The Nation Newspaper

Tag: mass failure

  • Mass failure in General Studies at Sokoto Varsity

    Management and students of the Usmanu Dan Fodio University (UDU), Sokoto, are trading words over the mass failure in General Studies (GST). The students claimed that the GST Unit mishandled the course. The management blamed the failure on the students’ indifference. ABIODUN JAMIU, UDUS 200-L Political Science, reports.

    As they always do, the Usmanu Dan Fodio University (UDU), Sokoto students were  at the General Studies (GST) notice board where information and sometimes results are pasted. They were checking their names on the  list of students who did not sit for the GST continuous assessment (CA) across various levels during the second semester of 2017/2018 academic year.

    To the chargrin of many who sat for the continuous assessment, their names were on the list. By implication, students with no CA records have automatically failed.

    More interesting was that some students, who came to mock their colleagues who failed, were shocked to discover that they were also victims.

    The 100-Level students write GST102 (Nigerian people and culture); GST 103 (Information and Communication Technology); GST105 (Communication in French) and GST106 (Communication in Arabic). For 200 Level students there are courses such as GST211 (Communication in English ll) and GST214 (Peace and Conflict Resolution); while the 300-Level undergraduates sit for GST312 (Venture Creation and Growth).

    As practised in other institutions, UDU students undertake GST that are multi-disciplinary in nature, covering Philosophy, Science, Social Sciences, and Citizenship Education, among others.

    But many students expressed disappointment over repeated failures in GST– a development they blamed on the alleged shoddy manner the division handles its affairs.

    Nonetheless, the school’s management has absolved itself, blaming the situation on students’ I-don’t-care-attitude towards GST.

    One of the victims, a 200-Level student of Political Science, Umar Sheriff, lamented what he described as the school’s ‘negligence’, adding that it would affect his hope of getting a better result in his first year.

    Like every other ‘Danfodite’, Sheriff recalled how he had burnt the midnight candle ahead of GST examination; yet, his results were not commensurate with the efforts he had invested.

    Aggrieved, Sheriff along with other students in his shoes, approached the GST Director of General Studies, Dr Farouk Tambuwal, who assured via the secretary of the unit that the matter would be resolved.

    “Quite a number of us met the secretary, who told us that since the students involved in the mix-up were many, the division would certainly find a way out. Even with the promise by the secretary, when the results were released, I saw “F” on my GST102 (Nigerian people and Culture),” Sheriff said.

    Sherrif’s claim was substantiated by Eeboade Hassan, another 200-Level Law undergraduate, who bemoaned the manner the test was conducted.

    “The test? It was not in any way formally and accurately conducted,” Hassan said, adding: “The question sheet provided was the same on which we were to put down the answers. Moreover, the pages were not attached. So, we were the one attaching the pages with a broomstick.”

    Hassan said he anticipated erroneous markings due to the numerous answer scripts that were loose after the test was written. According to him, the unattached papers may have caused the mix-up.

    He continued: “Right from that day (the day the test was conducted), I presumed that there would be errors in the process of marking the scripts. But the “F” was actually outside my thinking, I was shocked.

    “The error was from the division. During the process of computing results of the test, they made mistakes with people’s names. Names were alphabetically disorganised, some with their admission number. For instance, instead of 000 of my admission number, they only put double zero,” he lamented.”

    Asked what steps he took when he saw his name on the list, Hassan said he went to the head of the GST Division who acknowledged that the mix-up was theirs and the division would rectify it.

    He continued: “At the office of the Exam Officer, the Director, Dr Tambuwal, brought out the comprehensive list of those who sat for the test with the assertion that ‘if I should open this and your name and scores are absent, just forget it, you will carry over this course even if you score 60/60 in the exam’

    “We thereafter wrote our correct admission numbers and names after which they accepted the mistakes were theirs. He promised us that proper rectification will be done. But, unfortunately, he never fulfilled his promise. ‘F’ was written on my GST106 (Communication in Arabic)”.

    “I had to be sure it was my name. At a point, I started crying because I couldn’t imagine myself having a ‘carry over’ in GST” said another victim, Shadiyah (not real name), who failed GST106, (Communication in Arabic).

    Unlike Hassan, Shadiyah didn’t have a premonition of what was to come. She even told CAMPUSLIFE that she would never have admitted her name was on the list if told by her course mates.

    “Although I heard students lamenting that they had issues with the GSTs; I wasn’t perturbed. It never occurred to me that my name would feature on the list, until a friend drew my attention to it.”

    She continued: “We were attended to that very day, and were told to check if our names were on the comprehensive lists. Some students’ admission numbers were mistyped, just like mine; there was a mix-up in my admission number. Instead of 98, 78 was on the list. After all the complaints, we were all given an “F”. We all knew that without tests, we would all carry the course over.”

    Similarly, Ahmad Muhammad Saulawa, a 400-Level Microbiology undergraduate, expressed shock when he saw his name on the list, despite that he even assisted the course coordinator to invigilate the same course. Like Shadiyah, Saulawa’s attention was drawn to the list by a friend.

    “I wrote mine in the first batch and after submitting, the lecturer asked me to join her to invigilate the class, and I did,” Saulawa recalled.

    “The other batches wrote theirs and I was still there with her (coordinator). I gathered all the test question papers and handed it to her. However, I was shocked when I heard that my name was among those that didn’t sit for the test,” he said.

    Saulawa recounted how he later approached the lecturer of the course, who assured him that it was a general problem and that the division would definitely resolve it, adding that the problem had not been resolved as at the time of filing this report.

    Read also: On Sokoto rerun election

    Beyond the affected students, GST Division in UDUS has been a subject of crisis, especially among students who constantly moan repeated mass failure, missing grades and late release of results, among others.

    A student, who spoke with our correspondent on condition of anonymity, recalled how students performance in GST has declined in recent years. He lamented that GST results were not appealing and not in any way commensurate with students’ efforts.

    “GST result in recent time in UDU is not appealing,” the source stated.

    He continued: “Students have been recording low grades, which in the long run affect our GP(grade point), if not all. The bitter truth is that it is not that the students are unserious. The problem with the division is the belief that majority of students take the course for granted. It is on this basis that the administration felt the need to be harsh on students with regards to grade.”

    However, Maryam Abdullah, a 400-Level student of Modern European Languages and Linguistics (MELL), lauded the result. Unlike previous ones, Abdullah noted that the management’s introduction of computer based test (CBT) made this year’s a lot better.

    “Though students seem to complain more about their results, I think these results are better, compared to the previous results from the division,” she added.

    But Emelife Uchenna Maximus, a 200 Level Literature in English undegraduate, bemoaned the technical problems that has plagued GST over the years, urging the division to improve on performance to demonstrate more transparency.

    “The GST results, I would still say is fair. The division, in the previous session, graded poorly GST 104 of all first years, and took on an overwhelming CBT system that almost led to me missing an examination”

    The division should carry out a proper test-run of its CBT to avoid mistakes and technical issues,” Uchenna advised.

    Nevertheless, until students learn to be more committed, the mass failure in GST would continue, the management has said.

    Speaking with CAMPUSLIFE, UDU Dean, Students’ Affairs, Prof Aminu Mode, expressed dissatisfaction at the nonchalant attitude of students towards GST.

    He said: “This (mass failure) is nothing to argue on. The reality is that most of the students do not attend GST lectures.

    “For instance, you will find an average GST class of 1000 students, but only 50 or 60 students will attend the class. Throughout the session, there are some students that would never attend GST lectures.

    “Why would students not fail when they don’t attend lectures? Students believe, especially in GST courses, that ‘we don’t need to attend lectures to score As or Bs, let me just go and read’ not knowing that what we want as teachers is for them to attend lectures and thereafter challenge us.”

    Further, Mode said results in the universities are released subject to consultations with stakeholders before it would be approved by the Senate, adding that no division or faculties can unilaterally fail students. Mode, therefore, urged students to attend lectures promptly as it aids learning and equips them ahead of time.

    “Attending lectures reduce a lot of burden on you as a student; you understand better what a lecturer said and at the same time remember how he gestured. Unfortunately, students of nowadays have taken GST courses for granted,” he concluded.

     

  • ‘Lack of creative learning responsible for mass failure’

    ‘Lack of creative learning responsible for mass failure’

    Mr. Isiani Anthony Nwachukwu is the Managing Director/Chief Executive, Schools Development & Support International Limited, a technology solutions company providing services to schools at all levels. In this interview with Ibrahim Apekhade Yusuf, he speaks on challenges facing education and proffers solution. Excerpts:

    THERE is nothing to cheer about the last WAEC results. As an education engineer, what do you think can be done to address this?

    Failure in WAEC examinations is a national disgrace. This year has proven to us that our expectation has been cut short. I tell you from our primary and post primary levels of education, it has all been garbage in and garbage out. That’s why, new recruits in banks, or whatever sectors need to go for trainings to be able to fit into an organisation.

    A lot has to do with the configuration of our educational system, which pays little or no regard to the development of the mind. When you train brain, it can be destructive but the mind is the sit of conscience, it inspires creativity. Thankfully, the sixth sense coordinates the sit of creativity. Creativity if you like, is required in all spheres of life.

    There is need to encourage creativity in our wards right from their formative years. It is the only way to address the issue of failure in our educational system.

    It has also been argued that tutors and teachers hardly contribute to efficient teaching and learning these days due to absence of training and retraining. What is your take on that?

    It is high time we focus on the type of teachers that teach Mathematics and English language. In most of the schools the teachers are not qualified to teach in kindergarten or nursery section but you see them teaching in the secondary section. What we need is qualified teachers and right teaching materials.

    Improvement of teaching materials and method of implementation is a perfect or most suitable way of teaching in the right direction. The school needs the right facilities in their classroom to teach with so that they can excel. Impacting knowledge to the student in an ideal way using the right teaching facilities and method require a combined effort of human and teaching aids in an engineering viewpoint.

    The education system needs to be responsive and adapt to the changing demands. Subsequently, as the education sector expands, there emerge needs for technology development which only the education engineering can offer this solution.

    The first time a child comes to a school what he needs to know is how to identify letters and numbers. Anything you do from the nursery class to the university, all we are looking at is either letters or numbers. But you have to identify it before writing it.

    In the exam of today, especially in this part of the world, you have to put everything down in black and white. May be in the future, exam can go electronic, but today writing still takes pre-eminence over other means of assessment. Let’s take a hypothetical situation, as a scholar if your handwriting is not decent, your examiner cannot understand you, and in that process you lose a valuable friend as far as that exam is concerned. But when you have a decent handwriting, you get a friend as an examiner. Immediately he opens your paper he tries to get the point you are trying to make and scores you appropriately.

    However, if your handwriting is not decent and the examiner cannot understand you, then it becomes a problem for him to assess you accordingly.

    As a company, what we have done is to fill this yawning gap by making handwriting a culture that can be sustained rather than as a mere subject being taught in the lower classes. We have designed different kinds of boards to aid the student so that as he or she progresses, the culture of good handwriting can be sustained to a large extent.

    I give you another example: If you look at the number of students taking mathematics during most examination these days, you discover that only a few of them take graph option, many of these students are all shying away. But the graph option ironically, is more practical than anything. But students are all running away because there is a

    failure in the facility provision. In most of these classrooms, there is no efficiency in transferring this knowledge to the students because the teachers don’t have graph boards to better illustrate whatever points he wants to make. But in a case where the teacher has a graph board, the transmission of this knowledge becomes rather

    seamless.

    What role can the organised private sector play towards addressing the malaise in the education sub-sector?

    There is need for the private sector to make an immense contribution towards the education sector in Nigeria because the Federal Government has failed beyond expectation. Now lets take a look at the private sectors in other countries, like Ford Foundation, Bill Gate Foundation, they all support one worthy cause or the other. In

    Nigeria, we have not gotten there yet. Having said that, I can say without any fear of contradiction that in SDS, we have recorded some modest achievements, especially in the area of providing solutions to problems affecting the nation’s education sub-sector in the last 14 years. Today we have what we call the three major solutions, such as

    Development and Sustenance of Decent Hand writing (DHW), Establishment and Encouragement of Good Reading Habit (GRH), Expansion and supporting the Intelligent Quotient of the student (IQ).

    Talking more on Decent Hand Writing, you will agree with me that 50 percent of the WAEC examination failure recorded so far this past years is as a result of poor or bad hand writing. When an examiner finds it difficult to read and understand what the student has written on his/her answer script it becomes difficult to ascertain whether the answer is correct or wrong, with this the student stands a great chance of failing that subject already.

    Besides, students no longer cultivate the habit of reading. Briefly, habits are things we do regularly. After school hour students should endeavour to revise what they did in the school that day, draw up a personal reading schedule and paste it in a conspicuous place as a reminder, they can as well cut down the number of hours spent in front

    of the T. V. set, face book or internet chat. It is high time we devout our time to teaching them the right thing such as what would add value to their education and making their brain active. Students fail when they prefer a life of convenience, convenience studying has never and will never produce great result. The road to a brighter future is not always easy and smooth, it requires sacrifices because there is bound to be hurdles. But hard work, effective study habits and focus will surely catapult one to a greater height.

    For a company that has lasted over two decades, where do you see SDS in the next five years?

    The future of the company is so bright. Our products are highly indigenous. It belongs to Nigerians, by a Nigerian. But now, we’re looking at expanding outside the frontiers of Nigeria, specifically across the west African sub region. We have made inroads to Ghana, where they are already excited about our products. But our capacity to deliver has been our bane. I’m also aware that in Nairobi, Kenya, Ugandan, there are opportunities for expansion there too. But we’re looking at west Africa first and foremost for a very strategic reason.

    Across the West African sub-region, you find that we’re academically backward. So, we have brought out these solutions to address some the challenges in our educational system. We’re looking at inefficiency within our environment. What we want to offer is a holistic solutions to some of these identified problems.The people, the environment and the opportunities therein.

    In the next five years, we hope that we would have penetrated the entire nation, where the At the risk of sounding immodest, I can tell you without any sense of contradiction that already our products are of international quality, they’re branded, and it has gained general acceptable locally.

  • Minister to tackle mass failure among pupils

    Minister to tackle mass failure among pupils

    Newly appointed Minister of State for Education, Prof Viola Onwuliri, assumed office yesterday with a promise to tackle increasing mass failure among pupils in public examinations.

    Onwuliri, who was the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs 1, was among the ministers appointed by President Goodluck Jonathan to replace seven members of Federal Executive Council (FEC) who resigned to contest in the 2015 elections.

    She spoke yesterday when she was received at the Federal Ministry of Education by the Minister, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, after the weekly FEC meeting where the President announced the new ministers.

    Onwuliri promised to work harmoniously with Shekarau.

    The minister of state, who expressed the determination to confront mass failure among pupils in public examinations, urged parents to allow their children to exhibit their potentials.

    She cautioned parents against assisting their wards in passing examinations, adding that children would excel if they are allowed to exhibit their potentials.

    According to her, Ministry of Education will not fail to provide direction and counselling to the necessary departments, agencies and corporations under it to ensure that each of them does what it should do.

    Onwuliri said: “We must change this trend of mass failure in our public examinations because we may create a group of people who are not serious; students who cannot take over and continue this transformation agenda. The Federal Government is ready and willing to help us and even fund what is going on.

    “We thank Mr. President for what is going on in the university system’s renovation and for trying to rebuild the entire system. The government is doing that at the various levels of education. Education is the centre of everything we are talking about. That is why Mr. President takes education seriously in our march to transform this country.

    Excellence in education is a major pillar of the Transformation Agenda of this administration and he has shown it in different ways and at various fora that he means business in education.

    “In this time and age where we have problems of young children passing their examinations struggling, it is a major challenge for all us. We have to correct the attitude of our young children. To begin to appreciate that, they must study.

    “We have to let parents know that they must encourage their children to study because many a time, parents also discourage their children from studying. When you give the impression that you cannot pass your examinations; somebody must talk to somebody before you get anything, then the child relaxes.

    “In some cases, you could talk, but if you allow a child to exhibit his abilities, many of our children would excel.”

    Shekarau expressed optimism that he and the professor would have a harmonious working relationship.

    The minister noted that Onwuliri was in a familiar terrain, since she joined the cabinet from the university.

  • Brain health and mass failure in Maths, English (2)

    Many people do not look after their brains. They do not even remember it exists until they have a headache or their memory begins to fail. How can such people be expected to relate poor school performance or failure in examinations to poor brain nurture or food and ebbing brain health? I remember Mrs. Bikkesteth, my primary three class teacher in 1958 at St. Andrew’s Primary School, Ibara, Abeokuta. She forced the class to memorise the Bible verses such as Romans 12:17-21 irrespective of whether we had enough brain power to do so. Children who were slack about it padded their buttocks and back with extra clothing because Mrs. Bikkesteth was quick with the cane. Some other teachers were worse. Their punishment for slackness were heavy knocks of the knuckle on the head. They either didn’t know, or it didn’t matter to them that this traumatise an already irresponsive brain. So, many children of my generation dreaded school, hated some teachers and the subjects they taught, were happy on Fridays because there would be no school on Saturdays and on Sundays, and would end up hating English Language and Mathematics. Who in the 1964-68 ‘O’ Level set at Olivet Baptist High School, Oyo. In the class, the French teacher made us read the French grammar book in turns. Many of us preferred the back seats. Then, one day, he began the routine from the back row. Omolewu couldn’t pronounce quest que ces’t? Pretending to help him, the teacher read the three words as kese ko se?/ in trust, Omolewu read on, after him. The class roared in rib-cracking laughter. Even the teacher couldn’t help reeling in laughter. The class nicknamed Omolewu kese kose, his nickname till this day.

    Today, I see many university graduates around who cannot balance the tenses of grammar when they speak. They remind me of the General Studies class of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, in the 1973/74 session. The Use of English was a component of this first-year course. The examiner asked the students to identify gerunds in some sentences and to form sentences of their own with gerunds of their choice. Your guess is as good as mine: mass failure. Yet a gerund is no more than a verb which ends in ingas long as it doesn’t function as an adjective. Thus, the verb go, derived from the words to go, becomes a gerund in the sentence… Going to school yesterday, I saw a rat.

    English Language is an interesting subject. I must admit that, like many of today’s schoolboys and schoolgirls, I, too, hated the English class. Adjectival clauses were Greekish. Adjectival clauses sounded like Latin. Today, even teachers of other subjects, such as mathematics and chemistry, cannot balance equations on both sides of a simple sentence. I often hear lettered people say, for example, if I knew he was a bad man, I would have avoided him. That is wrong. The correct expression would be: if I knew he was a bad man, I would avoid him. OR: if I had known he was a bad man, I would have avoided him.This problem of the Use of English as a second language manifest everywhere. Your secretary is likely to mess up a simple letter many times. Business centres are worse. The boys and girls who work there probably have no good ‘O’ Level pass in English Language. If you rely on them for a large job, you would have to proof-read several times to make the work at least 80 per cent error free. Newspaper readers who complain about typographic errors do not know what editors go through in one work day. As a newspaper editor, I strained my eyes every day reading 70 per cent page proofs of editions of no fewer than 40 pages. New proofs would come with new errors of punctuation, tense, spelling etc that I didn’t introduce! With a deadline to beat, the editor often throws up his arms in defeat. Isn’t it better to get the paper out than not to have it read? Thus, we can see that mass failure in English Language and in Mathematics examinations is a complicated matter which will require deep-rooted solutions.

    Today, I address only the possibility of supporting brain function with food supplements known in folklore and in clinical experience to prevent brain weakness or damage, nurture the brain, improve memory and enhance brain output. There are too many of them than can be accommodated here. So, I will probably address only about ten that I have found useful over many years. I would like to begin by situating the brain and brain function in a world of these herbs and food supplements.

     

    The Brain 

    The brain is a fatty substance. That means it must be nourished by food which contains the components of this fatty substance. And as fat oxidize or rot easily under oxidative impact, the brain needs protection antioxidants. How many of us include brain foods and brain specific antioxidants in our daily diet, or add them to the diet of our children, especially those involved with serious learning and examinations?. Many people take their brains for granted, as they do many organs of their bodies, and only remember they have something “upstairs” when they have headaches, migraine or they begin to suffer from memory loss.

    These problems are more rife today because of the oxidizing effect of the cell phone. Fat accounts for between five to 15 per cent of the average human brain. The rest of it is water and protein. Most of the fat surrounds the myelin sheath or covering of the nerve oxons. The sheath protectively houses the nerves, and the fat protects the sheath.

    The brain is divided into three parts: frontal, middle and back. Inside the brain are about 100 billion neurons. Neurons are nerve cells which send signals to all parts of the body through the Central Nervous System (CNS) and receives signals from them. There are global cells in the brain as well. The support the neurons and are more numerous than them. Neurons transmit signals at about 200 miles per hour. There are many types of neurons. They function biochemically in ways too complex for this column to describe. That is the job of neurologists. I am fascinated by the fact that neurons branch into what are called dendrites.  I am fascinated because I may not have had the optimum number of neurons at birth. So, as the brain stops growing at a point during babyhood, I may have lost that chance forever. Yet the more the neurons the more the intelligence the brain packs. Neurons are tightly packed like sardines in the can, so, if I add the better information then to my receipt, storage and diet, my retrieval is faster and grows more efficient than if they were loosely packed or distant from one another. Dentrites are like tentacles of neurons. Distant neurons can communicate, though not as efficiently as if they were closer, if they grow dentrites towards one another certain foods and herbs support the growing of these dentrites. An average neuron has about 1,000 to 10,000 dentrites. The interesting part of it all for me is this

    1)         If a pregnant woman takes enough Omega-3 fish oil to support the pregnancy, the baby in her womb will likely have more neutrons and dentrites than the baby of a woman whose diet was Omega-3 deficient. Now know that the more neurons, the more intelligent the baby is likely to be. Adults whose mothers cheated on Omega-3 may not grow new neurons as adults because their brains have stopped growing, but they may benefit from a flourish of dentrites from neurons. These dentrites help to bridge that gaps between these neurons somewhat. But they cannot have the effect or impact of tightly or closely packed neurons. It would appear that Mother Nature still makes room for amends outside the womb, for the brief period the brain continues to grow after the birth of a baby.

     

    Omega – 3 Oils

    Dr. Joseph C. Maroon, M.D., and Dr. Jeffrey Bost, P.A.C; wrote a book titled FISH OIL, THE NATURAL ANTI-INFLAMATORY in which they advocate use of Omega-3 fish oil as an anti-inflammatory in place of ibuprofen or even aspirin as a blood thinner.

    In respect of Omega-3 uses for brain health, they say:

    “A developing foetus obtains EFAs through the mother’s dietary consumption. Omega-3 EFA supplementation has shown many benefits for both the pregnant mother and the developing child, including prolonging gestation and preventing pre-term labour. In 2002, in a randomised iced, double blind, placebo-controlled study, which is the most stringent way to evaluate an effect, S.F. Olsen and colleagues show that supplementation with DHA prolonged gestation by six days. In 2003, C.M. Smuts and colleagues showed that supplementation with fish oil prolonged gestation in women with high risk for pre-term delivery”.

    Omega – 3 essential fatty Acids (EFAs) are in two major fractions: EPA and DHA. EPA is used more for the treatment of inflammatory conditions. It is DHA that is more specific for the brain and the eyes.

    Remi Cooper, in the booklet The essential omega -3 Fatty ACID DHA says: “How much of the brain is composed of DHA? The exact amount is not known, but it is believed to be at least at 330 per cent and probably more… of particular importance is neural development in any human development. There is a large body of research investigating the role of DHA in the development of the brain and nervous system in foetuses and young infants. The fact that DHA is specifically incorporated into the membrane phospholipids of the brain and retina, and that it is the “preferred” essential fatty acids for these tissues is not disputed. In fact, so prevalent is DHA in the makeup of the brain and retina that researchers and health experts are beginning to emphasise how important this fatty acid can be.” In a research by Nettleton, Trial animals denied DHA in their diets for three weeks lost half of their brain DHA when animals were fed DHA, their brain DHA levels increased copper adds: “There is too much research to ignore the notion that lack of dietary DHA for developing fetuses and infants can have serious adverse consequences later in life, particularly in the area of the brain and nervous system.”

    From the foregoing, we can easily observe the folly or stupidity of many adults and parents. Mothers do not take Omega-3 fish oil during pregnancy or during breastfeeding. They send children too early to nursery schools where their brains are prematurely opened for intellectual development without Omega-3 oil to help the brain cope with the pressure. And since Mother Nature abhors a vacuum, the brain uses Omega 6 and Omega-9 oils instead of Omega-3. Can this make the brain as efficient as it should? Any wonder that these children cannot cope easily with tedium? Yet Omega-3 oil is abundant in the “Original” Titus fish and Sardine. Health shops sell well-formulated Omega-3 fish oils. Udo’s Oil and Ultimate Oil are about the best brands. Do not buy artificial omega 3 oil.

     

    Ginkgo Biloba

    Anytime I suggest Ginkgo biloba to a woman, I tease her. This is because, originally, this herb was known as Maiden Hair. It was so called because it made the hair of women long, thick and beautiful. It is surprising that they would ignore it today and prefer instead chemical relaxers which cause a host of health problems for them. The Ginkgo biloba tree species is about 150 million years old on earth, and the individual tree can live for about 1000 years. When researchers investigated why it made female hair look so beautiful, they found it was because a tea of the leaves promoted micro blood circulation in the brain. Trust men! They took over this herb and renamed it Ginkgo. The Chinese led the world to Ginkgo biloba, using it for memory enhancement, to ease asthma, bed wetting, bladder irritation, intestinal worms and gonorrhea. Ginkgo has helped people suffering from dementia to improve their thinking, memory and social behavior.

    According to Dr. H.C.A. Vogel in his The nature doctor: “In Cases where the brain does not receive sufficient blood, the tincture made from the leaves has proved to be efficacious. Also, a deficiency of oxygen to the brain can be remedied quite rapidly which is very important after a stroke. Blood viscosity, that is, its consistency and rate of flow will increase in a short time. This makes it possible to eliminate the symptoms of a defective circulation such as headaches, buffing in the ears, problems with hearing and sight, depression and the state of fear panic. Some people over the age of 70 have registered a notable improvement in health after only four to six weeks when they have taken a double dose of the tincture three times a day (the normal dose is 15-20 drops three times a day). Relief is even more certain when a low protein diet but one that is rich in vital substances, vitamins and minerals is also followed. It is possible to normalise high blood pressure after just a few weeks of taking Ginkgo biloba, viscosity will be favourably affected. Improved blood circulation and supply of oxygen ensure that the cells of the central nervous system are better nourished and hence more efficient.

     

    Alpha Lipoic Acid

    When it comes to protecting the brain against free radical damage, Alpha Lipoic Acid is of great value. It is fat and water solube, that means it is active in both fat and water and as antioxidant. This makes it of great value as an antioxidant is of inestimable value these days of the cell phone.

    It has been shown in some experiments that the cell phone has a microwaving effect on auditory tissue and the brain, with the possibility of ionizing them. Young people spend a great deal of time on the cell phone and may does be impacting ionizing radiation on their brains. Antioxidants protect these tissues. The traditional antioxidants, Vitamins A, C and E cannot be left out. So is their big boss, Grape seed Extract, which is about 50 times more powerful than either vitamin A or Vitamin E. the beauty of Grape Seed Extract is that it is one of the few substances which easily cross the brain-blood barrier. Dr. Ray Strand, author of What your doctor does not know about nutritional medicine, may be killing you in ever fails to include it in any of his prescriptions. It was one of the remedies which saved his wife from fibromyalgia, bone, muscle and nerve pain of many years.

     Lecithin

    This is a fat emulsifier or dissolve which many people are aware of who use it to dissolve gall bladder stones or to reduce high cholesterol levels. It has two major fractions, choline and inositol which are important for nerve and brain health.

    Lecithin is a major component of cell membranes and is important for healthy nerve growth and function. Egg yolk is a good source of lecithin. But many people keep away from egg because of Cholesterol problems. So, many people have turned to soya beans, which is now the commercial source of lecithin. In many human studies, in which lecithin effects on the brain has been targeted, this fat like substance has been found to help cases such as Alzheimer’s disease, bibolar disorder (manic depression) and attention deficit. In the book Optimun nutrition for the mind, nutritionist Patrick Holford suggests one tablespoonful of lecithin granules to the cereal everyday helps the memory of many people. In Nigeria, lecithin granules are not as common as the lecithin softgel sold as 21 grain/1,200mg per gel. Over dosage may occur at between 10 grams 10,000mg,             ( 30 grams or 30,000 mg), accordingly to Vanderbilt University, overdosage may create symptoms such as gastrointestinal problems, diarrhoea, weight gain, a rash, headaches, nausea, vomiting, dizziness and or a fish body odour”

    Based on the brains critical need for Omega-3 fatty acids and lecithin, researchers have developed a means of binding both and delivering them to the brain. In a study of, people who took this remedy for memory or learning problem, the Clinical response was 2.4 times greater than in a placebo group. Although this particular remedy is not available in Nigeria, Omega-3 fatty acids and lecithins are available and should be consumed by young and old people alike.

    Sugar and other Brain Enemies

    Young people depress or damage their brains without being aware they are. They do not drink enough of plain water. Dehydration causes brain shrinkage and heat which may oxidise the fatty components of the brain. Aluminium cookware (pots, tea cups, spoons etc) leach into food and end up in the brain. Even the commercial pepper grinding machines leach iron and grease into food and these affect brain health. This is not to mention alcohol and sugar consumption.

  • Brain health and mass failure in Maths, English (1)

    If I am the Minister of Health, I would prescribe that Nigerians take Ginkgo biloba tea, capsules or tincture two times a day, to save them from memory loss. This herb, from the world’s oldest tree which is billions of years old, according to carbon dating, has been shown to promote micro blood circulation in the brain and improve memory even among old people who tend to forget almost everything, including their own names.

    In Nigeria, the memory tends to be short. Not many people remember today that, only a few years ago, some people in high places pocketed money voted for children’s drugs in hospitals. Have we not easily forgotten, also, the petrol scandal in which billions of Naira was paid by the government to petrol hawkers who did not supply it a drop of petrol? What about the pension money of poor workers which has ended up in private bank accounts? It is ridiculous that no one remembers this, and the press does not remind us of it when stories are published of old pensioners who slump and die in blazing African sun while protesting unpaid pensions! We wouldn’t be Nigerians if we easily remember that only a few weeks ago we were bemoaning to high heavens the 69 percent failure in the last “O” Level examinations! It was the first time so many boys and girls would be unable to score at worst an “O” Level “Pass” in Maths and English Language. These are a sort of “life or death” subjects in Nigerian’s ‘O’ Level education. Employers regard candidates without a credit pass in both, no better than semi-literate persons. And the universities would not touch them with long poles. This boys and girls would, therefore, appear stuck in life, useless to self and country.

    On a more serious note, I would prescribe Ginkgo biloba along with other brain health food supplements which may help to “open” up the brains of schoolboys and girls. But the matter goes beyond this, as we may soon discover.

    Mass “O” Level failure in Mathematics and English Language is not peculiar to Nigeria. It happens in England as well. Prince Charles, future king of England if he survives his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, has been lamenting in public that the average English boy and girl cannot write or speak Queen’s English any more. They hate mathematics as well. Worse still, they hate school and homework. It would appear an upcoming generation is redefining society and overturning the foundations of society. Someday, if the trend persists, Britain would become a slack country and may go under.

    Unlike in Nigeria, however, hardly is anything forgotten in Britain. Researchers went to work. Why are dull students dull despite healthy parenting, which is often lacking here, teacher and child support, they wanted to know. The investigations led them to check if brain nutrition was adequate. In one of the experiments designed to test this guess, omega-3 fish oil, an essential fatty acid thought to be deficient in the diet of many school children, was supplied free by the government to some groups of dull students during a long vacation. One of the guinea pigs was a boy named BEST. He hated school and homework, had short attention spans, fidgeted in the classroom and disturbed his colleagues. As was to be expected, he was a dreg in his class. During that long vacation, he had plenty of Omega-3 oils in his diet. No one thought much of the experiment or gave it any chance until, back in school, BEST clinched a digit position in the first examination. In their headlines, the newspapers roared: ‘BEST IS BEST’. Many dreg students like him also swung up in examinations.

     

     Language

    Sociologists teach us language summarises a people’s culture. Spiritually we know culture is the nature of human essence or ego, the so-called overself, the human spirit. I still do not know how, as a child, I learned the language of my parents, and speak it. But I know

    • The spoken language is derived from sounds put together to form words which give meaning to existence.

    What we call the Universe is a work in Creation filled with sounds and colours, from top to bottom. These sounds and colours derive from the radiations or vibrations of the activities of Nature beings who brought the Universe about upon the Creators command. We cannot see them easily nowadays because our vision has become too dense. But we cannot on this account deny their existence. In any case, do we see the air we breathe or the heat of sunlight? We see colours because they fall within the spectrum of light the eyes can see. These colours are waves. Waves produce sounds. Sounds, too, produce colours. Clairvoyants tell us our thoughts, invisible to us as they are, solidify into forms, also unseen, and emit sounds and colours. When we immune cells see and fight germs, how do they do it? Do they have eyes? No. every cell of the body of about 100 trillion cells in the average adult human emits waves of energy or vibrations. And because they all originated from a single fertilise egg, the zygote, they broadcast their existence or where about on a common frequency. Different germs do the same but on different frequencies. So, immune cells are able, through this signaling, to differentiate the body from its enemies, except a mishap occurs as in auto immune diseases. What occurs in the microscopic cells occur in the gigantic universe. The planets and other heavenly bodies, including the stars, maintain their unique pathways in so-called space through gravitational forces of mutual attraction and repulsion which maintain sanity. There forces are waves, waves make sounds, and sounds express as colours!

    This is an interesting field Dr Alex Thomopolous, Chief Executive Officer of The Guardian Newspapers Limited (GNL) may spend a whole day talking about it. In the universe, there are many spheres of existence. Each one, from the bottom to the top, is a different force field, which means it is of a different sound and colours. Higher spheres have richer sounds and colours than lower spheres, because their motion is stronger. The higher we go, the stronger this colours and sounds. The lower we descend the more sluggish and dull they are. Some animals hear these sounds and see the colours. The cock, for example, crows at specific time of the day, say 4 p.m and at dawn, giving us an indication of time. Didn’t many animals migrate before the tsunami? The Old Testament of the Bible reports an incident in which the horse on which a man named Baalam declined to heed his command to hop on. The horse was stationary despite his command to the contrary. Its eyes were seeing astral ethereal events which the restricted physical eyes of Baalam could not behold. Suddenly, says the report, the inner or ethereal eyes of Baalam were permitted to open. He saw some beings in an activity in which fire was erupting from inside the earth. In error, he called them Angels. We now know they were Nature Beings, who were trying to prepare that portion of land for the future use of a people who would be led there. The astral form of that event was taking shape. Maybe it would express as an earthquake someday. Maybe there were trying to alchemically transmute the soil to some mineral resources. The horse saw them and Baalam did not. Had he lived in this part of the earth, he may have called them witches out to harm him. For many of us know no better than this.

    We must quickly return to how all these are involved in the evolution of language and of how unfolding generations world-wide are failing massively in language education as evidenced in the 69 percent failure in Nigeria’s 2014 “O” Level English Language examination. The earth is a spiritual school in one part of our universe. The level of the inner or spiritual development of individuals or a people connects them to that sphere of the universe which corresponds to the degree of their maturity. We get a faint picture of this from what happens during the refinement of crude petroleum. (is Mr Wale Ajila Listening?)

    At different degrees of heat or pressure or friction, different products emerge… aviation fuel, regular motor oil, diesel, kerosene, grease, engine oil, petroleum jelly etc. As individuals and whole people or generations differentiate in this earth school, they become automatically connected to the spheres of the universe homogeneous with their kinds. There spheres, they become acquainted with sounds and colours prevenient there. From these vibrations words were formed. Often, helpers were sent (incarnated) to help them develop the language. The work of Martin Luther in respect of the German Language has been recongnised in this regard. The Germans recognise fears as high as Olympus and Valhalla. When, today, I read the Yoruba Bible, and match its language with the Yoruba many Yorubas speak now, I wonder if Bishop Ajayi Crowther didn’t belong to the order of people such as Martin Luther and if his captivity as a slave boy was not to support his work. It would, therefore, require a lot of effort over many generations to keep developing a language to its loftiest heights. But as we learned in the 1920s, more than half of the population of this earth was not meant to be here, they were to still be in the nether regions of the Universe, maturing. But through irreverence with the procreative act, they have, inadvertently, been prematurely inducted up. The sexual irreverence has led to a largely irreverent population which is turning upside down everything that was painstakingly built up. Look at politics and governance. Turn to the economy. Where is trust and the good family name today? Our nutrition fares no better; it has been ruined! And the language? Just pay attention to the language of the motor boys or the street traders. In terms of inner development and inner worth, the incoming generation cannot sustain the culture of their forebears, which included the spoken language. They desecrate everything. Their music, suffused with sex, tells you where they are coming from and where they are heading. They know nothing but sex, showing they have fallen to the level of the animal. On Facebook, the language is bastardised, vulgarised and denigrated. I used to correct my ‘friends’ every morning, but I gave up on that when they wouldn’t budge. They cannot see that sphere of the universe they are not matured for.

    We cannot blame them without blaming ourselves. Many of us took the procreation act for granted. Hardly do we remember or know that when a man and a woman engage in it, they set vibrations which echo into the universe. These vibrations provide a channel or bridge through which souls waiting to incarnate approach the couple, the woman in particular. If lustfulness is what has enveloped them, what kind of soul would they attract in The Law of Attraction of Homogeneous species? Purity of thought is demanded of both parties. When the act is over, the attracted souls hardly disperse. They wait for a body to start to form in the womb and jostle to incarnate in it. It is far, far, better in my view, to seriously will for the souls one desires as children to come home and surround one, even when no procreative act is going on. Women who should take the lead in this do not know about it or, if they do, approach this talk lukewarmly yet our grandmothers would tell us how pregnant women in particular should conduct themselves lest of wrong soul incarnate through them.

    In summary, we have on our hands an incoming generation that is sinking down the sphere, in tune with the Law of Spiritual Gravity, and defining us own world with nether region values. In English Language examinations, we assess them on the basis of a standard they have no capacity to grasp. I have seen Master’s Degree University graduates who cannot write a correct sentence of English. As Editor-in-Chief of The Guardian, I would bring in about 25 university graduates job seeker every month for assessment for reportorial work, all I would ask  them do was write an essay on wither MY MOTHER or A BICYCLE or RAIN DROPS OR my BEST MEAL. Stuff like that. It was amazing that many of them could not write more than a page of A4 paper on the woman who brought them to this earth, breastfed them, changed their nappies, kept the vigil with them, and sold their headgears and wrapper to send them to school! I am therefore, not surprised when I met doctors, lawyers or engineer who do not speak good English. They may be sound professionals. The language, as the summation of culture, tells a lot about all of us.

     

    Mathematics  

    Back in high school, I had no head for maths. I was later to discover in my late twenties it was probably not an ability I needed not in fulsome measure to get around in this earth-life. Spiritual (not religious) life gave me a beautiful inkling into the origins and some depths or dimensions of mathematics. One evening, Dr. Thomopoulus and I were discussing life. We know God is life, the starting-point of everything which exists. He and I show serious  interest in the Bible and other accounts of about LIFE now distorted and formed into religions. It seemed to have done a lot of study about the pyramid. The pyramid is a four-sided figure. Jewish slaves helped the Egyptians build stupendous pyramids. Pyramid specialists teach us that when the angles of the triangle are well inclined, a pyramid connects or plugs into certain forces in this creation. That means certain powers from the universe flow into the pyramid. This is an explanation, for example of why anything kept in the Egyptian pyramids does not despoil. It is like they are frozen in time without actually freezing. Corpses of kings (Pharaohs) known as mummies have been preserved in these Egyptian pyramids for hundreds of years without anything happening to them. Armed with this knowledge, some people have tried to build household pyramids which could serve as refrigerators for preserving food. It has been suggested, also, that huge pyramids can be constructed to store foodcrops in their seasons which can then be release in their, off season, for consumption. This would prevent food wastages, high food prices, hunger and poverty. Who knows, if it wasn’t in pyramids that the Egyptians stored food in the seven years of plenty which were later overtaken by seven years of famine? Remember pharaoh’s dream of seven lean cows swallowing seven fat cows which slave boy Joseph ably interpreted as famine overtaking food surplus.

    Back in school, I did not understand the pyramid. It was an aspect of geometry we learned under the heading “constructions”. But it made a lot of sense to me that evening that Dr. Thomopolous and I shared experiences in his house. He reminded me of

    •The starting point, God, and

    •The four animal beings at the foot of God’s throne.

    This imagery is in the Bible’s Book of Revelations. Elsewhere, I have shared experiences I gathered from revelaed knowledge of creation on the face of the earth today about the nature and importance of these Animal Beings, or beings in Animal forms.

    Today, I will speak only of their relationship with the pyramid, one of the subjects of mathematics I hated in school. The Book of revelations report that these Animal Beings, the Lion, the Ram, the eagle and the Lamb, are equidistant from one another and from the starting point above them. If you join together the equidistant points of the Beings at points A,B,C and D, what results from that is a perfect Square. If your project points A,B,C and D in the square to the dot of the starting point, a Pyramid emerges with a Square base.

    It should be clear from this that mathematics is a royal subject which may lend its secret to any-one. It is, in my view, knowledge of transcendental reality passed down to earth dwellers in a special language which can be easily understood by only the initiated or people who are meant to work with it.

    Architect Lekan Adams, of Lagos, educated me in one of his articles on the Egyptian pyramids published in the comet newspaper. That article showed that the partitioning in the pyramids were based on knowledge received about the timing and duration of cosmic events. One of the explanations which touched me most concerned a comet which was to visit the earth. Lay minds would enter the pyramid and visit its closet without the architecture making any impact on their souls. It is probable that it is from the square that the Foursquare church derived its name. The Yoruba, too, believe that creation has “four pillars” and that four elders man these pillars. In the series of this column on Easter and Lucifer, I referred to the fact that there were four Wise Men, not three, who were to find their way to Jesus in the manger.

  • Mass failure in WASSCE: Who is to blame?

    Mass failure in WASSCE: Who is to blame?

    SINCE the release of the last School Certificate Examination results, there have been many arguments on what went wrong. Some have blamed the mass failure on the West African Examinations Council (WAEC). Others have disagreed, saying the umpire should not carry the can when a team plays badly. So I think.

    Over the years, WAEC has mastered its role. It has the muscle to hire experienced and damn good hands to run its programmes. Besides, it has always striven to ensure that its papers are not leaked, maintaining the integrity of its examinations, even as it has a foolproof marking scheme that ensures fairness.

    There is no way we won’t have mass failure when parents have surrendered their role to teachers, many of who are overstretched and underpaid. Students no longer find any virtue in studying; the Internet has simplified it all for them. Why study when you can simply “Google it”! Rather than read a good book, they watch movies on their telephones and ipads. Their ears are permanently wired up to pop music. They are the Azonto generation. Facebook has become a veritable companion of many.

    In any case, why is the noise so loud in Nigeria, which is just one of the countries that write WAEC exams? Got a message from a student recently?

    How will mass failure not occur? When last did you buy a book for your child? Don’t we all get those short messages from students on our mobile phones? See how they write those messages that hit our mobile phones. Sample: “Hi uncle! Good a.m. Howz work? Wasup? It’s bin a while. Plz send me sum money. God bless you gud.” Awful.

    Is the zeal with which our students work at reality shows the same as the one they deploy in studying for their examinations? How many corporate organisations put their cash on the best student at school? They would rather splash money on “the best dancer”. Etisalat, the mobile giant, offers N7.5m cash plus a car and a multi-million naira recording deal to the winner of its Nigerian Idol. Glo Naija X-Factor is worth $150,000 and an SUV. MTN’s Project Fame is N5m plus a car. Gulder Ultimate Search is N10m. Now compare: Cowbell Mathematics competition attracts five desktop computers, printers and all expenses paid vacation. For the junior category, the cash prize is N250,000 and the senior category N300,000. Spelling Bee is N1 million.

    You can see how guilty we all are in this matter. Please, leave WAEC out of it. It is all about our fast changing values and orientation. We must arrest the slide. Now.

  • Another mass failure in WAEC exams

    SIR: With yet another dismal story of students’ failure in examinations, it has unequivocally become crystal clear that the standard of education in the country will never regain its lost glory unless the government and other stakeholders reached a consensus on the necessary drastic, if not draconian measures to take in order to redirect students attention to serious reading. The West African Examination Council (WAEC) has released the last Nov/Dec senior secondary certificate examination result. According to WAEC, only 86,612 out of 308217 candidates were able to make five credits, including English and Mathematics. In other words, only 29.17% of the whole candidates scaled through.

    This result, when compared with the previous ones happens to be the worst. If this unwholesome trend continues unabated, the probability of getting a better result among the students in the near future is absolutely zero.

    Something has to be done to stop the trend. But let me sound it loud and clear that unless the mantra: DUTY BEFORE PLEASURE is emphatically drummed into the ears of our children, letting them understand the need to forgo pleasure and other frivolities capable of distracting their attention from their books, this syndrome would never stop. The present situation is just a tip of the iceberg.

    The misuse of cell phone by students has done more harm than good. We send our children to school to learn, read their books, and participate in other extracurricular activities and not to manipulate their phones and watch films at home to the detriment of their studies. You cannot serve two masters at a go. You either love one and hate the other.

    During our days, what used to occupy our minds was how to cover the syllabus before the exam. And in the long run we always had success story to tell. But now the scenario has changed. Not all the students know what the syllabus is, let alone striving to cover it.

    Much as we emphasize on the need for students to take their studies serious, I am not comfortable with the foot dragging attitude of government towards renovating dilapidated structures in our public schools and the provision of necessary reading aids for students and teachers. For instance, most of our public schools do not have libraries, science laboratories and other educational facilities. Teachers attendance is not monitored by inspectors and this create room for lackadaisical attitude on the part of teachers towards their profession. Most of them have sidelines that distract their attention from concentrating on their teaching. All these short comings should be appropriately addressed by the government.

     

    •Nkemakolam Gabriel

    Port Harcourt