Tag: Nigerian Newspapers

By the time some 100 teachers participating in the Jewel of Africa (JOA) Inc Foundation training in Lagos resume for the new session next month, they would be better prepared to write lesson plans and deliver the curriculum in a way that would improve their pupils’ learning outcomes.

The five-day programme with the theme: The making of an Effective Teacher – Part One (Fundamentals of Impactful Teaching), opened Monday at Halified School, Maryland to public and private school teachers who had pre-registered for the training.

President of JOA Mrs Lara Gureje-Oderinde said the NGO was funded by six Nigerians in the Diaspora, who aim to contribute to the revitalisation of Nigeria’s education system having benefited from attending public schools before relocating.

She said: “The drive for JOA is to put our blueprint in Lagos.  I left this country over 35 years ago.  We wanted to stop brokenness and leakages in the education sector in Nigeria.  We want to make sure we reposition education the way it used to be, so no one will have to take their kids to private schools,” she said.

Mrs Gureje-Oderinde said teachers who pass through the training should be able to complete their syllabus within the specified time and also learn how to engage various categories of learners.

She said the training was foundational and that participants would be monitored for one year to see how they utilise what they learn.  She added that the second stage of the training, which would be more intensive, would last two weeks, and would be implemented only for beneficiaries of the first training who have been effective in using what they learnt.

Over 500 teachers registered for the training which was holding in Lagos for the first time even though JOA has worked in Nigeria for about five years.  However, only 100 were accepted on first come-first serve basis.  Mrs Gureje-Oderinde expressed sadness that many could not participate and urged states to partner with JOA so that more teachers could benefit.  She thanked the Lagos State government for its interest in the training.

“JOA is here for the long run.All we ask every state is to give us space.  We had about 600 people enrolled.  It breaks my heart we could only take almost 100,” she said.

Permanent Secretary, Teaching Service Commission (TESCOM), Mrs Toyin Awoseyi, thanked the NGO for coming to Lagos.  She also thanked the participants for coming during the holidays to learn.

“The hall is filled even though today is a holiday.  It shows the teachers are willing to learn.This new initiative will give information that can be very impactful to our teachers, which they can in turn impact on their students. It is not enough for students to pass exams, but the children should be able to solve problems,” she said.

Two Tutor-General Permanent Secretaries for Education Districts One, Dr Yinka Ayandele, and Six, Mrs Okelola Oludara, praised the training.  Dr Ayandele said it was good that the teachers were learning how to write the lesson plans, which she said was crucial for teachers. She added that it was important the training addressed how to teach large classes.

Speaking at the event, a guest, Mr Jermaine Sanwo-Olu, urged other Nigerians abroad to come join hands in  building Lagos State.

“I would like to encourage Diasporians out there to come back home-to Lagos in particular. We are readyto receive your ideas, all the knowledge you’ve stored all these years. Come and deposit it in our lives, in students, teachers, economy so that we can grow to develop that greater Lagos,” he said.

Many thanks to Barrister M.M. ADAMU, a devotee of this column, for his kind words. Messaging from Bauchi, he says: “I had been an ardent reader of The Nation newspaper before your highly educative column, which has boosted my interest in the paper.” But he has asked whether the use of the word followership “is wrong in reference to people who are followers or subjects in a country,” as the word, according to him, does not exist in the dictionary. He also wants to know if there is a difference in meaning between the words brutal and brutish.

Let us address his posers before tackling today’s menu, which is “maybe/May be . . . plus more.”

We do not think that anything is wrong with the word followership as commonly used, even if it is not found in the dictionary. Such formations are common in the morphology of the English language – what with words like governorship, leadership, studentship and the like! Let us simply understand followership to mean a description of the body of people who support or admire a particular person, cause or idea. Depending on usage, a synonym for followership is the following, used to mean “a group of people who support, admire or believe in a particular person, group or idea” (CALD).

In meaning, the adjectives brutal and brutish are almost the same. They both refer to acts and behaviours that are “cruel, violent and completely without feelings” (ibid.). But a highly-nuanced difference can creep in when it comes to usage, where brutish may be more appropriate to describe dispositions and tendencies or acts that are just rough and unpleasant or often violent.

Now then, over to this edition’s offer:

Maybe/May be

For many, there seems to be no difference between maybe and may be. The specimen misusage which follows is a typical example of this wrong notion:

May be one should call upon the president to emulate the Garfield example.

Because the writer of the specimen sentence does not recognize the difference between maybe, the adverb, and may be, the verb, he has misused the latter in place of the former. Correct usage in the sentence is maybe, the adverb, NOT may be, the verb. Citing Murphy, “Pop” Errors, our weiters’ companion, explains that “the adverb maybe means perhaps, while may be is a verb combining a modal auxiliary and a principal verb, “used to express possibility.” It goes further: ‘ Thus, there is a difference between the statements “Maybe he will be crowned today” and “He may be crowned today.”’ In the former, the verb may be cannot suitably replace the adverb maybe, just like the adverb maybe cannot stand in the latter. Correct usage therefore suggests that we re-work the wrong usage, thus::

Maybe one should call upon the president to emulate the Garfield example.

In the correction, maybe is sitting and functioning well as the adverb that it is. The take-away here: maybe is an adverb, while may be is a verb, and they should never be used interchangeably.

Media

The loose usage of the word media, especially these days, demands that we converse a little about it here. Everywhere you turn, you find media being used as if it is a singular noun, whereas it is supposed to be a plural noun. The following is a good example of such lexical waywardness, even when we notice that this writing habit is all over:

From the way the media has reported its activities, you would think they are the only purveyors of terrorism in the land.

The lexical unruliness in the sentence is the deployment of media as a singular noun-subject, with a singular verb to boot. “Pop” Errors advises you to be “mindful that such usage can further compound writers’ grammatical difficulties” and therefore “discourages this so-called trend, for the fashionable may not necessarily be reasonable, sensible or defensible, many a time. For example, it seems simply indefensible to say, the media has, when media is known to be plural – the plural of medium.”

However, the book observes that some authorities acknowledge the foregoing traditional view but declare that it is now acceptable in standard English for media “to take either a singular or a plural verb” because the word media functions as a collective noun, like staff or clergy, when used in reference to television, radio, the press, and the Internet” (OALD/AmazonKindle). This clarification suggests, however, that we must be careful to note the other special usages of the word media which have nothing to do with the means of mass communication. For example, when you talk of media of exchange, media of instruction, media of growth or nurture for bacteria or other organisms, or media of storage, traditional grammatical rules such as subject-verb agreement must be applied. And one more caveat: Be consistent once you have chosen to take media as singular or plural. Avoid the inconsistency of many writers who, in the same text, often shift between the two modes, unsure of which is which” (“Pop” Errors).

But, being the orthodox type, we are more comfortable using media in the statement in consideration as a plural noun, which must take the plural verb in line with the principle of subject-verb agreement. Thus, we do the needful as follows:

From the way the media have reported its activities, you would think they are the only purveyors of terrorism in the land.

The Registrar, Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN), Prof Josiah Olusegun Ajiboye, has praised the Federal College of Education (Technical), Umunze, Anambra State, for placing high premium on the induction of professional teachers in line with international best practices and quality assurance benchmark.

He gave the commendation at the fourth TRCN induction of the College, where 1,348 candidates were formally admitted into the teaching profession.

Addressing the inductees last Wednesday, at the Dr Alex Ekwueme Auditorium of the College, Ajiboye said the College has gained a reputation for promoting students’ wholehearted development through the provision of a broad and balanced training with a wide array of learning activities.

“This institution is reputed for championing an all-round development of students by accommodating their interests, unleashing their potentials and extending their experience beyond classroom learning,” he said.

Ajiboye, who was represented by the Director, Professional Operations, Maazi Adamu Bello, described teachers as pivotal in the education sector, which has become the most potent instrument in man’s struggle for survival and development.

“Today’s teachers must not only fit into the knowledge informed demands of the contemporary life, but also be at the shoulder level with every other professional groups functioning in the wider context of a knowledge driven economy,” he said.

Also speaking, the Provost, Dr Tessy Okoli, said her administration has a clear policy on encouraging academic staff training and development to ensure that the College remains atop in the delivery of quality teacher education.

Praising the TRCN for raising the professional bar, Okoli noted that the College had keyed into the policy directive of the Federal Government on the stoppage of unlicensed teachers working in schools nationwide. She warned that teaching staff of the College yet to obtain the TRCN certification would be shown the backdoor.

“Professional training and certification are necessary steps for everyone entering into a career, including the teaching sector. We would ensure that quality and professional development of teachers remains a cardinal policy of this administration,” she added.

Highpoint of the occasion was the administration of oath of practice on the inductees by the TRCN Registrar and presentation of certificates.

Speaking on behalf of the inductees, the best graduating student in Professional Diploma in Education examination, 2017/2018 session, Azubuike Okechukwu Augustine, thanked the College for providing them with quality training in character and learning. He described the induction as the beginning of their academic race, and urged his colleagues to raise the banner of the teaching profession higher.

The induction was attended by the Deputy Provost, Dr Christopher Ugwuogo, the Bursar, Sir Patrick Omile, the Librarian, Dr Adolphus Ugwuanyi, the Coordinator, TRCN, Anambra State, Lady Rosemary Otikpa, the Dean, Faculty of Education, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Prof Tony Eze, who was represented by the Sub-Dean, Dr Carol Ezeugbo, among others.