The Nation Newspaper

Tag: school

  • Back to school: Parents devise new strategy

    Back to school: Parents devise new strategy

    At this time of every year, back-to-school shopping is the in-thing. But with the recession, parents are devising new means to equip their wards for school resumption. This is taking a toll on sales, as school shopping is on a sharp decline compared to last year, TONIA ‘DIYAN reports.

    Shopping for school children is still an expensive proposition, but this year, parents are planning to trim their spending and focus on necessities.?

    Roughly eight out of 10 shoppers whether buying for primary, secondary or higher levels of education , say they’ll adjust their spending plans to deal with the economy.

    As they continue to grapple with the impact of the persistent recession, people will look to cut corners where they can, but will buy what their kids need.?

    Parents who can manage to shop for school-age children at this time of recession had an early start, with 15. 9percent of such families saying they already scouring book racks and nosing through supermarkets shelves since June. These  few early birds have been launching their back-to-school preparations since June.

    More than a third of parents say they plan to do more comparative shopping online. Four out of 10 shoppers say they’ll hit the Internet for their retail needs

    Back to school is not only the second-largest shopping period after Christmas  holidays, but it’s one when many conventional physical stores are competing against the surge of online competition.

    Although e- commerce is fast growing. analysts say that children and their parents still like visiting stores to purchase items on their back-to-school lists .

    Online shopping came third, when consumers were asked to name all the places they were planning to do their Back to school buying. Almost 16percent of those surveyed said they would do some online shopping, showing the strong growth of e-commerce.

    On the other hand, 68percent of shoppers said they don’t envision buying all of their school supplies online, they always want to see, touch and interact with products

    For many youngsters and their parents, the store visits are as important as the convenience of e-commerce. It’s one thing for kids to give their parents a holiday wish list and hope for the best, and quite another for kids to demand a select type of notebook, backpack or apparel after they’ve looked them over on the Internet . Online is used more to do research than to actually pull the trigger and buy.

    The Nation Shopping spoke with a parent at Balogun market . She said another reason people visit physical stores is the need to make last-minute purchases, and she confessed she is in that group.

    “Every year, I wait till it’s two days before the start of school before visiting the market to purchase school supplies,” she said. “You’re almost forced to visit a brick-and-mortar store rather than waiting for a shipment from online because it’s  late already .”

    Experts have said beyond the immediate sales Back to school shopping generates, the season is crucial for retailers to make brisk sales.

    Back-to-school season is a key marketing tool for retailers because the level of their service, prices and convenience will determine whether customers return in four months for the Christmas season.

    They’re focused on this season being a great platform to expose to the consumer what they can offer.

     

  • Kids Alert! Holiday is over!

    Kids Alert! Holiday is over!

    Oh calm down! Not yet, but very soon.  I can feel some parents having high blood pressure because the holidays are over.

    Mr. Deji Osa, like few folks is so worried about  how to pay his children’s school fees. He wished the holidays could be extended so he can make enough money to pay the fees.
    Whichever way you have it, the holidays will soon be over and I know how scary the feeling can be when preparing for the next school term.
    This few tips could help.
    Budgeting.
    The first step to consider in planning for the new school term is Budgeting.
    How? Get a list of important things you want to spend your money on so it can guide your spending. You don’t have to buy everything the kids wants but what they need. Some things can wait until you have the financial capacity to buy them.
    New school.
    I don’t really support changing your Child’s school but if you can’t afford the school fees it’s advisable you do. You don’t have to break the bank in to pay through your nose. There are still good and affordable schools
    Shopping!
    Oh lord…this could give a heart attack but chill..you don’t have to buy very expensive things you can get cheap and quality materials. Besides, you don’t need to buy new stuff when you  can still make do of old stuff. In all ‘ buy what’s necessary’.
    Savings..its important you save. Avoid frivolous spending.. It’s necessary you have a separate savings system to finance your children’s needs. But most importantly, save because you might never know when the money will be very useful. Save for the bad weather.
    But Remember Education is key.
  • Making the best of holidays for kids

    Making the best of holidays for kids

    Hippee!! The holidays are here. At least the kids can rest from all work and no play. However, parents can get tired because the kids just want to play. rather than send them out for some summer class why not use this period to get them busy.

    Rather than send them out for some summer class, why not use this period to get them busy.

    Yes! Teach them some new things apart from school work. More about soft skills that will get their minds and hands busy.
    Let them see other aspects of learning and let them learn what is not taught at schools.
    Teach them house chores. How to cook. How to clean. How to keep things. Please spare them all the mathematics and English stuff, at least for while.
    Even in learning, there must be a balance between theory and practise.
    And if you are the get, busy parents, you can hire a private tutor or get a good summer camp where skills are taught.
    There are lots of advantages. It develops your kids both intellectually and physically. Kids learn faster through activities.
    You might never know the best musician, dancer, Engineer, that the world has ever known might be discovered. Yes! It helps to discover talents, gifts that God has blessed the kids with.
    It prepares the kids for the future. When kids get busy and learn skills and chores it helps them navigate through life as they grow.
    And most importantly it helps the kids to bond with their parents. When you spend more time with your children, you get to know them more. And that’s the greatest beauty of parenting.
    Get them busy. Build their future.

  • The school curriculum brouhaha

    Noxious rumours that pointedly altered the educational system in favour of a religion have for some time held the country hostage leading to accusations, counter-accusations and rebuttals from various quarters. The buzz as impishly created by unnamed folks broadcast on various media that Christian Religious Knowledge (CRK) which teaches Christian faith and morals was removed from primary school education curriculum by the present administration as a plot towards ‘Islamizing’ the country.

    Ditto history as a subject which elites viewed as misadventures putting into account the unceasing aggressions and hate speeches from virtually all the ethnic groups in the country in recent times, each group with its styled rabble-rousing, incendiaries and threats. From south-east; secession for Biafra; from Arewa – quit notice to the Igbos; from Niger-Delt – resource control, and from Southwest, Igbo’s absolute compliance or the lagoon option. Incidentally, almost all the arrowheads are the post-civil war populations. Few witnessed the war and its effects, thus fictional commandos. History as widely believed gives a clue of the past including the good and the bad, but lacking. Sadly, the neophytes never knew that people guzzled raw cassava, raw meat and anything closely for survival as a result of war. They owlishly misconstrue wars as Nollywood-Bollywood orchestrated fights; probably their only horror encounters.

    Some leaders from Christendom, on account of the perceived quagmire on Christian Religious Knowledge have unremittingly raised alarms, especially the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) calling on the Federal Ministry of Education to reverse to hitherto position or be ready to meet at the court. The stories indicated the alleged act was to forcefully make all children in primary and secondary school become Muslims against their wishes and those of their parents. The allegation implied that since only Islamic Religious Studies remains as a religious subject, all children have been tactfully programmed to become Muslims against their wishes.

    Evidently, the 9-year Basic Education Curriculum (BEC) which grouped the five subjects including Christian Religious Studies and Islamic Religious Studies under the umbrella of Religion and National Values (RNV) BEC was introduced into the nation’s education system by Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration in 2008 and commenced implementation afterwards. Its prominent characteristics include providing remedy to the UBE Act, 2004 for universal access and continuous basic education in Nigeria; attain the lofty values of social and economic development and reconstruction enshrined in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Nigeria National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS), Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and other global and domestic initiatives.

    However, owing to massive outcry over immoderation of subjects, the scheme was judiciously rearranged by Goodluck Jonathan’s administration in 2012 by the then Minister of Education, Professor Ruqayyatu Ahmed Rufa’i and Minister of State for Education, Barr. Nyesom Wike, now Rivers State governor, alongside Professor Godswill Obioma as the then Executive Secretary, Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC). In 2014, the then minister, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau with the Minister of State, Professor (Mrs.) Viola Adaku Onwuliri retained it as evident in the National Policy on Education, 6th edition (2014) for basic education (primary 1 to junior secondary 3) at page 10 – 13.

    From records, the present administration adopted the scheme in continuity with a mere proposal by the present Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu in 2016 which merely disarticulated History from Social Studies to stand distinctively as two subjects. The necessity to separate History from Social Studies by the minister was to engage children separately in Social Studies and History rather than the shallow knowledge that merely recites names of Nigeria’s presidents, public officeholders as strategic panacea over current hurly-burlies.

    The essence of grouping is to compressively and neatly arrange the subjects. What is paramount is that the learners are expected to do well in all. Christian Religious Studies is sacrosanct for Christian pupils, and to Muslims, Islamic Religious Studies. It is bizarre playing politics with children and religion. Nobody has done it, and nobody ever conceived doing it.

    The French alleged to be elective with the ‘Islamic Arabic studies’; is a compulsory subject from Primary 4 as provided in Section 2 (23) 7 at page 13 of the National Policy on Education. Arabic remains optional since 2008, and exclusively for those willing to have knowledge of the language.

    As a secured policy, the 9-year BEC emphatically provides, “no child should be coerced or compelled to learn or taught any religious studies curriculum in school but one out of the two that restrictively relates to the belief system professed by the child and his/her parents”. As it stands, no child is however, under any compulsion to offer religious studies against the parents’ religion in public schools. Of course, in private schools, the proprietors may call the shot on religious studies in line with ‘volenti non fit injuria’ (to a willing person, no harm is done), and then Parents-Teachers Association (PTA). Nonetheless, government cannot force a privately-owned missionary school to teach the doctrines of other religion.

    Overall, who are the gainers and losers? The children and the society are the gainers while there are no losers at all. The children will face more subjects compressed under the grouping. By assembling four subjects under a group, the alarm ought to emanate from pupils and not adults except where the workload is glaringly affecting the children. Under the arrangement, to pass all Religion and National Values subjects, a pupil will have to perform well in four subjects under it. On the economy, the scheme opened-up opportunity for the kick-start deployment of 250,000 graduate-teachers in phases. None bothered to figure out where these new teachers will be posted knowing that no new public schools is built anywhere in the country. Federal government perspicaciously utilized the BEC to create jobs and at the same time impacting positively on the children. Thus, the brouhaha or hullaballoo is uncalled for. Criticisms can only be constructive and resourceful after critical investigations. Let’s eschew politics of religion.

     

    • Umegboro is a public affairs analyst and social crusader.
  • Beautiful Nubia to continue school tour in October

    Beautiful Nubia to continue school tour in October

    Ahead of the eight edition of the EniObanke Music Festival, EMUFest which is scheduled to hold in November 2017, Folk and Afrojazz musician Beautiful Nubia is set to continue on his tour of schools in October.

    In a recent Facebook post, Beautiful Nubia asked that schools willing to participate should reach out to his management.

    Beautiful Nubia who has 13 studio albums also solicited for assistance for EMUfest, an annual celebration of African folk music, which has always depended on the extraordinary efforts of ordinary people to stay afloat.

    EMUfest 2017 is scheduled to hold between November 6 and November 12, 2017. The musician also asked singers, musicians, performers, poets and dancers interested in featuring at the festival to send in their applications.

  • Kidnapped Lagos school kids back soon, says Osinbajo

    Kidnapped Lagos school kids back soon, says Osinbajo

    Acting President Yemi Osinbajo yesterday assured parents and guardians of the kidnapped Lagos school kids of their safe return.

    He told reporters on the sideline of 60th birthday thanksgiving service of Pastor Salami Ololade in Lagos that the Federal Government was collaborating with the state’s authorities to ensure their safe return.

    On May 25, six boys of Model College, Igbonla, Epe, were abducted by gunmen. In the same school, six staff members and four students were kidnapped in October 2016.

    The acting president acknowledged that the parents must be going through trauma over the abduction of the children, but said “there should be no doubt at all about the commitment of government in the matter.

    “I don’t know how many times the governor has spoken to me about this and the Inspector-General of Police, the Commissioner of Police, the DSS and even the Armed Forces.

    “I am sure these children will return as quickly as possible; so, we look forward to their return,’’ he said.

    Osinbajo advised children on holidays to learn something new outside academics, saying “because it is a long holiday, it is a great time to do something new.

    “Those who like to learn a skill, whatever skill that may be, should learn it. I wished that when I was growing up I learned even carpentry’’.

    He said children could learn something new that would impact on their lives and their communities in new fields of technology.

  • Extend school feeding to tertiary schools, Fed Govt told

    Students of the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN) have urged the Federal Government to extend its free school feeding programme to institutions of higher learning.

    The students, under the aegis of Parrot Publicis Consultants of the UNILORIN Mass Communication Department, said the extension of the scheme would help cushion the adverse effect of the recession on students.

    Addressing reporters as part of activities to  kick start the ‘my Indomie story campaign’ holding on the campus next week, the Chief Executive Officer, Parrot Publicis Consultants, Oladimeji Olushola, said the demand for the feeding scheme was in line with what used to be in the past.

    “We are also demanding that the school feeding programme be extended to higher institutions of learning as it was the case in the past when most of our today’s leaders were served with full chicken in their university days,” he said.

    The campaign, organised in conjunction with Dufil Prima Foods, producers of Indomie noodles, is to implement the practical aspect of a course for 300-Level students of Mass Communication and Library and Information Sciences, who specialise in Public Relations and Advertisement.

    In executing the school feeding programme, Olushola urged the government to patronise Dufil Prima Foods to encourage the firm to fulfil its social responsibility.

    “We want to use this medium to urge the Federal Government to patronise Dufil Foods in its home- grown school feeding programme as a way of encouraging the company to do more,’’ he said.

    “Our preference for Dufil Prima was borne out of the fact that it is one of the few companies in Nigeria that has continued to provide succour to Nigerian students and many families in this period of hard economic recession where having a three square meals is almost impossible.”

    He urged the government to establish an endowment fund to support fresh graduates willing to set up their own businesses with seed funds.

    Olushola added that the fund would discourage the quest for what he referred to as “elusive white collar jobs”.

  • School feeding programme targets 24m children

    The school feeding programme would keep at least 24 million children in schools when fully implemented, the Federal Government has said.

    Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, stated this at the Third Nigeria Education Innovation Summit (NEDIS) organised by The Education Partnership (TEP) Centre in Abuja.

    The minister said the programme would increase enrolment of children in basic education and boost their cognitive performance and effective learning outcomes.

    Adamu, represented by Executive Director, Research and Innovation, National Universities Commission (NUC), Audu Mohammed, added that the Federal Government had developed a strategic plan to address the challenges of out-of-school children.

    He said: “It is in recognition of the critical role education plays in the realisation of sustainable development that the present administration has placed it among its key priorities.

    “To drive this home, the Federal Ministry of Education developed a strategic plan based on 10 pillars of core measureable goals. These include addressing the challenges of out-of-school children, strengthening basic and secondary education, teacher education, capacity building and professional development, adult literacy and special needs education.

    “The Federal Government has embarked on innovative pro-grammes like the Home-Grown School Feeding programme geared towards retaining at least 24 million children in schools upon full implementation. It would increase enrolment of the children in basic education and boost their cognitive performance and effective learning outcomes.”

    According to the minister, the government has also initiated reform in the education sector to reassess the state of education in Nigeria and refocus the sector to meet the challenges of nation building.

    “Nigeria is undergoing monumental changes geared towards unleashing the creative energies of the citizens to drive our national vision and aspiration as a people.

    “To this end, unprecedented reform initiatives are now being implemented in the education sector, with a clear intent on reassessing the state of the education system and strategically refocusing and repositioning the sector to meet the challenges of nation building in the 21st century.

    TEP Centre Managing Director, Modupe Adefeso-Olateju, called for the continuous implementation of education programmes in the country.

    She said: “What we want to do is to provide  support for organisations which are implanting brilliant ideas in the education sector. We want to continue to give them support until they reach a point where their innovations and the programmes they are implementing are able to reach more children that were originally excluded.”

  • School promises exciting summer

    With the long holiday on hand, École Est Belle Academy, an International Montessori School offering crèche, nursery and primary education in Magodo, Lagos, has promised pupils an exciting summer school.

    Director of the school, Henry Onos, reiterated the school’s philosophy.

    He said: “Its main objective is to steer the education of our future generation in the right direction, with emphasis on setting the right foundation for the children.

    ‘’At Ecole Est Belle Academy, we believe that when the foundation of a child is right, the future of that child is secured, that explains our watch word as a school. That is why we have designed the best educational framework to secure the future of every Nigerian child and beyond during the holidays.’’

    The school, Ono said, runs a blend of British, American and Nigeria as well as the English National curriculum.

    “Our teachers are well-groomed, dedicated and qualified,” Ono said, adding that the school priortises pupils’ safety by installing CCTV everywhere.

  • 52 pupils bid school farewell

    Completing six years of rigorous studies at Grace High School, Gbagada, Lagos, was no mean feat for 52 SS3 pupils as they gathered last weekend to celebrate their triumph at the school’s 19th valedictory service.

    It was like a last supper for them as they sang, laughed, chatted, cracked jokes, ate together, and cheered themselves as they took turns to receive prizes for their excellent performances in the school.

    Dressed elegantly in their uniforms, they took selfies, and pictures with their peers and parents. The Senior Pastor, Trinity House, Victoria, Lagos, Ituah Ighodalo prayed for them.

    The Valedictorian, Tunwase Odunayo, was the Head Girl and Vice President of the school’s Christian Fellowship. A multiple prize winner and sport champion, she thanked the school and parents for supporting them to finish a phase of life, urging her peers to be good ambassadors of the school and their homes.

    Mrs Folashade Adefisayo, Chief Executive Officer, Leading Learning Ltd, told them that they had completed the phase of dependency, and were starting the next phase of making critical decisions about their lives and careers.

    She admonished them not to be deterred by challenges facing the country, such as unemployment, poverty, tribalism, and climate change, but rather be the solution to future challenges.

    She said: “It is a turbulent world with never ending setbacks. It is also a world of tremendous opportunities. The problems exist because there are solutions. When there are challenges, that is when strong people rise up and become great by tackling and finding solutions to the problems. You are in a world where you can make a mark; you can become a force in whatever field you want to venture into.

    “You must lead yourself.Think critically. You cannot be a shallow human being in this age. You should not allow life to swing you here and there, you cannot afford to be left behind and always have it in mind that the competition is thicker out there.”