The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Lagos teachers

  • 51 Lagos teachers fail professional exam, says TRCN

    Fifty-one teachers have failed the professional qualifying examination (PQE) conducted by the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) in Lagos State.

    The state Coordinator of the council, Mr Gbolahan Enilolobo, told News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) yesterday in Lagos that 412 teachers sat for the exam.

    Enilolobo said the teachers failed because they were not conversant with use of the computer.

    NAN reports that the TRCN, on October 14, conducted the examination through Computer-Based Test (CBT).

    The examination was to qualify the successful teachers to register as professionals and be licensed with the council.

    According to Enilolobo, the unsuccessful teachers will re-register for the exam and will be disqualified if they fail three consecutive attempts.

    He said: “The failure of the teachers is due to their inability to use the computer, especially as it was the first time they were using CBT for the examination. About three of the teachers exited without even completing the examination, indicating their being unfamiliar with the system at all.

    “Those who failed will have to re-sit for the examination. But if a failure occurs consecutively three times, it means automatic disqualification. Such teachers cannot be licensed.”

    Giving the statistics of teachers in attendance, Enilolobo said one PhD holder, 30 Master’s degree holders, 282 first degree and 99 holders of National Certificate of Education (NCE) sat for the exam.

    The coordinator said nine of the Master’s degree holders failed.

    According to him, 257 of the 282 first degree holders passed, while 82 NCE holders passed.

    Enilolobo said: “The only PhD holder teacher also passed the examination.”

    The coordinator said the teachers were the first set to write the examination and were a bit disadvantaged because there were no past questions to enable them familiarise with the national benchmark of the examination.

    “Teachers should align themselves with computer to reduce the number of failures. Materials can be obtained from bookshops,” he added.

     

     

  • 500 kids, Lagos teachers attend conference on ‘finance our future’

    The National Director of Save The Children, Nigeria, Mr. Ben Foot, has challenged children and youth to rise to the task of rebuilding the ruins of the older generation with new skills, tact and moral lifestyle.

    Foot spoke at the 2015 the Global Day of Action organised by Save the Children, ONE.Campiagn.org, The Future Project and Disability Advocacy Centre at Planet One, Ikeja, Lagos.

    The programme tagged ‘Finance our Future’ is poised toward providing countries with an opportunity to give the final push towards getting their policy makers, and key players in the economy to attend the Financing for Development (FFD) conference coming up in Addis on July 13. The programme had 500 children, teachers from across Lagos State with celebrities, artists and top government officials.

    According to him, the task of building a world feet for today’s world to live in is so urgent as the world continue to grown in war, epidemic and disasters of all sorts.

    He said there was a world of peace until the older generation failed this generation and the subsequent generation because of their selfish and self centred lifestyle.

    This, he said, has been the results of the insurgency in the northern Nigeria, war in Syria, Gaza, Pakistan, and the world over.

    He said: “We have failed this generation. The future is not violence, or in the hands of inhuman politicians but is in the hands of young people who will look at the problems around them and say enough is enough.

    “We can have another Malala in Nigeria, if you stand up for their right and defend it even in the face of intense opposition”.

    Foot stressed that the new Sustainable Development Goals that would be decided upon by December by world leaders said that it is about children and they must be involved as they cannot be in the future they were never part of.

    Director of ONE Campaign.org, Edwin Ikhuoria, said: “This summit could be a game changer; governments to do more to provide vital funding for essential services to actualise the global goals about to be agreed by the United Nation. We are here to tell leaders that the time for empty promises is over.”

    Also, the Executive Director, Network of Nongovernmental Organisation (NNNGO), Mr. Seyi Oyebisi, challenged the children to continue to speak out in their little corner on vary issues that concern them.

    Some of the children later presented some recommendations to the government which include: increased public financial resources towards climate change, the health sector, girl and women rights, child welfare, increased finances for development, and also demanding for greater transparency and accountability in the management of public budgets in Nigeria.

  • Lagos teachers will not resume Monday – NUT

    The Lagos State Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Teachers, Mr. Adesegun Raheem, has said that although teachers in the state are ready to resume school on Monday, they will not be allowed to resume until their requirements are met.

    He spoke at a one day sensitization programme for principals and head teachers of public primary and secondary schools in Lagos on prevention of Ebola Virus Disease, organized by the state Ministry of Education in collaboration with the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB).

    He said: “Health experts say that something must be put in place as preventive measures before we can go back to school, but the Lagos State Government apart from the awareness programme going on right now and provision of water in 600 schools out of the 1,007 primary schools and 668 secondary schools has not done any other thing.”

    He listed things that should be in place as hand gloves for teaching and non-teaching staff, infrared thermo-scanner for the school, hand sanitizers, running water (not washing hands basin) and creating awareness.

    “It is based on this that NUT is saying that it is better we die quickly than slowly and it is better a funeral is held in our honour than for us to be cremated. We give the government from Monday to provide all we asked for if not we will not resume. Let us see these things in our school and we will resume,” he said.

    Asked if they would not consider the appeal of President Jonathan and return to schools, he said, “the President did not appeal. He only gave reasons why schools must resume and the reasons he gave was that those that will be traveling out of the country will be stigmatized, and that we should resume so that Nigeria will be given a good name, forgetting that majority of our teachers have not traveled out of the country before.

    “If American can give the kind of money they gave to us to fight the disease, I wonder why Nigeria will not put measures in place to prevent the disease.”

     

  • Lagos teachers protest Chibok abduction

    Public schools were shut in Lagos on Thursday as thousands of teachers stormed the office of the Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN) to protest the abduction of over 200 female students of Government Girls’ Secondary School Chibok, Borno State.

    Some students dressed in school uniforms were also spotted around Ilasmaja of the state area carrying placards with inscription “Bring back our girls,” and “Bring our girls back save and alive,” protesting on the streets.

    The teachers who dressed in a yellow uniformed t-shirt stormed the governor’s office, chanting solidarity songs.

    They said President Goodluck Jonathan’s government has offended them over the death of teachers in Tuesday’s explosions in Jos and the abduction of schoolgirls in Borno State.

    The Vice Chairman of NUT, Mr. Adedoyin Adeshina, who led the protesters, said they needed to consult and consolidate before ending it with confrontation.

    “The protest is not belated because the girls are still in the custody of the Boko Haram and we need to consult before we act, “he stated.

    The teachers also demanded that May 29 be declared as a day for sober reflection for schools in the country, saying that the present situation in the country leave them with nothing to celebrate.

    In a letter addressed to Governor Fashola, the teachers said, “For God sake, why should people fight to halt our forward march to Millennium Development Goal on Education? The abduction of Chibok girls is nothing but a stumbling block to the realization of making education available to all by the year 2015.

    “It is pertinent at this time to call on Nigerian government to bring our girls back safe and alive by demonstrating enough social responsibility and concern to guarantee security of lives and property in the land which is the primary responsibility of any government.”

    To this end, NUT charged the government to take insurance cover for both students and teachers in volatile regions of the country.

    Receiving the protesters, the Lagos State Commissioner for Transportation, Comrade Kayode Opeifa, appealed to them to bear with the Federal Government and other concerned citizens of the world making frantic efforts to rescue the girls.

  • New Year wish fulfilled for Lagos teachers

    New Year wish fulfilled for Lagos teachers

    •Car gift enthralls teachers

    They are teachers. Their wish for 2014 is to own cars. But they were not working towards buying one; their bank accounts did not boast of enough funds either. They just prayed at the beginning of the year that they would get a car before the year runs out.

    What they did not expect was that their prayers would be answered so soon.

    Last Thursday, Mr Johnson Alawiye of our lady of Fatima Primary school, Mushin and Mrs Wunmi Tolu-Alalade of Community Senior High School, Surulere were presented with brand new and fully registered cars.

    The keys to the KIA RIO 2013 model were handed over to the new owners at the yearly Lagos State Education Merit Award for emerging the best teachers in the primary and secondary school categories.

    Biology teacher, Mrs Tolu-Alalade said she was on top of the world.

    “I put in all my best, but God did it,” she said.

    For someone who left her job at Neimeth Pharmaceutical in 2009 to teach, Mrs Tolu-Alalade is not in it for the money but for love.

    “Teaching is a ministry and I love it. It also gives me joy to see the children win when they go for competitions,” she said.

    Her husband, Mr Tolulope Alalade, a Medical Doctor with the Lagos State General Hospital, Lagos Island, said he was privileged to be married to a teacher.

    Alalade, who is the Head of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Centre of the hospital, said he supported her from the day she started work as a teacher.

    “I sold the idea to her to join the teaching profession. The pay may not be much, but there is a lot of benefit,” he said.

    Mrs Tolu-Alalade’s mother, Mrs Helen Akitiloye believes that it was the hard work and commitment of her late husband, who was also a teacher, that has brought her daughter all the opportunities she has.

    “Her father was formerly a teacher, a dedicated, hard working and committed teacher, but he did not win anything. I believe it is the good work of her father that is opening doors for her, she said.

    Best Teacher, Primary School Category, Alawiye told The Nation that hard work crowned by God’s blessing made him win.

    He praised the Executive Secretary of the Mushin Local Government Education Authority (LGEA), Mr Yusuf Olokodana for his unbiased and supervision of schools under his care.

    He said: “He makes sure our work is monitored. He made sure that the award was given on merit through thorough supervision. He is a very hardworking and unbiased man, who does not compromise and does not tolerate laziness.”

    Alawiye, who was overjoyed about the prize, said giving teachers award will motivate them and make the lazy ones more focused. However, he advised the government to help teachers improve their content and pedagogical skills by sending on for trainings, seminars, and workshop regularly.

    For Mushin Local Government Education Authority, where Mr Alawiye’s school is, theirs was double joy as they were the only school that produced two winners in the award ceremony.

    They also got best Non-Teaching Staff award for JSS, which went to Miss Abiola Akerele of Igbo Owu Junior Secondary School, Mushin.

    The Commissioner for Education, Mrs Olayinka Oladunjoye, charged the teachers to strive hard and make sure Lagos state records a 100 per cent pass in the next West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE). She also counselled other teachers to emulate those who were rewarded.

    “Teach them well because you have a commitment to them. Continue to work hard. Everybody cannot win; work harder so that you can win next year. Those who won last year are not the same people who won this year and those who won this year may also not be the same people that will win next year,” she added.

    Other recipients included Mr Abiodun Aiyerin of Vetland Senior Grammar School, Ifako Ijaiye (Best Principal, Senior Secondary School category), Mr. Emmanuel Adebiyi of Iju Junior Grammar School, Iju (Best Principal, Junior Secondary School category), and Mr. A. O. Ambali of St Georges Nursery and Primary School, Falomo (Best Head Teacher).

     

  • Pearson mentors Lagos teachers

    Pearson mentors Lagos teachers

    Pearson Nigeria is partnering the Lagos Eko Secondary Education Project to support the professional development of secondary school teachers through hands-on training and field observations.

    Its Managing Director, Muhtar Bakare, said the objective is to improve the performance of public school pupils.

    “The programme is designed to support Lagos EKO Project in improving learning outcomes in secondary schools by enhancing teacher performance, raising teachers’ confidence, competency, and fostering increased and ongoing collaboration among teachers,” he said.

    More than 180 teachers of English Language, mathematics and science were selected from the six education districts in the state and trained in Models of Effective Learning and Teaching as well as coaching and mentoring skills. From this group, 25 individuals were trained as Master Mentors who would coordinate the mentoring programme at the district level, and ensure that it cascades by training new teacher mentors.

    The trained teachers have received internationally recognised certification for Teacher mentoring through Pearson’s Teacher Education and Leadership Academy (TELA), accredited by Edexcel, the United Kingdom’s largest awarding body.

    The Special Adviser to the Lagos State Governor on Lagos Eko Project Ms Ronke Azeez expressed satisfaction with the programme and its capacity building potential for Lagos state teachers.

    “From the feedback we are getting, mentors now go back to their schools to implement the new skills for effective teaching and learning”, Ms Azeez said.