The Nation Newspaper

Tag: school

  • HoReCaBB launches hospitality school

    THE hospitality industry in Nigeria received a boost recently as HoReCaBB Mentors, launched a Hospitality Business School.

    The event, which was graced by hospitality bigwigs kicked off on Saturday, December 2 and continued on Thursday December 7 and Friday, December 8.

    Welcoming guests to the ceremony, the CEO of HoReCaBB Mentors, Eric Mekwuye said that the school offers various hospitality courses in areas such as Culinary and Patisserie, Hotel Front Office and House Keeping, Restaurant Service, etc.

    “It is a complete hotel school. With HBS, there’s no need to travel abroad to get trained with International excellence. As from January, the doors of HBS would be open for new students at the HM Hospitality Pedestal by Omole Phase 2, Lagos, Nigeria,” he said.

    He further revealed that HoReCaBB Mentors is also in partnership with the State of New York Global Food Service Institute (SUNY-GFI) raising a new generation of hospitality professionals.

    Gracing the occasion were the likes of Alhaji Dantata, the Chairman of Dantata Foods, Mr Ayenuyo, Chairman of Mega Chicken, Mr Ebele Enunwa, MD of Sundry Foods, Mr Akande, Chairman of Idmon Group, Alh Akinlade, Director in Ministry of Education and a host of other dignitaries.

  • Osun school’s farm gets federal aid

    The Federal Ministry of Agriculture has assisted the Osun State College of Education at Ila-Orangun to cultivate 50 hectares of cassava farm.

    Chairman of the school’s Governor Council Niyi Akande spoke at a meeting with the chairmen of Ila and Ipa Central local government areas.

    He said the Federal Ministry of Agriculture supported the institution to enhance the economic diversification agenda of the Federal Government – from oil to agriculture.

    The chairman noted that apart from diversification of the national economy, the Federal Government intended to use the school’s farm as a pivotal project for the academic researches of other institutions and agricultural farms in the Southwest.

    According to him, the ministry assisted the college after its officials’ thorough assessment of the facilities on the ground at the school farm.

    Akande said the second phase of the agric project, which he said include planting of maize, additional cassava, vegetables and fruits of about additional 100 hectares, would start during next year’s raining season.

    He added that the college had begun a large scale poultry farm and fish production to boost the school’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) and make its agric students acquire a practical experience about their courses.

  • Banky W returns to school

    Banky W returns to school

    …to shoot first movie next year

    RnB singer, actor and filmmaker, Bankole Wellington, aka Banky W has returned to the New York Film Academy where he had earlier taken an eight weeks filmmaking class.

    According to the actor, this time around, he’s back for screenwriting classes.

    In a short clip on his Instagram page, Banky opines that we have a whole generation of young filmmakers in Nigeria who are passionate and talented and are interested in creating their own business and telling their own stories

    “If you take that passion and you give them that little bit of training and that little bit of support, you’ll have a whole new generation who can change their country and they can change continent and they can elevate the arts that is coming out from this part of the world with their own stories,” he said.

    He was speaking about Nigerian filmmaking and his New York Film Academy education thus far.

    “I really really hope to be able to open a world class film & music school in Lagos. We need it. May God help me pull it off. Even if we start with NYFA in Lagos as summer school type thing 2018.. it would be so dope. Already started trying to reel in support for it from my corporate friends. With all the talented artists and storytellers we have, this is absolutely necessary,” he captioned the clip.

    He further dropped hints that he would be shooting his first movie next year with the hashtag; #shootingmyfirstmoviein2018 #sohelpmeGod.

  • Shell Nigeria Gas donates labs, ICT centre to Ogun school

    Shell Nigeria Gas donates labs, ICT centre to Ogun school

    Shell Nigeria Gas (SNG) has donated an ICT centre and well-equipped science laboratories to African Church Community Secondary School in Ewupe, a community hosting the company’s facilities in Ota, Ogun State.

    The gesture was the second phase of SNG’s intervention in the school to bring it to a competitive standard.

    Last year, the company also donated a block of five classrooms, a 12-room stand-alone toilet facility, school water system, upgraded football field, and rehabilitated five blocks of 19 classrooms for shared use by the school and the co-located Ebenezer African Church Primary School in the first phase of the intervention.

    “Our goal is to support government and other relevant agencies to close the gap of educational inequality between pupils of public schools and their counterparts in private schools,” Managing Director of SNG, Ed Ubong, said at a ceremony marking the completion and handover of the projects to Ogun State government.

    “We recognise education as the topmost need of the people of our neighboring communities and what we have done is a progression of our longstanding support to the school and to the communities,” Ubong added.

    Ogun State Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology Mrs. Modupe Mujota, who received the facilities, commended SNG’s gesture. She charged the students to take advantage of the facilities to “upscale their academic performance and competitive exploits”.

    “This singular act of Shell Nigeria Gas depicts the company’s fulfillment of its social responsibility for the development of its host communities and is worthy of emulation by others,” she said.

    The Principal, Mr. Gbolahan Adekunjo, acknowledged the improved academic standard and the growing number of enrolment in the school following the series of upgrade by SNG.

    “The interventions have resulted in an enabling environment for teaching and learning and the impact is felt by the students, staff, parents and catchment communities.”

    Community Development Association, Ewupe, Chairman Alhaji Monsuru Akande thanked SNG. He appealed to the government to create the enabling environment for SNG and other companies to support education in the state.

    SNG is owned by Shell  for the downstream distribution of gas.

    It operates a gas transmission and distribution network of approximately 115km and serves industrial customers in Ota, Ogun State and Aba in Abia State.

  • UK, Ghana trip for school quiz winners

    Finalists of the ongoing Ayodeji Joseph Inter-Primary Schools Quiz competition would be taken on tour to the United Kingdom  (UK) and Ghana.

    Ayodeji Joseph, a lawmaker, disclosed this at the kick off of the quiz, noting that it would promote academic excellence among the pupils.

    The contest held simultaneously in 20 schools.

    According to the legislator, two best pupils from the competition, one each from Apapa Local Government (LGA) and Apapa-Iganmu Local Council Development Area (LCDA), would be sent to the UK for two weeks, while the runners-up would go on tour of Ghana, as well as N500,000 cash prizes each.

    The tours, he said, would be co-sponsored by the Apapa LCDA Chairman, Elijah Owolabi.

    Ayodeji said he was committed to instilling the passion for education in the children, adding that the quiz would encourage academic rivalry, challenge the pupils to be focused and bring out the best in them.

    He said: “Many youths in this constituency have seen touting and thuggery as the only means by which they can make money. We need to change this and that is why we want to focus on the pupils, so that they do not grow with that mentality.

    “When you educate a child, you enhance the potential inherent in him or her and when we fail to do this, they will take to hooliganism.

    By sending them on UK tour, we need them to know another part of the world where development is on the high side.

    “Since they are the leaders of tomorrow, we need them to know that something is wrong in this part of the world and that something must be corrected. We want them to know that electricity can run uninterrupted and traffic can flow better.”

  • ‘This is no school’, governor’s verdict on ICE

    ‘This is no school’, governor’s verdict on ICE

    This institute does not deserve to be called a school’, this was the verdict of Governor Godwin Obaseki when he visited the Institute of Continuing Education in Benin City.

    Governor Obaseki inspected facilities at the 45-year-old institution and declared that he was heart broken.

    ICE was established in 1972 under the regime of the late Dr. Samuel Ogbemudia to provide remedial studies for workers or persons too old to attend secondary school.

    It provided learning for those working and adults unable to go to school when young. Such persons may have difficulty to align with pupils in secondary school. Messengers and cleaners could work and finance their education.

    Governor Obaseki shook his head as he walked through the unkempt field and several dilapidated offices.

    Some of the classrooms had broken doors and no window. Chairs in some of the offices were old and dusty.

    Obaseki was taken round the institute by its Acting Rector, Mr. Victor Ajagun.

    Responding to questions, Obaseki simply said: “I am here to see things for myself and this does not deserve to be called a school. I have seen the facilities and I am heartbroken. We are going to take a decision on what to do with the institute.”

    Ajagun declined comments.

  • School head advises Nigerians on health, safety practices

    School head advises Nigerians on health, safety practices

    How did Dansol High School, Agidingbi, Ikeja, Lagos come first to get a level-two (on a three-star ranking) safety compliance standard award of the Lagos State Safety Commission and a level three (of a five-tier ranking) of SafeZone?

    Its Proprietress, Mrs Adun Akinyemiju, said it was by strictly observing hand washing in the school. This has resulted in zero recording of diarrhoea or food poisoning or any significant health hazard incident in the school in over 21 years of its establishment.

    She spoke at the presentation of the award of the safety compliance certificates to the school by the Lagos State Safety Commission.

    Mrs Akinyemiju said it had been inculcated in the pupils not to overlook any object that could lead to disasters, such as banana peel on the floor without picking and thrashing it.

    “An object looking like a nail can be quite unsafe, so we, as a management, train our pupils to be responsible and look out for such items, pick them and dispose promptly. We are happy that the effort has paid off. And as a Christian school we are happy that we are inculcating in our pupils that invaluable values are being built in them, that will see them though life. The award is quite gladdening and has spurred us into doing more. It is gratifying that among the schools in Lagos State that have been audited by InSiGHt for Lagos State Safety Commission to date, Dansol High School is the first of three schools to merit a level-two (on a 3-star ranking) safety compliance standard of the Lagos State Safety Commission and a level 3 (of a 5-tier ranking) of SafeZone,” said Mrs Akinyemiju.

    Explaining what the project is about, the Lagos State Safety Commission Director-General, Hon Dickson Hakeem said the commission embarked on the School Safety project to ensure the safety of every child and pupil in the sate.

    “One major component of the project involves an assessment of the systems that educational institutions have in place to ensure that risks to the safety and health of pupils, staff and parents are as minimal as possible. The assessment process provides a day of practical advice and guidance from the safety audit team. Although some schools regularly do self-assessment and undertake regular safety inspections, but an annual audit ensures that the schools’ health and safety practices are as robust as possible and also an essential requirement for safety certification by the Lagos State Safety Commission,” he explained.

    Hon. Hakeem said the commission was planning to introduce health insurance to both private and government facilities and workers, which will ensure that victims or places of accidents were compensated.

    Explaining the involvement of InSiGHt Health Consulting Limited, (Safety auditors – that audited the school), the Principal Consultant, Dr. Nnenna Mba-Oduwusi, said the agency is an accredited Safety agent for the Lagos State School Safety Project.

    “It is a collaboration with the Royal Society of the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA). InSiGHt implements SafeZone, an accreditation system that provides a vehicle for assessing the level of compliance of health and safety standards in schools. It has exclusive right with ROSPA for school safety audits in Nigeria.

    Mba-Oduwusi said her agency was  proud of Dansol High School, for its exemplary safety standard. “Dansol is the first Nigerian School to attain the SafeZoneTM certification, which assesses over 400 safety criteria, and we are pleased to recognise its achievements as a level three school. We encourage other schools to follow the same path,” said Dr Mba-Oduwusi.

    Compliance and Enforcement Director, Lagos State Safety Commission, Mrs. Ronke Odeneye, said the commission chose the schools because Lagos  with a population of 17.5 million as at last year is  the most populated in Nigeria.

    “Out of which more than 35 percent are of school age (five to 18) hence, schools become critical point for health and safety. Although there are limited actual data for Nigeria, there are anecdotal and press reports that frequently highlights that school safety-related incidents are on the increase especially in Lagos State.

    This and more necessitated the  programe by the Commission, which is step in a right direction. ‘Learn Safe, Work Safe, and Live Safe’ is out Motto,”  Mrs Odeneye, said.

  • 11 secondary school students arrested for cultism

    11 secondary school students arrested for cultism

    The police and some members of the Lagos State  Neighbourhood Safety Corps (LNSC)  have arrested 11 secondary school students suspected to be cultists terrorising members of the public with dangerous weapons in the state.

    The Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of Olosan Police  Station, CSP Adekunle Omisankin, who confirmed the arrest to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday, said all the suspects belonged  to the ”Gang Star’’ cult.

    Omisankin said the suspects claimed to have been in existence since 2013 operating as students, stressing that they were between 17 years and 18 years old.

    “One student-suspect was brought to our station by LNSC on Friday. Our  investigation led to the arrest of 10 other students, including a female student,” Omisankin said.

    The spokesman for the  Lagos Neighborhood Safety Corps, Mr Adewale Afolabi, said that they had also arrested a JSS3 student, who was allegedly terrorising members of the public with dangerous weapons such as knives and machetes.

    Afolabi said that the suspect, who resides at No. 243, Agege Motor Road, Ojuwoye in Mushin, Lagos Mainland, was alleged to be a student of a secondary school in Igbo Owu, Kwara.
    “He had been terrorising the people and students of the area. The LNSC operational team arrested the suspect following intelligence information from the public.

    ”He confessed to the crime and also exposed his 16-member gang by giving their names and their hideouts to the LNSC.

    Afolabi said that the suspect had been transferred to the Olosan Police Station, Mushin for further investigation. (NAN)

  • Hoodlums allegedly beat up teacher over conversion of school to council secretariat

    Hoodlums allegedly beat up teacher over conversion of school to council secretariat

    Suspected hoodlums have beaten up a teacher in the Ilashe area of Ipokia Local Government for allegedly resisting an attempt to convert a public school in the area to the headquarters of one of the newly created local council development area in Ogun State.

    The teacher, Kayode Omitogun was allegedly stripped naked by the hoodlums and dragged in a mud water.

    The incident according to sources happened last Wednesday at Mayigi Community Comprehensive High School in Ilashe.

    It was learnt that Omitogun’s assailants were led to the school by a community leader cum politician in order to take over a block of classrooms for the purpose of converting the building to the council’s secretariat when Omitogun resisted them on the grounds that it was a public educational facility.

    A source said: ‘’ Although pupils are currently on holiday but Omitogun went to the school to resist the immoral attempt to convert the school to a council secretariat. In the process, he was stripped naked, beaten in a pool of mud water for about 30 minutes by thugs loyal to some politicians who stormed the school to take over a block of classrooms for the use of a newly established local council development area.

    ‘’ One of the thugs also smashed a bottle on Omitogun’s head. But for the intervention of passers-by that took him to a nearby hospital, he would have died from the brutality meted to him by thugs loyal to the politicians.’’

    An enquiry was forwarded to the Press Officer of Ogun State Ministry of Education, Mr Abiodun Oduyebo, and he promised to revert to our correspondent.

    He was however unable to do so as of press time.

  • Indomie backs free summer school

    Dufil Prima Foods, makers of Indomie noodles, has donated cash and educational materials to the Lagos Empowerment and Resource Network (LEARN), to support is effort to positively impact the country’s educational sector through its free summer school initiative.

    Dufil’s Group Public Relations and Events Manager Tope Ashiwaju, at the presentation, said: “It is the main thrust of our company to prioritise educational development of the Nigerian child, with a strong belief that a quality academic opportunity should not elude them.

    “Indomie is known as one of the foremost brands with immense contribution to the development of education at all levels. We are committed to it because quality education is a legacy we owe our children since they are the future of tomorrow. As children, you should be the change you want to see because only you can determine path you want to chart for yourself.”

    Project Manager, LEARN Mrs. Aderonke Oguntoyinbo thanked Dufil for its unwavering commitment towards the LEARN initiative, describing it as very strategic and helpful.

    “This partnership has excited the children, having been assured of free lunch during the summer school, with study materials. This will help them concentrate on what they are being taught,” she added.

    Sulaimon Jamiu, who spoke on behalf of other pupils, thanked Dufil for its support in the last nine years. He urged the firm not to relent in ensuring that children get good education.