The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Study

  • PS to pupils: study well to excel

    PS to pupils: study well to excel

    The Tutor-General/Permanent Secretary, Education District III,   Dr Idowu Oyetola, has advised students to study well so that they would excel in their examinations.

    She gave the advice during a quiz competition held as part of activities marking the 18th Ramadan Lecture organised by Education District 111  at the Dolphin Senior High School Hall, Lagos Island.

    The theme was: “Promoting peaceful and inclusive societies: The Islamic perspective”.

    Oyetola said the outcome of the quiz was a reflection of level of preparedness of the students for the exercise.

    She received the Peace Award at the event.

    Lagos Island zone won the quiz organised for schools within Education District 111, Ikoyi.

    The zone was represented by Molade Muhammed  from Dolphin Senior High School and Sulaimon Abdul Rahman from Lafiaji Senior High School.

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    The second position was won by Epe Zone. It was represented by  Abdulgafar Kamalideen of Army Senior High School,  Epe and Taiwo Abdul-Rasaq of Odomola Senior Secondary School,  Epe while the third position went to  Eti Osa zone, which was represented by Musa Muhammad Haruna from Wahab Folawiyo Senior High School, Ikoyi and Giwa Awwal- Government Senior College, Maroko.

    For the Quran recitation, Halima Ahmad from Akande Dahunsi Junior School representing Eti Osa Zone won the first position while Miss Mayale-Eke Haneesah from Pobuna Junior School representing Epe Zone and Giwa Abdulsalam of Eko Akete  Junior Secondary School, Lagos Island Zone won the second and third  positions.

  • Teen sexting on the rise, study finds

    Teen sexting on the rise, study finds

    A Sexting, using digital technology to send sexualised text, images or videos, has increased  among youth under 18, according to a report published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics.

    An analysis of 39 studies with over 110,000 participants conducted between January 1990 and June 2016 showed that one in four young people said they’d received sexts, which included sexually explicit images, videos, or messages, and one in seven reported sending them.

    “The prevalence of forwarding a sext without consent and having a sext forwarded without consent were 12.0 and 8.4 per cent respectively,” the researchers added.

    Researchers also mentioned that the prevalence increased with age and greater accessibility to electronic devices, such as smartphones.

    According to CNN, co-author of the study Jeff Temple said the phenomenon was “not terribly surprising” considering teens’ interest in sexuality grows as they grow older.

    Of the 39 researches, 22 were from the United States, 12 from Europe and the rest from Australia, Canada, South Africa and South Korea.

    On average, 47.2 per cent of the participants were male.

    The analysis said there was no significant gender difference in the rate of sending or receiving sexts.

    Some experts said the digital and physical safety of youth should be taken more seriously.

    The study called for further research on nonconsensual sexting so as to target and inform intervention, as well as to improve sex education and policy efforts

  • A stressful study

    • A recent report that claims Lagos is third most stressful city lacks context and challenges FG

    A United Kingdom-based dry-cleaning company,  Zipjet, recently came up with a study that ranked Lagos as the third most stressful city in the world. Iraq’s Baghdad and Afghanistan’s Kabul – two war-torn cities – came first and second, respectively. Using factors like traffic, security, employment, mental health and even the amount of sunshine hours to determine the stress levels of residents of the world’s largest cities, the study also found Stuttgart, Germany as the least stressful city, followed by Luxembourg City, Luxembourg and Hanover, Germany.

    Managing director of Zipjet, Florian Färber, would say of his company’s motivation for the study: “Mental health problems are on the rise worldwide, with stress being a trigger and contributing factor toward this increase. We hope that by pinpointing how the least stressful cities are managing this issue, those cities struggling with a stressed out population can overcome it”.

    To start with, it is tempting to see the study as merely rehashing the same familiar stereotypes about the living conditions in the famed ‘Centre of Excellence’. We are here referring to the old myth about the urban jungle where nothing works, where public transportation is non-existent, where filth shares space with residents and crime reigns supreme. For sure, anyone with a fairly good knowledge of the vast transformation that Lagos has witnessed since the advent of the fourth republic in 1999 would equally be tempted to dismiss the report as farce.

    Coming from a back-street dry cleaning company in UK, it is certainly no surprise that the study typically pushes a set of bland assumptions as scientific study – hence its so-called finding about inhabitants of an ‘infrastructure-challenged’ Lagos being more predisposed to stress than their counterparts in the more livable cities. The finding, apart from doing violence to the scientific vocation, denies the intricate social fabric known to mitigate stress in a typically African city.

    Far from suggesting that Lagos has arrived, we are equally not careful to make the point that the image of the famed urban jungle belongs in the past. To deny that Lagos is not what it was 10 years ago is to choose to live in fool’s paradise. Whether it is in the area of security, waste management, traffic control, physical infrastructure or urban renewal, the undeniable truth is that the city-state has established itself as a clear leader, as a worthy investment destination, a growing haven of peace and security and a mega-city of immense promise.

    That promise, unfortunately, has turned to her Achilles heel. Evidence: The influx of economic refugees not just from other states in the federation but also countries from the ECOWAS sub region, a development that stretches the financial and managerial capacity of the state to its limits.

    Is the study therefore useless? The answer is – probably not. Obviously, a study which tracks the rapid transformation in the last 10 years would have been more far relevant to the challenges facing the city than the one seeking to compare apples with oranges. Moreover, a study that does not pretend to look into or even understand the political economy of the city-state, particularly its relationship with the central government, can only be of limited analytical utility.

    Lagos can be made more livable, no doubt; it is however better by miles when compared with some of those so-called sophisticated cities on such indices as crime and mental crime. In Nigeria, the city is of course a clear leader. To the extent that a paradise surrounded by hell is hard to conceive, the challenge is how to get other states in the federation to make their cities just as livable, to stem the flood of migrants.

    The study can be seen as a wake-up call on the Federal Government to step up its responsibility to Lagos as the nation’s commercial capital. As a former capital of the country and the leading contributor to the common wealth, Lagos deserves to be accorded a special status in fiscal terms, to enable it match the pace of infrastructure delivery with population growth.

  • We study under trees, say students

    We study under trees, say students

    •Protest rocks federal varsity in Ekiti

    The students of Federal University, Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE), Ikole campus yesterday protested inadequate infrastructure, poor power supply and other basic amenities.

    The students, blocked the Ikole-Omuo road, demanding that the institution’s management shared infrastructural development equally between them and their colleagues on Oye-Ekiti campus.

    The angry students said facilities at Ikole campus was so inadequate, adding that some of them receive lectures under trees.

    Other problems, according to them, are irregular power supply, dysfunctional Bursary Department and Engineering Workshop, non-availability of drugs at the medical centre, water tanker for Agric Faculty and shuttle buses to the main campus.

    The Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Kayode Soremekun, promised that the complaints would be looked into.

    Soremekun said: “I promise that a committee will be set up to look into these issues.

    “I can assure you that Ikole campus would not be sidelined. Though my office is in Oye-Ekiti, I will be here at least once a month.”

     

     

  • Study hard to build your minds, Omatseye tells students

    Study hard to build your minds, Omatseye tells students

    Chairman of The Nation Editorial Board, Sam Omatseye, has advised the Kings University (KU) students to give their best to their studies. He told them never to be discouraged by material challenges, noting that it is only through quality education they could build their minds.

    Omatseye gave the charge at a forum with students of the KU’s Department of English and Literary Studies, at the Institute of African Studies of the University of Ibadan (UI) on Thursday. The celebrated columnist and poet was the guest lecturer at the maiden personality lecture organised by African Studies Graduate Students’ Association.

    Omatseye, who engaged the students in a question-and-answer session, gave them tips on how they could make the best of their efforts to becoming renowned writers. Omatseye’s novel, My Name is Okoro, which narrated Biafran War from a minority angle, became a subject of discussion. The students had the opportunity to ask questions about the work, which is part of the books they are studying in their discipline.

    The author praised the students for asking “vital, relevant, and thoughtful questions”, while encouraging them not to lose focus.

    The students described their time with Omatseye as “enriching”, saying their encounter with the writer would encourage and empower them with information to become successful in their career.

    Their lecturer, Ademola Adesola, hailed Omatseye for creating time to share knowledge with the students. He said: “We hope the seeds of ideas Omatseye has sown in these students would surely germinate and grow into great feats that will make him proud of the time he spent with them.”

    At the forum were a member of The Nation Editorial Board, Mr Femi Macaulay, and former Associate Editor of The Nation, Mr Taiwo Ogundipe.

     

  • Study: 55 officials, others diverted govt’s N1.35tr

    About 55 top officials and their businessmen collaborators diverted a total N1.35 trillion from the government coffers between 2006 and 2013, a study has uncovered.

    Part of this money is the fuel subsidy scam, the millions of dollars used by a former minister of petroleum to bribe electoral officials and the billions meant for procurement of arms to fight Boko Haram but which was shared.

    Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), Prof. Itse Sagay, revealed yesterday the outcome of the study during the Conference on Promoting International Co-operation in Combating Illicit Financial Flow and Enhancing Asset Recovery to Foster Sustainable Development at the State House in Abuja.

    Sagay said: “A study revealed that between 2006 and 2013, 55 top government officials and private businessmen illicitly diverted a total  N1.35 Trillion roughly at that time $7.5 million to themselves at the expense of ordinary Nigerian citizens. This was what was revealed. What was  not revealed turned out to be far more mind boggling.

    “These include trillions squandered in fuel subsidy scam, billion Dasukigate scam, hundreds of millions of dollars taken from the NNPC by the former minister to bribe election officials in 2015, the list goes on.” he added

    According to him, one-third of the stolen money could have been devoted to several relevant projects in the country.

    Because of the looting, he said Nigeria is the highest country in the world with abandoned projects.

    He said government officials had been more interested in sharing  money for projects than completing projects.

    He said “In the press release of January 2016 on the negative impact of looting, government provided the following insight: One third of stolen funds could have provided 600.18 kilometres of road, 36 ultramodern hospitals per state, …. that would have provided education for children from primary to tertiary level at the rate of N5.34 billion per child and 20,062 units of two-bedroom houses. The amount stolen would have done all these.”

    He added: “As I was putting my thought to paper on Thursday 1st June, a newspaper headline kept screaming at me: N423 billion Niger Delta projects misappropriated by the Ministry of Niger Delta.

    “So you can see that the corruption onslaught is devastating and unrelenting thus driving us further and further from our sustainable development goals.

    “I have always said it and you know Nigerians don’t like the truth, but this is the truth, give our Elite an opportunity to do a project, vote money for that project, the first thing they do is divide that money among themselves.

    “Nigeria has largest number of incomplete  projects in this world, many people just take the money and walk away in collusion with the ministries and agencies that awarded the contracts.

    “Let me draw the connect between unrestrained looting and illicit financial flows. Most of the financial assets stolen in Nigeria are taken out of the country as part of the illicit financial flow.  The immediate impact is that Nigeria is deprived of the capacity to realize its sustainable development goals of the UN officially known as transforming our world.

    “These include no poverty (eradication of poverty), zero hunger (eradication of hunger), good health, quality education, clean water and sanitation, affordable clean energy etc.

    “It is hard for any country to achieve that when it has looted 90 per cent or its resources and this hemorrhage is leaving our shores under-developed world to the developed world, developing them more while we are regarding.

    “The annual flow of criminal activities is estimated at between $1 and $1.6 trillion and half of this comes from developing countries like ours.

    “It is therefore vital that we increase our capacity of understanding the illicit financial flows, the hemorrhage if we are to meet our sustainable goals or if we are ever to transform something better. We have to acquire the capacity to stop the hemorrhage.” he stated

  • ‘Our kids shouldn’t study under trees

    ‘Our kids shouldn’t study under trees

    It is not entirely strange that trees have long provided shelter for pupils in some parts of the country but in Benue State, chairman of the state Universal Basic Education Board or SUBEB, Dr. Philip Tachin has said the practice must stop forthwith.

    On a tour of projects being built or rehabilitated in the state schools, Tachin found pupils studying under a mango tree because classrooms were inadequate.

    The SUBEB chair seized the opportunity to urge contractors handling school projects to expedite action and save children the agony of learning under trees, among other inconveniences.

    In some places, Tachin read the riot act, saying any contractor who did a shoddy job or was lazy would not be paid until the work was redone or finished according to schedule.

    He, alongside management and members of a special task force, inspected projects whose contracts were awarded under the UBEC/Benue State Government intervention funds for the years 2012 to 2015. In the state’s northwest senatorial zone, they inspected primary school projects comprising Local Government Authority (LGEA) Gbajimba, RCM Primary School Daudu in Guma Local Government Area. Others included Col. Nenge LGEA Primary School and LGEA Primary School, Tarhembe in Tarka Local Government Area as well as LGEA Primary School Adem, Uchen CAC Primary School, Wadadta in Makurdi Local Government Area.

    At Gbajima, the SUBEB chair praised the contractor for the good work done, but urged him to ensure he met the three months deadline. From Gbajimba, the team headed to Daudu where a block of four classrooms was completed with modern toilet facilities, though Tachin noticed some shoddy work and asked that it be corrected before payment.

    At Tarka Local Government Area, the county home of the leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Senator George Akume, Tachin and his team expressed satisfaction with the work done Nenge, the SUBEB chair was less satisfied with the dressing of a school teacher, which he described as shabby.

    “You are dressed like those on construction site,” he charged the teacher.

    At Tarhembe, he sought better work attitude, asking for the number of teachers at a junior secondly school and warning that he would return for a head count.

    In Makurdi, the state capital, there were some leaky roofs, which must be fixed before contractors could expect pay.

    The team also saw a school which was razed down by suspected Fulani herdsmen. The entire school is to be renovated.

    In some other places, it was observed that pupils now have good water supply, thanks to a borehole which also served the community.

    Addressing journalists, Tachin expressed satisfaction with the quality of work done and the professionalism of the contractors. He also hailed the state governor Samuel Ortom for releasing funds to enable the SUBEB change the face of schools in the state.

  • Echoing Soyinka on study of History

    SIR, Nobel laureate, Wole Soyinka is not known for frivolities. He seldom talks, but  when he talks, he talks sense. His statement on Thursday, August, 25 at a press conference to unveil the beneficiaries of the initiative between the Wole Soyinka Foundation and the Cedars Institute, Notre Dame University, Lebanon deserves serious attention. At the gathering, Soyinka advocated the re-instatement of History as a subject in Nigerian schools.

    He said “I learnt not so long ago that history has been taken off the curriculum in this country; can you imagine that? History? What is wrong with History? Or maybe I should ask, what is wrong with some people’s head?”

    One major problem which has crept into the nation’s education system is the insignificance currently given to the subject of History in our schools. History, as a subject, presently has little or no place in the country’s curriculum, and this is below par for a country that seeks to produce nation-builders. It is so painful seeing that the majority of younger Nigerians today have little idea about the country’s past, particularly the roles played by its founding fathers.

    It is deceitful to think that the nation-builders and problem-solvers who would lift the nation’s status would emerge without a proper knowledge of the past. Many do not know how we arrived at where we are today as a country. Did we just automatically land? Many students do not care to know, and this has been due to the absence of History in the academic curriculum in schools. From primary to secondary schools, History has been abandoned as a subject. More so, many bright students are increasingly twining their back to History in favour of seemingly more lucrative and marketable disciplines like Engineering, Medicine, Law, Accounting and Business Administration. History as a discipline is increasingly offered by students in the universities as a second choice. In other words when they are rejected for their first choice course, they fall back to History. This to say the least is very unfortunate.

    One reason History was removed from the curriculum could be as a result of the lack of interest in it by students. This will definitely happen when it is optional; however, if it is made compulsory, students will have no choice than to ‘love’ it. The Federal Government through the Ministry of Education is responsible for choosing subjects which are included in the curriculum of schools. If History can be made mandatory from primary school, then the interest in the subject will developed.

    In United States, History is compulsory from elementary level into the second year of college, while in Britain, it is compulsory till secondary school level.

    The average secondary school or high school leavers in these two countries can give a proper intellectual account of their country’s past. Even sadder is the fact that British and American schools in Nigeria teach British or American History as mandatory in their curricula. One is bound to ask: where is the place of History in Nigerian schools? Where does it stand? Some have said Social Studies and Civic Education has replaced History in junior secondary school, while Government replaced it in senior secondary school. This is not correct. The content in the three subjects are not adequate and will not satisfy the level of knowledge required which History being taught as mandatory will provide.

     

    • Sunday Ogunkuade,

    Ogbomoso, Oyo State.

  • NGA launches study groups to boost gas growth

    To facilitate gas optimisation, the executive council of the Nigerian Gas Association (NGA) has inaugurated five study groups to lead research and explore viable methods to exploiting the vast and untapped gas resources for domestic utilisation.

    NGA President Bolaji Osunsanya said: “I am excited by the calibre and experience of the volunteers involved, and the vibrant enthusiasm they’ve shown for the task at hand. The rejuvenation of the study groups encourages the self-development of our members, and establishes the groups as focal engagement points and drivers of the NGA’s pertinent objectives. More importantly, the key findings collated will significantly enhance the association’s advocacy capacity, and enable us better synergise with the government and other important institutions to promote the best technical, regulatory, and contractual practices.”

    NGA’s 1st Vice President and overseer of the study groups, Dada Thomas said: “The fact-based research and key position papers provided by the study groups will play a crucial part in advancing the NGA’s four cardinal value propositions of anticipating and driving legislation and policies; positioning the association as the data and knowledge resource centre of choice within the industry; encouraging best practices and acceptable standards; and promoting viable investments within the Nigerian gas sector. The executive council is committed to the prevailing success of the groups, and will ensure adequate support is constantly provided.”

    The study groups are Natural Gas Transmission and Distribution chaired by Mr. James Odiase, Senior Manager, Commercial Gas, Seven Exploration & Production Limited; Industrial Utilization and Power Generation, chaired by Mrs. Yetunde Taiwo, Managing Director,                Seplat Gas, a subsidiary of Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc; Domestic, Commercial and Transportation, chaired by Mr. Emeka Ene, Managing Director                Oildata Energy Group; Environment, Safety and Health, chaired by Mr. Toyin Adenuga, Managing Director, Shell Gas Nigeria Limited; and Legal and  Fiscal, Mr. Ike Oguine, Chief Consultant, Advisory Legal Consultants

  • ‘Study hard to be good citizens’

    The President, Road Safety Officers’ Wives’ Association, Ogun State branch, Mrs Adekunbi Adetunji, has urged children to improve their study skills to enable them to archieve success in their education.

    Mrs Adetunji spoke at the get-to-gether/end-of-the-year party organised by the association for children at the Ogun State Sector Command of Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Abeokuta, the state capital.

    The event, she said, was aimed at  showing love to the children and to encourage unity among the officers’ wives and children as their husbands are absent due to their work schedules.

    She appealed to the children to be obedient to their parents and all elderly persons.

    She also urged them to be law-abiding in order to make their parents, society and the country proud.

    Mrs Adetunji appealed to the children to be more engaged to school  activities that would make them better citizens in the future.

    She also advised them to always seek God’s guidance and protection of their fathers who are always absent from home due to national assignments.

    She urged members of the association to ensure they instil discipline in their children, even as she said they should train them in the ways of the Lord. She said it was a good idea for parents to give children better home training.

    Highlights of the event was cutting of cake, quiz/dancing competition and presentation of gifts to the children.