are things that people have read about but to come together in learning environments like this has tremendous impact on you.”

  • Group urges Buhari to check corruption in education

    A group, Exam Ethics Marshal International (EEMI), has urged the incoming government to beam its anti-corruption searchlight on the education sector.

    Founding chairman of the group, Mr Ike Onyechere, decried the high level of malpractices in the education sector in a proposal to President-Elect, Gen Muhammadu Buhari on how best to tackle education malpractices.

    He recommended an eight-point agenda for ‘the Buhari Presidency’ to “signal zero-tolerance for exam malpractice, academic dishonesty and corruption in education.”

    “It is important to send an immediate and unmistakable signal of zero-tolerance for corruption in the education sector. Exam Ethics recommends an eight-point programme of action for sending such a signal,” he said.

    In the agenda, Onyechere canvassed for the re-launching of exam malpractice blacklist initiative to name and shame invigilators, supervisors and schools that aid and abet malpractices.

    He flashed back to the inception of the blacklist initiative under the administration of Dr Oby Ezekwesili as Minister of Education in 2007, where names of schools operating as magic centres, individuals and organisations involved in malpractice were published in the media, but failed to publish the execution of any form of sanctions on the parties involved; and charged the incoming administration to shun secrecy of the names of defaulters as is the norm.

    He also recommended re-visiting the Need Assessment Report on federal universities to identify and sanction those involved in criminalising the tertiary education process.

    The third point of the agenda suggested that all regulatory agencies of tertiary institutions, including National Universities Commission (NUC) and others, be directed to take action on recent government white papers on state tertiary institutions, as “immediate action is needed to curb the regime of impunity of state functionaries in many state tertiary institutions.”

    Its fourth agenda for Buhari would be to set up task teams to carry out re-accreditation of courses in all public and private universities in the country, disregarding previous accreditation reports.

    It further proposed the re-validation of the educational qualifications of all workers in the Federal Ministry of Education, agencies and institutions of education, “as nobody can give what he does not have.”

    The group also asked that certified professional associations be compelled to institute stronger self-regulatory mechanisms, with the notion that “the real danger to society is that licensed assassins cannot be stopped because they are covered by certifications and licenses awarded by educational institutions.”

    In addition, the group urged the government to compel the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), the National Examinations Council (NECO) and other public examination boards to make public, the names of candidates barred from taking their exams.

    “The names, exam numbers and pictures of candidates involved in exam malpractice in Nigeria should be published in newspapers as is the case in other West African Countries,” the statement read.

    The final point of the agenda recommended that leadership and institutional support be provided for the group, Exam Ethics, for their efforts in sustaining the campaign against corruption in education since its inception in 1996.

    Emphasising the importance of the eight-point agenda, Onyechere said: “The consequences of corruption in education are particularly fundamental, pre-eminent and most devastating for society.  This is because it is the role of education to produce leaders, professionals, workers and citizens with the character to shun corruption and the competences to transform national potentials into developmental realities.

    “Education is not playing this role when institutions are virtual breeding grounds for corruption, where leaders of tomorrow are weaned on diets of fraud and where the processes of admissions, training, examination, certification, registration and regulation are criminalized.”