The Nation Newspaper

Tag: standard

  • Why education standard is falling’

    The dichotomy between university and polytechnic certificates has given rise to a rush for university education, leaving other higher institutions to be rejected. This, the pioneer Vice-Chancellor (VC) of Tai Solarin University of Education (TASUED), Ijagun in Ogun State, Prof Olukayode Oyesiku said, has led to the continuous fall in standard of education.

    Oyesiku, who is the Provost of College of Engineering and Environmental Studies at the Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU) in Ago-Iwoye, expressed the view when he delivered the Fourth TASUED Alumni Distinguished Lecture at the school.

    In the lecture titled: Repositioning Nigerian universities: The role of stakeholders, Oyesiku blamed the society for placing emphasis on university education to the detriment of other higher institutions, especially technology-driven schools.

    He said the crisis in education could be blamed on poor funding, which, he said, often resulted to strike actions, lack of qualified teachers, brain drain and shortage of teaching facilities.

    He urged the government to introduce policies that would end the discrimination against non-university certificates to solve part of the challenges facing the sector.

    The TASUED VC, Prof Oluyemisi Obilade, hailed the guest lecturer for laying good foundation for the university to thrive. She said her predecessor had continued to play good role towards the development of the school since he left office.

    President, TASUED Alumni Association, Mr Saheed Buraimo, said the association has a responsibility to support the management to improve the rating of the university, especially in the area of quality education.

    He called on alumni to initiate projects that would develop their alma mater.

    Awards were presented to former executive members of the association, including the pioneer president, Mr Tajudeen Uthman and Oyesiku.

    Other guests at the event included former member of the National Assembly, Senator Kola Bajomo, a member of Ogun State House of Assembly, Hon. Adebowale Ojuri, and top officials of the school management team.

  • Standard Chartered sees Africa future amid branch network review

    Standard Chartered Plc (STAN), the British bank that has operated in Africa for more than 150 years, said the continent remains part of its consumer banking plans even as the lender reviews its global branch network.

    While the lender is considering closing branches as more customers migrate to online and mobile transactions, it is still Standard Chartered’s “ambition to be the leading international retail bank within our footprint in Africa, Asia and the Middle East,” Diana Layfield, Africa chief executive officer for the London-based lender, said in an e-mailed response to questions on January 23.

    “With digital access comes a reduction in branch traffic, so it is only natural for us to review our current branches and optimise our digital platforms,” she said.

    Standard Chartered said last year it may close 80 to 100 out of more than 1,200 branches globally and said this January it will cut about 4,000 jobs at its consumer operations to restore the bank’s profit growth. It hasn’t said where the shutdowns or job reductions will be. The lender rebuffed at least one potential buyer of its African operations, according to two people with knowledge of the talks.

    “As this is an ongoing process, we are unable to provide a geographic breakdown at this stage,” Layfield said. “The realignment of our retail strategy is a global ambition to focus on cities that will experience significant economic growth in the future.”

    About 100 jobs are under threat at the lender’s Botswana unit, Botswana Bank Employees Union General Secretary Lebogang Keabetswe said last week.

    Standard Chartered has offices in 16 African countries and has been among the top three arrangers of syndicated loans in the sub-Saharan region since 2010, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

    Operating profit at the Africa business fell 27 per cent to $209 million in the first six months of 2014 from the year-earlier period.

  • Adopt labour standard, ASSBIFI urges World Bank

    Adopt labour standard, ASSBIFI urges World Bank

    The Association of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions (ASSBIFI) has urged the World Bank to adopt a comprehensive labour standard lending requirement in its institutions like those adopted by other multilateral development banks. The Association said that this would correct the major weaknesses in the draft labour safeguard that was recently issued for consultation.

    ASSBIFI’s National President, Comrade Sunday Olusoji Salako, who made the disclosures to newsmen in Lagos while reviewing the labour standard version proposed for protecting the rights of those who work in bank-financed projects, stressed the need for the World Bank President, Jim Yong Kim, to ensure that the proposal would be to all intents and purposes and not exist only on paper.

    He said: “The intention of the World Bank to adopt a labour safeguard is a welcome development, but we call for the version proposed would have almost no impact in protecting the rights of those who work in bank-financed projects alone, but would be to all intents apply to contracted workers, to public servants and not purposes exist only on paper”

    According to Salako, an important feature of all of the other banks’ labour safeguards in the past has been their application to contractors and sub-contractors, thus ensuring coverage of a category of workers that is highly vulnerable to exploitation and abuse. “The World Bank President, by proposing to not protect these workers in its projects, the Bank will perpetuate instances of unsafe working conditions, child labour, unpaid wages and denial of freedom of association that we have seen in bank-funded projects,” he said.

    He emphasised that the major weakness of the World Bank’s draft labour safeguard is the proposal that the International Labour Organisation (ILO’s) core labour standards only be fully complied with if they are incorporated in national law.

    “Specifically, the freedom of association and right to collective bargaining provisions would apply only where national law recognises them, thus opening the door to retaliatory measures by project managers against workers who wish to exercise those rights.

    “We fully hope and expect that the World Bank will catch up to the labour standard provisions adopted by the other development finance institutions over the past years, and not undermine the progress that has been made by adopting a labour safeguard that is full of exemptions and exclusions,” he further said.

  • Block makers hail Dangote on cement standard

    Block makers hail Dangote on cement standard

    Block moulders have hailed Dangote Cement Plc for its leading role in enlightening stakeholders in the building and construction industry on cement standardisation and other allied products undertaken by the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON).

    President of the North zone of the National Association of Block Moulders of Nigeria (NABMON), Alhaji Rasheed Adebowale, spoke at the weekend at the Obajana cement plant of the company after a tour of the facility by the members of the national association.

    He noted that Dangote Cement’s efforts would create the desired awareness on how members of the association would always ensure better quality for the blocks they make.

    The union leader said NABMON would remain grateful to Dangote Cement for enlightening block moulders throughout the country to enable them understanding how quality blocks could be produced.

    Adebowale decried the spate of building collapse and regretted that the blocks his colleagues made were the first of the items in building that people usually point accusing fingers at.

    The NABMON president noted that Dangote Cement’s enlightenment would enable the members to make stronger blocks.

    He said in line with NABMON’s motto of “Quality is our goal,” quality and zero tolerance for using poor and substandard materials to mould blocks remained topmost in the association’s agenda.

    Adebowale said: “We are grateful to Dangote Cement. We have a better understanding of how blocks are produced and what it takes to produce quality blocks. The presentation afterwards have also revealed to us why it is not in our interest to produce substandard blocks that would later give way and cause loss of lives and property.”

    Dangote Cement’s Sales Director for the Northwest, Obasola Alo said the company was creating a platform for stakeholders to be happy in their business.

  • For my standard bearer

    I remember vividly, the day I asked daddy to teach me how to write as effortlessly as he did and what he told me, he said ‘the only way to learn how to write is to continue to write’. Today I have to write this tribute and I wish I had half of your writing skills; I would have been able to pour out all my emotions in this one piece, but Daddy I’m still writing, learning to write.

    Daddy, you were always my hero, not that same way a father is hero to his son. It’s in a different way. You were a standard I always tried to reach. You were my philosopher, historian and encyclopedia all rolled in to one such that till today I wondered how you managed to acquire such vast knowledge.

    The memories struggle for priority here Daddy. I remember your encouragement to read. You taught me the secret of books from such a tender age such that before leaving primary school, I had read every available title in the pacesetter series. You bought all of them. I remember how you said I should read the African Writers Series Instead. Daddy, I found some of those letters, the ones you encouraged me to write as a primary school student. Daddy I still remember those songs you taught us and sang regularly. I am suggesting some of them to the choir for the requiem. I remember the way you taught us to pray, your lessons on catholic doctrine.

    I recall our numerous ‘ideological’ discussions. I recall your simplicity and above all your avowed devotion to ‘fairness’ as an ideology.  Daddy, so many of your friends have attested to your fairness and honesty, your kindness and your love. I remember those calls, ‘Mo kanniki n gbohun yin ni’. I’m praying silently in my heart that I will be able to love my wife the way you loved my mother and love and care for my kids the way you loved and cared for us.

    Whenever I remember your support and understanding I shiver. I remember now the discussion that preceded my decision to vie for an Office in the OAU Students’ Union. I remember the discussion that preceded my decision to study law after zoology, I remember your words to me when I was on the hospital bed recovering from an accident in 1998, and I remember that letter you wrote me in July 1999. In all you showed me extreme understanding and expressed the greatest confidence in my abilities.

    Daddy I remember your devotion to God, your belief that God is the author and director of all things. No one can see any difference in your countenance no matter the circumstance.  It is that belief that I hold on to assuage my pain here.

    Daddy, our last discussion few days before your passing still plays back in my head. I remember every word. I remember your graceful steps into that theatre, I remember the kiss, I recall that phone call not knowing that it would be the last time I would hear you call me darling. I remember you telling me that your life had been ‘eventful and very productive’ I couldn’t agree more. I witnessed some part of it. You were indeed great. Everybody that I have met attest to this fact. I am not unaware of the custom of our people to praise the dead ‘Ijo a ku la dere’ but my assertion is not because you have now passed or because you are my father but because you were an extremely intelligent, honest and fair minded gentleman.

    The memories keep coming back. The pain won’t go away, but I’m comforted because God gave you the opportunity to settle your affairs with God and man. I recollect your message to the priest to come and give you the viaticum. I really wished you had stayed longer at least for your 70th Birthday. A day we had all planned to celebrate but we submit to the will of the almighty. I am convinced that God took the best.

    I feel the void Daddy; I miss those your simple ways of resolving all issues. Right now I do not even know whether I’m taking the right decisions, whether you would have approved, but I’m trying my best to do all that you requested in that last meeting we held, I will continue to try.

    In all Daddy, I on behalf of myself and my sisters and all our children say thank you. We are proud children of a great father. You lived a life which bestowed on us your children, the right to beat our chest and boast of a great lineage.

    O dabo o, Akano Obo OmoEpo. Ajeje mode resa, senin oseninib’iresan’nu bole o bupo mi niya mode lara.

    Asiwaju will be buried on 11th of October 2014 at his home town, Aagba, Boripe Local Government, State of Osun.

    Grieving is not a short-term process; it’s not even a long-term process; it’s a lifelong process. ‘Having a future’ now means that although your life will flow again, it will flow differently as a result of the loss. Your grief will become incorporated into your life history, become a part of your identity. And you will continue now, and forever, to redefine your relationship with your deceased loved one. Death doesn’t end the relationship; it simply forges a new type of relationship – one based not on physical presence but on memory, spirit, and love.

    – Transcending Loss by Ashley Davis Bush

    •Your Son, Oloruntomiloba Olagunju.

  • CISLAC urges World Bank to adopt standard

    CISLAC urges World Bank to adopt standard

    The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) has urged the World Bank to adopt a comprehensive labour standard lending requirement in its institutions. It said this is necessary because those adopted by other multilateral development banks to correct the major weaknesses in the draft labour safeguard that was recently issued for consultation were inadequate.

    Its Executive Director, Auwal Musa Rafsanjani who spoke in Lagos while reviewing the labour standard version proposed for those who work in bank-financed projects, stressed the need for the World Bank President, Jim Yong Kim, to ensure that the proposal would be to all good intents and purposes and not exist only on paper.

    According to the CISLAC boss, an important feature of all the other banks’ labour safeguards in the past has been their application to contractors and sub-contractors, thus ensuring coverage of a category of workers that are highly vulnerable to exploitation and abuse.

    He emphasised that the major weakness of the World Bank’s draft labour safeguard is the proposal that the International Labour Organisation (ILO’s) core labour standards should only be fully complied with if they are incorporated in national law.

    “Specifically, the freedom of association and right to collective bargaining provisions would apply only where national law recognises them, thus opening the door to retaliatory measures by project managers against workers who wish to exercise those rights.

    “We fully hope and expect that the World Bank will catch up to the labour standards provisions adopted by the other development finance institutions over the past several years, and not undermine the progress that has been made by adopting a labour safeguard that is full of exemptions and exclusions,” he said.

  • Access seeks uniform reporting standard

    Access seeks uniform reporting standard

    Chief Risk Officer, Access Bank Plc, Dr. Gregory Ovie Jobome has called on stakeholders in the Nigeria Sustainable Banking Principles (NSBP) to follow uniform reporting standards for them to achieve the desired objective.

    Speaking at the NSBP Pre-Reporting Workshop held yesterday in Lagos, he said stakeholders needed to ensure that they formulate policies that will enable them achieve their sustainable banking objectives. The workshop was organised by Access Bank.

    He said operators needed to ensure that issues around human rights, environment, sectors to bank and other critical issues are reported uniformly.

    The NSBP, he said, should be the minimum standard that banks follow, adding that global standards can also be domesticated.

    The Managing Director of Sustainable Finance Limited, Carey Bohjanen said banks should think through the NSBP and implement them. He said the NSBP is a regulatory requirement that lenders have to adhere to because it is also cost-saving.

    She said in line with global trends on sustainability, the CBN, on March 6, issued the NSBPs reporting template to banks, discount houses and development finance institutions for compliance.

    The purpose of the reporting template, she added, was to provide reporting institutions with a uniform format for reporting their implementation efforts.

    To successfully implement the guidelines, she said, it is necessary for reporting institutions to have an implementation plan with realistic timelines, stressing that all hands must be on deck to ensure successful implementation of the NSBPs.

    She said the reporting template developed by the CBN will encourage consistency in reporting by banks, discount houses and development finance institutions as well as provide the CBN with a standard for assessing the commitment of reporting institutions to implementing the principles and sector guidelines.

    The CBN expects that these policies and procedures would have been ratified by the bank’s Board of Directors; and exposed to management staff and subsequently, all staff of respective institutions.

  • NGO decries worsening education standard

    NGO decries worsening education standard

    The Pan-African Children Advocacy Watch (PACAW), an American-based non-governmental organisation (NGO), has decried the worsening education standard in Nigeria, a situation it linked with absence of honesty.

    President of the NGO, Dr Sylvester Ayeni spoke in Koro, Ekiti Local Government Area of Kwara State during the presentation of libraries and computer centres to primary and secondary schools in the community.

    Dr Ayeni, who said the NGO has its headquarter in Washington DC in US, said the it focuses on development of African countries.

    He said: “I have lived outside the country for 38 years. So, I have noticed that Africa’s problem is the failure of leadership. Our goal is to develop a completely new generation of African leaders from the scratch.

    “The current status quo cannot continue or else this country will sink because of lack of patriotism. Everybody is just after what he or she can get. Nigeria is engaged in the war of all against all. Grab as much as much as you can, don’t care about the lot of others.

    “This is a country that makes billions of money from oil yet its educational system is in a shambles. On what is the money spent? It is very sad indeed.”

    Still on the declining educational standard, he said countries of the world used a document entitled ‘World Declaration on Education for All and Framework for Action to Meet Basic Learning Needs,” adding that the document serves as a template for the establishment of policies and goals for universal basic education.

    “Unfortunately,” he said “for several reasons, inadequate funding, poor infrastructure, insufficient staff, inadequate teacher training and irregular payment of teachers, the ideals of UBE in Nigeria have become a mirage.

    “The tragedy of this situation becomes self-inflicted wounds. Things do not have to be like this. Where does the money this country generates go? How can we demonstrate such lack of love for ourselves, including our children so much so that we do not care to provide the best form of education for them?

    “How can we have public primary schools without computers in one of the most endowed nations on this planet? How can you establish modern educational institutions without clean running water, with back to pre-historic age digging of boreholes and with pathetic energy supply?”

    He added that the NGO has provided educational facilities, including payment of primary school teachers’ salaries in the area.

    Ayeni said PACAW has committed over N10 million to fund educational development in the community.

    He frowned at attitudes of some parents who refused to send their children to school because of teachers’ disciplinary measures on their children and wards, saying no child can become responsible in life or turn out to be something good without sound education.

    “To parents of our children, I beg of you, please allow them to go to school from Mondays to Fridays, except public holidays. Encourage them to study at home, to complete their homework. To our children in primary schools, young men and women in JSS and SSS, take as many subjects as you can. Do not skip any class. No mankind can ever have too much of education,” he said.

    He said education policies of the three tiers of government should be implemented to benefit Nigerian children, adding that money allocated for education of the children should honestly be disbursed and used for intended purposes, “otherwise our children and the future of this nation are in peril and condemned to a state of hopelessness.”

    Also speaking, the traditional ruler of  Koro-Ekiti, Olukoro of Koro, Oba Elijah Adegoke, who was represented at the event by Olukotun of Koro, High Chief Jones Kehinde Babatunde, called on both the state and local government authorities to provide adequate teachers in our schools for maximum utilisation of the facilities donated by the organisation.

    The monarch, who challenged other sons and daughters of the community to emulate the donor, advised members of the community to secure and maintain the items provided by the donor.

  • Ihedioha decries education standard

    Ihedioha decries education standard

    House of Representatives’ Deputy Speaker Emeka Ihedioha has decried the standard of education in Imo State.

    Ihedioha, who spoke at the official distribution of scientific equipment at the Holy Ghost College in Owerri, the state capital, said stakeholders were concerned about the situation.

    He noted that no society could make meaningful progress without an educated population.

    “The state’s quality of education has become a primary concern to stakeholders. We are talking of not just education for its sake, but education that will lead to self-reliance. We are talking about education that will lead to industrial and the technological progress of our state.”

    The deputy speaker disclosed that the programme was designed to support the educational needs of pupils and to complement the efforts of government and the private sector repositioning education.

    The deputy speaker stated: “For educational progress to be made, we need to appraise where we are coming from, where we are and where we are going to. Sometime ago, a group of experts were commissioned to study and determine the level of preparedness by secondary schools in Imo State, in terms of equipment, re-agents, materials and qualified teachers, in teaching both basic and advanced sciences. The findings showed that funding for science education in Imo is low.”

    He lamented that the implication of the low funding of science education was that pupils in the secondary schools could complete their education without exposure to the basic experiments required in sciences.”

  • Al Arabi deal: Standard Liege agree 8m Euros deal for Imoh Ezekiel

    Al Arabi deal: Standard Liege agree 8m Euros deal for Imoh Ezekiel

    Standard Liege have announced that the club have struck a deal with their Qatari counterparts Al – Arabi over the transfer of Nigeria international Imoh Ezekiel.

    The financial terms and duration of the contract the 20 – year – old will sign probably this weekend have not yet been disclosed.

    But it is understood that the product of 36 Lion will append his signature to at least a three – year deal, with the Belgium champions set to pocket 8 million Euros as transfer fee for agreeing to do business with Al Arabi.

    “Being with Standard has filled me with good memories and I cannot thank the club enough.

    “When I came to Europe, other clubs never gave me a chance to play. But Standard Liege gave me an opportunity, a chance to show myself and my talent, for me that will stay with me forever,” Imoh Ezekiel told the official website.

    “I owe everything to Standard and I really appreciate everything they have done for me since the first day I got here.

    “I will always have Standard Liege with me wherever I go.”

    In his two – and – a – half year stay at Standard Liege, Imoh Ezekiel netted 32 goals in 91 appearances in all competitions.