The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Education

  • ‘Poor technical education costs Nigeria billions of oil money’

    ‘Poor technical education costs Nigeria billions of oil money’

    Without improving technical and vocation education, and practical training in tertiary institutions, Prof Kayode Soremekun of Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State has warned, Nigeria will not benefit optimally from her oil wealth.

    Delivering the 36th Public Lecture of the university titled: Nigeria, Oil and the Yamani Syndrome, last week, he said boosting the capacity of technical colleges, universities and polytechnics to deliver quality training would improve the technical know-how to use the country’s petroleum resources.

    He said: “This productive base centres on the fact that the technical knowhow which underpins the industry is still alien to the country. This is something of a paradox, if only because this is a country with over 125 universities and equivalent number of polytechnics and technical colleges. Yet, and despite the lacuna identified above, Nigeria and Nigerians have never refrained from basking in the glow of being an oil power.

    “Also Nigeria is not located in the downstream phase; in the area of polymer chemicals-, gasoline, kerosene and naphtha. This means what we are getting from the oil is like five per cent of what we should be getting.

    “When this bleak scenario is complemented with the fact that if we had in place viable steel industries, then Nigeria would have been on her way to being s Super Power in the authentic sense. Unfortunately, the steel industry has merely followed on the heels of the oil industry.”

    The professor of Political Science and International Relations added that if the oil industry was well managed, Nigeria would not be import dependent.

    “What is probably not well known is that from the crude oil alone, Nigerians have the capacity to generate gasoline, kerosene, chemicals, polymers and naphta, such that in a well-managed state, Nigeria would not have to import anything from the outside world,” he said.

    However, Soremekun urged Nigeria to take a cue from Zaki Yamani a one-time Saudi Arabia oil minister who, at the peak of 1973 oil embargo, cautioned his country against being reckless with the resource, a piece of advice the Arab world heeded, and has contributed to their ranking as frontline oil producers today.

     

  • Education ‘must be total for brighter future’

    Education ‘must be total for brighter future’

    Ben Akintelure is the Principal of Phidel College, a Seconday school situated at Isheri-Olofin, Idimu on the outskirts of Lagos. In this interview with ADEGUNLE OLUGBAMILA, Akintelure speaks on how secondary school pupils should be prepared to have a well-groomed future. Excerpts:

    Only a few schools use more than one curriculum to teach. Why is this so?

    Exposing the pupils to various curricula is good because it provides them with different opportunities. In British curriculum, students are trained to finish in five years. There are some topics that are not found in British syllabus but are treated in the West Africa Examinations Council (WAEC) and vice-versa. There are some topics you don’t need to go into details for the British curriculum, but in WAEC or the National Examination Council (NECO), you are expected to teach. Another fundamental difference is that the British curriculum requires logic and thinking but in most cases, WAEC or NECO are too direct. Pupils that can memorise notes very well can easily pass WEAC or NECO. But in the British curriculum, you will fail if you are not intelligent.

    In Phidel, which is given priority?

    What we do here is prepare pupils using the Nigerian, British and American curricular, and we have certified teachers who can handle these. This, we hope, will make our pupils stand out.

    In truth, you cannot say one curriculum is better than the other. Preference for one curriculum depends on what you want to achieve. If you want your children to go to school in Nigeria after their secondary school education, you have the option. And if you want them to study abroad, with the training we give them here, they can also achieve that. We provide them different opportunities. In fact, basic languages of the world, including French and Chinese languages, are made compulsory for pupils at some point in their education here. The types of the exams we undertake here include WAEC, NECO, International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE), Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL).

    People are clamouring for vocational subjects to be made compulsory in the secondary school syllabus. What is your opinion?

    The idea is that when you teach pupils vocational subjects, you are actually nurturing them to be future leaders that can be self-reliant and can contribute to the society. The point is that pupils should be taught vocational subjects so thats if they cannot get white collar job, at the end of their education, they can take up a vocation in which they were tranend and developed them.

    Here, we teach our pupils vocational subjects. We have a standard Home Economics room where the pupils can put to practice what they have learnt. There is clothing and textile room with various sewing machines. We do tie and dye here. Our music studio is fantastic. There is no musical instrument that cannot be handled by our music teachers. We are also training the students in phonics, diction, etiquette and courtesy.

    What measures have you in checking anti-social behaviours particularly among the boarding pupils?

    The moment you are registered, you are trained to imbibe values that are expected of a responsible citizen in the society. With the orientation you are given, you cannot do otherwise.

    For the boarding pupils, we have standard hostels. In some schools for instance, there are big hostewith 15 to 20 beds space for pupils; but here, we have our rooms accommodating maximum of four pupils so the issue of bullying would be eradicated. In a situation where you put many pupils in a big room, the senior usually bully the junior ones. Some are even molested, that is how bad it can get.

    Would you say there are enough facilities in the school to ensure your set objectives are met?

    Yes! We have amazing structure, environment, a well-equipped school auditorium, and also constant power supply. Our standby power generating sets take over immediately there is power outage. We have a sports complex consisting of volleyball court, tennis court, standard swimming pool and football pitch with synthetic surface. We have a computer laboratory that is well-equipped and connected to the internet. Our classrooms are fully air-conditioned. We have the sickbay where nurses attend to pupils. There are schools buses that take day pupils to and from school though this is optional. And of course we have qualified teachers and experienced teachers.

    One other important thing is our dinning. From experience, when pupils are not well-fed, they lack concentration, and the brain will not develop. Here, the dinning is taken care of in such a way that we make sure the pupils are well-fed.

    At Phidel College, we have structures, facilities, equipment and seasoned teachers to achieve the set goals. We want to ensure every pupil that has his secondary school education here becomes the pride of this country.

  • Ex-registrar decries poor state of education

    Ex-registrar decries poor state of education

    The education system will only be revived if corruption is checked, says the immediate Registrar of the University of Lagos, Mr Rotimi Shodimu.

    He spoke at a roundtable organised by the 1965-1971 set of the Ibadan Grammar School Old Boys Association (IGS) to commemorate the nation’s 53rd independence.

    Speaking on the theme, ”The declining state of education in Nigeria- the way out”, Shodimu said the moribund state of education call for sober reflection.

    He lamented that the education sector is in an anomie state where federal and state government pursue different education system, the school curriculum is non existent, lack of planning which result in inconsistencies, lack of infrastructures and inadequate facilities neither is there a defined concept.

    He said Nigeria is being dominated by heavily politicised institutions where appointments as ministers and commissioners are not based on any criteria; trade unions not pressure groups thrive in the educational institutions; proliferation of staff unions and professional groups, unending strike leading to loss about 75 per cent of school year.

    As a result of incessant disruption of the academic calendars, Shodimu said foreign institutions are invading Nigeria and neighbouring countries – with students from Nigeria recording highest attendance.

    ”The release of allocation is now a big issue with terminologies like cash back-up, release, drop, envelope. Corruption is the order of the day in the allocation and release of funds, the allocation is not based on known fact or criteria,” he said

    Proffering solutions, he said: “Education should be addressed with sincerity for meaningful disposition and approach or else the future of this nation is bleak and we would continue to witness the massive exodus of our tested and valuable human resources while our country withers. We have the ideas but the implementation and enforcement is the problem.”

    Chairman, IGS, Mr Babatunde Ayo-Vaughan, said at 53 years, Nigerians have benefited nothing.

    “After 53 years, it appears that the only thing Nigerians congratulate themselves for is that they are still alive. Many Nigerians today are in this state of anomie. The constant questions are, when will this bleak condition come to an end and who will bell the cat?”he asked.

     

  • Youths urged to embrace education

    A non-governmental organisation (NGO), the 1 GAME Campaigns, has said that its activities in Nigeria’s North-East region were aimed at building a new generation of children who will stand against violence and terror due to the education they had acquired.

    The organisation recently launched campaigns aimed at supporting school children with learning materials and improving enrolment into western schools in Borno and Gombe states situated in North-East Nigeria, a region that is so vulnerable to terrorist attacks and whose attackers campaign against western education.

    Addressing Muslim youths in the southern city of Calabar during the Eid-el-Kabir celebration, founder of 1 GAME, Philip Obaji said it would be almost impossible for children to be recruited into insurgent groups in North-East Nigeria if every child is educated.

    “I hear some people say the reason for the insurgency in the North-East region is political. Some say it’s a fight over supremacy of religion while there’s a debate about the actual reason for the insurgency. No one has argued about who the foot soldiers are.

    “Isn’t it clear that they are the ignorant children and youths who have been talked into taking their own lives by fighting against western culture just because they lack basic education?

    “That is exactly what I see; ignorant children fighting against a culture that has saved many of us from hunger, poverty and disease.

    “Is it easy to ask an educated child to pick up arms to fight for no meaningful reason? Again, is it easy to ask an educated child to pick up a bomb and take his life along with others just because of a dislike towards western culture?

    “So, you see where the problem is. People mislead our children because they are ignorant and uneducated,” he said.

    Obaji also called on Nigerian youths to play a leading role in the fight against violence by inspiring children into embracing education and supporting initiatives that are helping to put kids into school, saying “it’s the simplest way to defeat terrorism in Nigeria.”

    “Yes the military is fighting to defeat terrorism. But like I’ve always said, military action alone wouldn’t solve the problem. We need to ensure that the current generation of children shuns this evil. That can only be achieved if we give them the right education, which is what we are fighting for,” he said.

  • Education reforms yielding fruits, says Aregbesola

    Education reforms yielding fruits, says Aregbesola

    Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola has likened ongoing reforms in the education sector to a surgery, “which comes with pains but results in a soothing experience after recovery”.

    Aregbesola spoke at the Lagos Metropolitan Club during the Induction/Awards of the Ijesa Society.

    He said the reforms became necessary to address the decay in the education sector.

    Aregbesola said: “On the surface, it looks as if we are deliberately out to inflict pain on people with the reformation of our school system, but that is not our intention. We saw a hopeless situation in our basic education system and during my campaign days, I made it clear that we would address the problem aggressively. But as usual, people do not give much thought to statements made by politicians, especially during campaigns.

    “Some of our policies are necessary but painful and may not be well accepted now. We are, however, convinced that surgery is not always pleasing and soothing to those who need it, but the joy of recovery and healing afterwards more than compensates for the temporary pain of going under the knife.

    “When I assumed office in 2010, I proposed to close down the schools to have a smooth sail in the rescue mission. Two months and 15 days after our inauguration, we put together a world submit on education. Experts in education from across the world were invited to help us look at the hopeless state of education in our territory. They were there for two days under the leadership of Prof. Wole Soyinka. Everything was dissected.

    “At that conference, I told the gathering that I would love to close down schools for one or two years to do the needful in education. But of course, my view was too radical. The conference produced a communique containing a series of steps to be taken to revamp the sector and we have been at it since then.

    “Rather than looking at what we are doing as the best way to revamp education, ensure that pupils have the best for our limited resources and maximise our resources for excellence and efficiency, sentiments and primordial issues were brought in. People said I wanted to Islamise the state.”

    On other value-adding strategies, Aregbesola said: “We spend N3.6 billion yearly on the feeding of Primary 1 to 4 pupils, and Osun is the only state doing this. We do not give them just any food, but the best food for children of their age. Today in Osun, pupils eat 300,000 eggs, 35 heads of cattle, 15,000 whole chickens and 400,000 tonnes of fish weekly and they take fruits daily.

    “Which government in Nigeria, since Independence, has done close to this? None! When people talk about our school reformation policies, please ask them if it is true that this administration feeds 300,000 pupils with the items mentioned above on every school day.”

    On the results of the reforms, he said: “The intervention has led to improved performance in external examinations. The hopeless state we met, whereby only three per cent of our high school products were matriculable, has changed. Today, over 60 per cent have crossed the bar. We were 32nd on the national examination scale, slightly better than our rating on the allocation table, since we are 34 of the 36 states in Nigeria. We are No. 8 on the national examination rating now. These are the results of our interventions.”

    “To ensure this, we employed 3,007 women, properly trained and groomed to feed these children. We raised the grant to schools from N200 to N400 per pupil per term. You cannot even geometrically calculate the change from N52 million per annum to N1 million per annum grant to schools, even though it is a far cry from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) recommendation.

    “We put all textbooks required for effective learning in secondary schools into a tablet of knowledge, which is the first in the world, and gave it to pupils free.”

    Urging members of the society to always make extra effort in whatever they do, Aregbesola said the recognition of effort as an invaluable virtue was the essence of honouring people that have attained greater heights in the society through hard work.

    He said: “Human societies have instituted awards as a mechanism for promoting these highly desirable virtues. So the Ijesha Society in Lagos is doing its bit as a socially responsible group to confer recognition and awards on its members, who have been appointed to distinguished positions and offices in the society.

    “Some of these awardees are well-known to me and are, indeed, serving in various capacities in the Osun State government. They are people who have distinguished themselves in their chosen careers and their services have continued to be in high demand in the society.”

     

  • Tertiary education at the crossroads (II)

    There should, by now, be no doubt in anyone’s mind that tertiary education in Nigeria is at the crossroads. And just like every crossroad, it is often a point of deep reflections where important decisions must be made. Since a crossroad is an intersection where two or more roads meet leading to various destinations, a wrong turn can lead to a wrong destination. With over 100 days wasted already due to the ongoing ASUU strike, it appears there are no visible signs that the end is near in this prolonged action. Though Prof. Julius Okogie, Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC) would want us to believe that just “like a husband and wife, the government and ASUU are talking behind closed doors”.

    Since the strike began on July 1, there has been series of negotiations. It started from the ASUU/FGN negotiation with the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), which included former Minister of Education, Prof Rufai; and then the Governor Gabriel Suswam-led Committee took over. It failed to make impact after claims and counter claims between Suswam and the lecturers on who was responsible for the deadlock. The baton was later passed on to Vice President Namadi Sambo. After looking each other eyeball to eyeball, ASUU refused to budge holding on to its position that this is the strike that will end all strikes, hence the crossroads. The polytechnics are not faring better either as ASUP resumed its earlier suspended strike action.

    As the deadlock continues, one aspect that is not on the front burner is the implication of the strike on the education sector and the country. But before I discuss some of these implication, there is the need to really understand what the bone of contention is to give us a clearer picture of how things are now.

    This is necessary to distinguish facts from emotion and gerrymandering.

    Simply put, the main point of contention of the 2009 FGN/ASUU Agreement is the level of implementation. According to ASUU, the level of implementation is “unsatisfactory”. The FGN, on the other hand maintained that they have abided and are implementing all the terms of the 2009 Agreement which they have met “substantially”.

    I need to point out here that there are seven items covered by the agreement on the level of implementation, they are: funding, progressive increase of yearly budgetary allocation to 26 per cent by 2020, earned academic allowances, establishment of pension fund administrator, university governing councils, transfer of landed property to the universities and budget monitoring.

    In the Monday, August 20, 2013 meeting between ASUU and the Federal Government Team led by the SGF and Governor Suswam, the 10th according to Dr. Nasir Fagge, Chairman of ASUU; government declared that it will not implement the agreed massive injection of fund to revitalise the public universities which was the outcome of the NEEDS committee it set up. Rather, it made a political statement of supporting some universities with N100 billion. The parties were also at daggers drawn over the earned allowances, which accumulated from 2009 to 2013. The government later provided N30 billion to assist various Governing Councils of Federal Universities to defray the arrears of N92 billion owed to all categories of staff in the university system.

    ASUU immediately rejected this intervention, which it described as “‘take it, or leave it’ threat of grab-the-crumbs or starve-to-death”! To show its determination to resolve the issues at stake early in the strike, the union met with the Education Committees of the National Assembly on how to resolve the crisis. Unfortunately, this did not yield meaningful results, which, according to ASUU, were “mainly due to the government’s acts of deception and insincerity. Subsequent meetings have also failed to address the outstanding issues about the agreement and Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in ways that would suggest that the government is seriously committed to arresting the further decline of the already appalling state of our public universities”.

    Prior to the signing of the now contentious last year’s MoU, Government had assured ASUU that N100billion was available to immediately revitalise of public universities, once the priorities of the academic institutions were determined. This was what gave rise to the setting up of the Committee on Needs Assessment of Nigerian Universities (CNANU). The committee, headed by the erstwhile Executive Secretary of TETFund, Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu, submitted its report to the Federal Government in July, last year.

    But it need to be pointed out here that in the 2009 Agreement, the funding requirement provides that all Federal Universities would require a total sum of N1.5 trillion spread over three years (2009-2011) to address the rot and decay in the universities. If the state of universities in 2013 is anything to go by, then the three-year period lapsed without any serious efforts to implement the provision.

    Government also promised “to stimulate the process of revitalizing the university system with an initial sum of N100 billion” for 2012 which will be built up to a yearly sum of N400 billion “in the next three (3) years” (2013-2015) as intervention. But before doing this, it insisted that it will need to conduct a needs assessment to determine what exactly would be done with the fund. This is what gave birth to the Needs Assessment Committee which conducted the Exercise.

    It is quite instructive that the Technical Committee on the Needs Assessment Report (set up by the National Economic Council) also came up with about N800 billion as the estimated amount needed to revitalise Nigerian public universities in the short run of two years; translating into an annual intervention of N400 billion.

    Nigeria, no doubt is a paradox, it is in the sense that we have the tendency of trivialising serious issues and elevating issues that are of no relevance to prominence. I say this with all sense of trepidation because in all civilised countries, governments are usually concerned about the paralysing effects of any strike action on the nation’s economy and on the general welfare of the people. As such, they do all in their power to prevent it and strive to bring it to a speedy end when it inevitably occurs.

    But in our dear country, however, the government is selectively sensitive to strike actions, such as those by the NNPC staff, petrol tanker drivers, the NLC, and others because they are capable of having immediate and visible impact in just a few days. However, the disdain with which the strike by ASUU and medical doctors has always been treated confirms that they do not belong to the ‘privileged group’, that have ‘strategic importance’ to the government since the withdrawal of their services does not appear to have immediate economic or political consequences.

    Their impact, if any, can only be counted in terms of the ‘mere’ loss of some unfortunate human lives on which the government puts little or no premium interest. The ongoing ASUU strike, which apparently poses no immediate threat to human life or to any visible political or economic stability, also falls into this category. This is where we are as a society, glorifying mediocrity and looking at the intellectuals and professionals with disdain. Is this position correct?

    Absolutely not, what this does is to toy with the future of our youths and invariably, the country, though it may not be visible now. Have you sat or attended an interview session lately? If you have you’ll have noticed that most jobs these days are tied to age-limits; thus, graduates who have overstayed in tertiary institutions owing to no fault of theirs, become too old for jobs of their dream. Time, we should remember, is an exhaustible product that can never be regained. Even if the government chooses to retroactively honour all agreements with ASUU, which they will do anyway because of political calculation, can the time and opportunities lost by the students be refunded to them?

    What about the university system? We should not kid ourselves; we are losing – if we have not already lost – international credibility as a result of our unstable academic calendar. No serious institution overseas would want to enter into an academic agreement with a university that cannot safely predict, with pin-point accuracy, when it will be shut or open within an uninterrupted five-year span. Note also that we are gradually losing – if we have not lost – programmes which, in the past enriched the quality of teaching and learning, attracted overseas funding and endowments thereby enhancing the global ranking of our universities. Nigerian universities are not in contention anywhere because of our annual strike rituals.

    Finally, why is the government scared of an educated citizenry? I believe any intelligent and forward thinking Nigerian can answer that question. UNESCO’s prescription that at least a quarter of a nation’s resources should be expended on education is in recognition of the centrality of education to national development. Agreed, as a developing nation with competing infrastructural demands and challenges, we may not be able to afford that in one fell swoop yet; but can we start somewhere. Every sector of the economy needs education to thrive, when are we going to realise this?

  • ‘Priority should be given to educating women’

    ‘Priority should be given to educating women’

    Abigail Ogwezzy-Ndisika is a gender expert and senior lecturer, Department of Mass communication, University of Lagos (UNILAG). She speaks with Kelechi Amakoh on the role of education in nation building, why it is imperative for government at all levels to invest in the education women among others
     
    What is your take about the United Nations International Day of the girl child?
    There is a saying that: educate a girl, you educate a family, country and also the nation- people also say that if you feel education is expensive, try ignorance. What is the import of this statement? It talks about the place of education in the development of one another. No nation can develop well without education. And more often than not in the developing nations of the world, the girl child is not a priority in the aspect of education especially in a patriarchal society but I think they are beginning to have a rethink. It is a good thing that they are coming to terms on the need to educate the girl child. Tell me how an illiterate mother will educate her child? Every young girl you see today is tomorrow’s woman. If you do not invest in the girl child of today, you are wasting the tomorrow of the nation.
    What is the Importance of education to the girl child?
    There are a whole lot to gain when you talk of educating the girl child. Education is for service to self, family and humanity. It is a sin qua non for national development. The world has ranked it as number two on the MDGs. Showing you the importance of education.
    If you say more than half of the population are females, therefore if you do not give priority to educating the girl child, in the nearest future 50 per cent of the population will not be educated.
    Are there any efforts to really push for this?
    Do we need to fight to get your child trained?  Did anyone fight before my father trained me? It tells you the importance you place on the child God has given you. Look at Germany. Merkel (Angela) is doing well. The country is doing well. You do not need the sex organs to drive a country. Investing in the girl child is a strategic investment both at the family level and at the state level.  Today, I am not a liability to anyone. I do not have to cry to my brothers, father nor my husband for help because I am empowered.
    There is a school of thought that says the education of a woman stops in the kitchen. What is your take on that?
    Everybody cooks. Do you use sex organs to cook? The greatest chefs in the world are men. Investing in a girl child is an all round success. It helps the girl take informed decisions- as a home maker, mother, and wife.
    Are girl’s aware of their self worth to diffuse the thought of this set of people?
    Yes, there are many Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) that involve in orientating the girl child. State governments are rising to the task such as Akwa Ibom, Osun, and Delta etc. For instance, in Delta State they just launched ‘Edumarshall’. If a girl is involves in street hawking and all sort of things at the expense of her education, her parents will be arrested. There are people that go around ensuring this reform.
     It is a concerted effort. Whether you are in Otuoke or in my village in Delta State a school is in place to educate the girl child.  The home front is the first place where the girl child should be inculcated values and morals. We continue to talk to parents on the need to bring up the girl child. Also, the religious leaders should enlighten their congregations on the need to empower the girl child. Community leaders should talk about it. Youth leaders should be able to ask why a girl isn’t sent to school. People should also learn to reduce large family sizes. Be content with the child God has given you. You owe God a duty to train up that child well.
    It is not a job to be left for somebody. Everyone is involved. It is a win-win situation for the family and society at large. For example, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is what she’s today because her parents trained her despite the absence and eagerness for education in those days.
    With education, you become more patriotic. You know no one can lure you to Italy for prostitution.
    Two years ago, a current serving lawmaker took to wife a 13 year old. Does this mean that leaders are yet to understand the importance girl child?
    People hide under the cloak of religion and other things to come up with different things. We all should look at whether these are according to global best practices. Before a law is passed, you should ask yourself if this were to be my child would I allow it. The Child Right Act passed by the National Parliament in 2003 should be the benchmark. There are cultural differences. I believe with continuous sensitisations and enlightenment the nation will be better informed.
    How would you react to issue of girls subjected to pressure from lecturers in school?
    People should not misunderstand people making passes at you for sexual harassment. I am not saying sexual harassment is not happening but there are checks. Most times, the girl child throws herself at the lecturer. These girls visit their offices at odd hour. They cheapen themselves. The girls that complain of sexual harassment are mostly weak students. I have studied in three Nigerian universities and one foreign university and I have gone through all things. It may surprise you to know my PhD was supervised in Nigeria by a man. I never knew his house, I was not asked to come to the club to see him. I just did my work. As the girl child, define what you want as an individual.
    Has the girl child been empowered recognise her worth?
    This is where socialisation comes in. You learn to say no to something that is wrong. You can marry your teacher there is no problem with that.  Learn how to carry yourself. If your teacher is interested in you, you can turn him down politely.
    As a girl child, I waded through it. While in school, I knew there was a lecturer who gave me 53 percent two times because he was interested in me. I told him “Sir, I do not have a problem with you so long as I pass my courses. Even if I have a 40 I don’t care but the day I fail I will call for my script.” I was the best student in class – so tell me how he will fail that student?  As a girl child, study hard in school. All through my undergraduate days, I missed only two classes for four years. The implication of this is that you will not find me wanting for attendance, assignments. So tell me, where will you want to catch me? Train yourself morally. If you cheapen yourself, you become a sex object everyone sees. We must put our house in order as women. When you come semi nude to school, you tell me you were sexually harassed – that is not true.
    Do you think the current Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) Strike have any impact on the girl child?
    The girl child is not left to the street neither is she the only one affected by the strike. The boy child is also affected. Government should settle this matter once and for all.  Ask where their children study. Ask where they go to when they are sick. They want to leave our social amenities in comatose? When I was an undergraduate, we were three supervised by a British professor. How many British academicians would want to come to the country to teach? No country develops without quality education. ASUU says fund education. Go to Asia – Why do we call them Asian tigers? They have institutes of technology- well developed and well funded. It is not about the lecturers. It is about our future. Let us face life rough and it will smoothen somewhere.
    What’s your advice to the girl child on a day like this?

    The girl child should take advantage of the current opportunities now the world is beginning to see her gain in terms by going to school – gone are the days when your parents say you should not go to school but go into your husband’s house. The time has come. Let us flow with the tide. There is tide in the affairs of men and you need to take through those tides so you can sail smoothly.

  • 33m girls out of school – UNICEF

    33m girls out of school – UNICEF

    As the world celebrates the International Day of the Girl Child on Friday, the United Nations Children Fund has raised an alarm that 33 million girls were currently out of school.

    It said that although education is the right to every child, about 31 million girls across the world are still being denied such rights.

    The information which is available on  UNICEF’s twitter handle, @UNICEF, urged volunteers to come up with new creative solutions to help girls overcome barriers to education.

    “What can be done to make sure that all girls attend school? After all, educating girls is the single most powerful investment for development. And it is their right.

    “But even though more girls are entering school than ever before, 31 million are still denied this right.

    “Those that do attend school face major challenges- discrimination, financial stress, and threats to their safety, to name just a few.

    “It is clear that the world needs new, creative solutions to help girls everywhere overcome these barriers to learning and achievement,” it stated.

  • Govt urged to invest in education, agric

    Govt urged to invest in education, agric

    THE government has been uged to invest in education and help graduates acquire practical skills.

    Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) members of the Federal Polytechnic, Oko chapter made this call at a conference

    The conference tagged Paradigms of Sustained Development in Africa: a multi-sect oral approach, was attended by the Rector of Kaduna Polytechnic, Dr Mohammed Bello Ibrahim and academics across the country.

    In his paper titled: Sustainable  development in Africa: The need for paradigm shift, Dr Ibrahim said sustainable development in Africa cannot be addressed without addressing population dynamics , poverty alleviation, technology transfer, science and education policy and practice of sustainable development.

    He urged African leaders to invest in education, observing that it would enable youths to acquire practical knowledge like motor repairs, building and construction, carpentry, plumbing and craft.

    The National President of the union, Mr Chibuzor Asomugha, described the event as timely, adding that it was an opportunity for the academics to network and discuss problems on sustainable development.

    Mr Asomugha said that Nigeria needs a paradigm shift that will seek a new direction in terms of policy, training and education.

    “I think it is timely and it will be meaningful to Nigeria’s transformation agenda at this time. I thank members of this chapter for their efforts so far.’’

    In a paper titled: Beyond theories, workshop, seminars   and conference: a call to practical action”, the Rector of Federal Polytechnic, Oko, who was represented by the Chief Librarian, Mr F. O. Obodoeze , said social justice and equality of opportunity for all citizens was a prerequisite for development in the country.

    He called for a paradigm shift among academics in Africa, saying it would lead to sustainable development in Africa.

    He noted that good people and vast lands are not the drivers of development, adding that good leadership, focus and ability to take difficult risks were necessary to achieve growth.

    A Lecturer in the Department of Statistics, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Dr G.A Osuji, spoke on Africa and sustainable development in the 21st century. He identified poverty, corruption, environmental degradation, lack of sustainable human development, lack of real democracy and inadequate planning as major factors militating against sustainable development in the continent.

    He called on the government to invest in agriculture, saying it would help in solving extreme poverty in Africa.

    The Chairman, Dr Onyeka Uwakwe, thanked participants for a successful convention, adding that it was organised to bring scholars together to discuss issues in Nigeria and Africa.

     

  • Tertiary education at the crossroads (1)

    “We have witnessed strikes before; most of the strikes, government doesn’t agree to the extent we have agreed before they (ASUU) called off the strike. I believe in Nigeria, politics has crawled into so many things we do. When you observe the way people do certain things, you have the feeling that something else is happening… There are some of the issues in the 2009 agreement; there are those issues that they know cannot be implemented” -President Goodluck Jonathan.

    “What government has so far been doing is no more than a repeat performance of a one-act-play: all the deceptions, propaganda, lies, mischiefs and such other Shenanigans were tried by previous Governments, including Military Juntas, but our resolve to save the University System and our Country remained unwaivered. We will continue to carry the banner of this struggle to its logical conclusion. I urge all our members to maintain the spirit of camaraderie and remain firmly resolute in ensuring that our patriotic struggle succeeds.” – Dr. Nasir Isa Fagge, ASUU president.

    These are two diametrically opposed views from the actors in the current agitation to position, re-positio nor politicise tertiary education in Nigeria goes to show how complex the issue has become with some not even understanding what they are anymore. If you are to gauge development by what the actors – President Jonathan and Dr. Fagge, Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) President – are saying, you’ll be right to assume that this is close to a hopeless situation. In essence, we are at a crossroads and things appear to be getting more complex by the day following the threat of another round of strike by the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) after calling off an earlier strike that lasted for three months.

    A major determinant of national university policy from 1991 appears to be the agreement negotiated between ASUU and the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN). These agreements officially referred to as the ASUU/FGN Agreements, have also come to be the major determinant of academic peace, progress, stability and quality on most university campuses.

    Since July 1 2013 – as has been the case on an average of twenty years since 1992 – the academic peace, stability and standard has come under severe strain due to disagreements between the signatories to another agreement – the 2009 ASUU/FGN Agreement on state of implementation. The normal academic calendar for the 2012/2013 academic session, for instance, has been truncated by more than twelve weeks now.

    Listening to President Jonathan answer questions in his fifth presidential media chat on the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) last Sunday night showed that the end is not yet in sight. He said the nation’s bitter politics had crept into the strike by the ASUU, and was responsible for the refusal of the lecturers to suspend their action despite the government’s effort. “In the past, they did not go this far when strikes were called off; but now politics has gone into everything.” (Recall that I had written on September 19 about the dangers of politicising or bringing elements of politics into the strike).

    He however did not elaborate when pressed further by a five-member interview panel on his claim about ASUU demands being politicised. I left with the impression that we are still on ‘a long walk to freedom’ (apologies to former President Nelson Mandela). In the interview though, the President underscored the important roles of education in liberating Nigerians saying his administration was the first to carry out an inventory of the infrastructure in all the nation’s universities with a determination to change things for the better.

    The President said on the completion of the inventory of the infrastructure, his administration had set aside N100 billion to reverse the infrastructural decay in the tertiary education sector, adding that the situation would not improve overnight. The statement that followed is the quote I used at the commencement of this article.

    On the allegation that the Federal Government refused to implement the agreement it reached with the ASUU in 2009, which has forced the teachers to go on strike, the President said the issue was beyond the 2009 agreement. According to him, the Federal Government has agreed to all the issues in the 2009 agreement, except the agreement on the transfer of assets and wondered how such an agreement was signed in the first place. “There are some of the issues in the 2009 agreement; there are those issues that they know cannot be implemented,” he said. But the question that came to mind immediately is this: was it not the government that signed the agreement in the first place?

    Reading in between the lines, it appears the government is not comfortable with the transfer of assets to universities. Jonathan’s comments on Sunday provided the strongest indication yet, that, save a change in decision, students will remain at home longer as the crisis stretches without a resolution.

    Asked specifically what the way forward would be for the strike, the president said he was calling on the lecturers to resume work for the sake of the children and to realise that the government was committed to improving education. “Even if we have all the money in the world we cannot change things overnight,” he said. “The members of ASUU are our brothers and sisters; they should look at these young people and look at the commitment of government.”

    The Federal Government had offered N100 billion and N30 billion for infrastructure development in various universities and payment of verified earned allowances of lecturers respectively. But it is still not clear if the government made an improved offer to the lecturers who stuck to their guns that government implements fully the 2009 agreement.

    But in a letter to the Federal Government dated August 20, ASUU had expressed dissatisfaction with government’s offer of N100billion as a way out of the strike. Let’s read what a part of the letter says: “We observe that the Committee is so far mentioning only N100billion. If the implementation is to be related to the funding requirements in the 2009 ASUU/FGN Agreement and the January 2012 MoU, what is due for 2012 and 2013 is N500billion not N100billion. Only the provision of this sum will meet the immediate needs of the universities.”

    Speaking at a briefing in Lagos late August, Fagge had said the association wanted the best for the students and calling off the strike without getting it (the funds required) would amount to a waste of time with all the protests.

    “If the Federal Government doesn’t shift grounds, we’ll also remain here until we are attended to appropriately. We can’t call off the strike now and return to what we’ve been going through over the years. Or embark on the strike action again after three months or in one or two years’ time. Do we just continue deceiving Nigerians when facilities are not in place for proper learning? We want to address the problems once and for all, “ he said.

    Since both parties are not willing to shift ground or change position, the debate has shifted to seeking alternative means of compelling parties to adhere to agreements in place of strikes. Unfortunately, the parties to the 2009 ASUU/FGN Agreement, though strong advocates, believers and supposed adherents of democratic principles, believed otherwise as strikes, blackmail and threats appear to be the accepted norm by signatories to the ASUU/FGN Agreements.

    An agreement, as far as I know in jurisprudence, is binding and, therefore, subject to judicial interpretation should any of the parties to the agreement have reason to believe that the terms are not followed. The ASUU/FGN Agreements shouldn’t have been a different exemption from this universal jurisprudential principle especially in a democracy like Nigeria.

    But here we have different interpretation to things. The fact though is that the immediate victims are not the signatories but the Nigerian society who must trail behind others in Africa and elsewhere on the international scene in this regard. For one, and I need to emphasise this, ASUU has nothing to lose from the truncation of academic programmes and the abridgment of academic syllabuses that turns out unemployable graduates .

    In a similar way, the Federal Government also has nothing to lose but much to gain politically by adopting dialogue and resorting to political solutions to an agreement it entered into. The losers are the hundreds of thousands of Nigeria’s undergraduates who cannot say when they would graduate.