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Tag: teachers

  • Mushin LGEA rewards teachers, others

    Mushin LGEA rewards teachers, others

    The Education Secretary, Mushin Local Government Education Authority (LGEA),Mr Yusuf Olokodana, has pledged to support outstanding pupils and diligent workers in primary schools under his watch.

    Speaking at the 14th Annual Merit Awards in Mushin, Lagos, he said the LGEA collaborated with the Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) to organise the awards aimed at “recognising, motivating and rewarding hard-working individuals, outstanding pupils and industrious staff in primary schools.”

    He said in recent times, the LGEA has improved to being among the best in the state.

    “Gone were the days, when people described Mushin as a ghetto; a breeding place for miscreants and hoodlums. The new Mushin is now celebrated at various competitions. As if it is not enough, the current Best LGEA Guard and Senior Staff in Lagos State are from Mushin. I think we should be applauded,” he said.

    Awards were given to various categories of employees and pupils who distinguished themselves in the 2013/2014 academic session.

    The categories rewarded included: best pupils in various classes across the LGEA; best non teaching staff, and best teaching staff.  Cash prizes and gifts were given to all the recipients to encourage them to work harder.

    The SUBEB Chairman, Mrs Gbolahan Daodu, said the merit award were also aimed at appreciating the efforts of teachers, non-teaching staff and parents in the local government.

    Mrs Daodu, who was represented by Mrs Habibat Daramosu, Director Monitoring and Evaluating, subeb advised workers and pupils in the LGEA to emulate those rewarded so they can also be celebrated in future.  She also urged parents, not just the teachers, to monitor the welfare of the children.

    The best head teacher, Mr Sunday Okedara, said he was delighted to be recognised by the government.

    “I am very delighted about this award because this is my 33rd year in this profession and I feel celebrated. My appreciation goes to the government and the merit award committee.  May God bless them,” he said.

    The best teacher, Mrs Mariam Oredipe, was full of joy.  She advised her colleagues and others to be passionate about whatever jobs they find for themselves. She appreciated the government for not only identifying them but also giving them an award.

  • Free ICT training for female students, teachers

    The Computer Geek Girls Collaborative Camp is set to organise a week-long Information Communication Technology (ICT) training camp for secondary schools girls and women teachers in Oyo State.

    The Coordinator of the group, Dr Yetunde Folajimi told journalists that the training aimed to improve the participation of females in the ICT profession will hold between August 11 and 16, at the Department of Computer Science, University of Ibadan (UI).

    Folajimi, who is also a computer science expert at UI, explained that the highlights of the training will include, educational and recreational activities, developing educational video games, making digital movies and music, creating websites and blogs, among others.

    The mentors expected at the training include, the first female professor of computer science, Prof Adenike Osofisan, President,  Computer Professionals Registration Council of Nigeria, Alhaja Sekinat Yusuf; Director of ICT, University of Benin, Prof Stella Chiemeke, and Dr Virgina Ejiofor.

  • Lagos to pay teachers’ allowance

    Lagos to pay teachers’ allowance

    Lagos State Government has promised to pay the balance of the 27.5 per cent Teachers Salary Scale (TSS).

    State Commissioner for Education, Mrs Olayinka Oladunjoye, told reporters at a news conference yesterday that teachers were not angry with Governor Babatunde Fashola over unpaid allowances.

    She said with the implementation of the Eko Project, teachers had been trained to give the best to the pupils and students.

    Mrs Oladunjoye said: “We are not unmindful of the need to fully pay the 27.5 percent special teacher allowance to its teachers; hence government is working assiduously with a view to paying the balance on TSS soonest. Government therefore craves the understanding of its teachers on this bearing in mind that it will not hesitate to pay the balance of their allowance as soon as possible.

    “Teachers are not angry with Fashola, they are happy with us. We are working hand in hand to meet their demands,” she said.

    Oladunjoye added: “Government is not unmindful of the critical roles and importance of teachers in the scheme of things.

  • Man arrested for ‘defiling’ minor

    •Police arrest teachers in Ebonyi for abducting pupils in Ijebu-Ode 

    Ebonyi State Police Command said yesterday that it has arrested a 30-year-old man, Mr. Ama Inya Okoro, for allegedly defiling a two-year-old girl at Unwana in Afikpo North Local Government.

    The command spokesman Chris Anyanwu briefed reporters yesterday in Abakaliki.

    He decried increase in rape in the state.

    Anyanwu said the suspect allegedly committed the crime when the victim was asleep, adding that he would be prosecuted.

    He urged parents to monitor their children.

    The police spokesman also said yesterday that a kidnap suspect, 27-year-old Kingsley Sunday, a teacher, who was arrested by the command for allegedly kidnapping two of his pupils, Dolapo Kosoko and the sister, Tolu, has been transferred to the Ogun State Police Command for investigation.

    Anyanwu said the victims have re-united with their family in Ogun State where they live.

    He said: “We have concluded investigation on the alleged kidnap of the children by their teacher and this morning (Thursday), police officers from our command escorted the suspects to Ogun State for the continuation of investigation.

    “The victims have re-united with their parents. They have gone back to Ogun State where they live.

    “With the success recorded by our command and the confessional statement of the suspects, we are optimistic that the Ogun State Police Command will further investigate the matter and prosecute the suspects.”

    Anyanwu said the teacher, who works with Imperial International School, Ijebo-Ode in Ogun State, was arrested in his home town, Obieze, Effuim in Ohaukwu Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, following a tip-off.

    The suspect, it was learnt, capitalised on his closeness to the family and took the victims to his village, only to demand a ransom from the parents before releasing the children.

    The police spokesman said the suspect demanded N250,000 ransom, out of which the victims’ parents paid N150, 000, begging him to give them time to complete the payment.

    He added: “The teacher, from our investigation, had a relationship with the victims’ parents. He convinced them that they should allow him take their children to his village and they agreed.

    “The teacher later demanded a ransom from them.”

    Anyanwu said another teacher from Ugwulangwu in Ohaozara Local Government, whom the suspect arranged with for the payment of the ransom into his account, has also been arrested.

    The Ogun State Police Command yesterday paraded Sunday and the other teacher, Augustus Johnson, for allegedly kidnapping the pupils.

    Police spokesman Olumuyiwa Adejobi, who paraded the suspects at Eleweran, Abeokuta, the command’s headquarters, said they would be charged to court upon completion of investigation.

  • Kano recruits 998 teachers

    To improve the quality of education, the Kano state government has recruited 998 school teachers.

    Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso has distributed letters of appointment to the newly-employed teachers in Kano.

    They are among the 8,000 indigenes employed in the last three years.

    Kwankwaso explained that of the 998 employees, 500 would man 300 modern physics, chemistry and biology laboratories, as well as the 100 computer centres and libraries in secondary schools.

    He said 364 others are to teach in 44 Schools for Arabic Studies, while the remaining 134 have been posted to 22 technical schools.

    The governor charged them to be committed to their jobs to move the state forward.

    Praising the government for engaging the youths, the United States of American Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr James Entwistle, said education and employment are important to them.

    The state commissioner of Education, Tajuddeen Gambo, said the determination of the present administration’s policy on education is yielding positive results, adding that this would surely improve teaching and learning in state schools.

    Two of the employees, Abubakar Abdullahi and Fauziyya Shehu Ahmad, thanked the government for the offer, assuring that they would work beyond expectation.

     

  • Boko Haram: 173 teachers killed, says NUT

    Boko Haram: 173 teachers killed, says NUT

    •Threatens  strike  over unpaid 27.5 per cent  allowance in Unity Schools

    A total of  173 teachers have lost their lives in Boko Haram attacks in Borno and Yobe states over the years,the National President of the  Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT), Mr Michael Olukoya,said yesterday.

    One hundred  and seventy of the teachers were killed in Borno and the remaining three in Yobe, he told  the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Uyo.

    He  decried the continued detention of the Chibok schoolgirls by the insurgents and the unabated siege of the school system by Boko Haram in the country.

    The NUT president called on the Federal Government to expend all resources available to free the abducted schoolgirls and save them from the psychological trauma.

    “Government should appropriately police the school environment for the security of pupils and teachers and create conducive learning environment for quality education delivery,” Olukoya said.

    Speaking at a separate press conference, the NUT President who was in Uyo for the union’s  fifth quadrennial meeting with the theme, “Changing Nigeria’s fortune through quality teachers,’’ warned that the NUT would go on strike should  the Federal Government  fail to address the issue of payment of 27.5 Teachers  Allowance to its members  in unity schools and other federal schools.

    He said  the union would meet with teachers in the affected  schools and give the federal government deadline on the payment of the  allowance.

    “Up till now, our teachers in unity schools have not been paid the 27.5 per cent Teachers’ Allowance. After this conference, we are meeting with teachers of unity schools and we will give the federal government a deadline,” he said.

    “If, after the expiration of the deadline, the 27.5 per cent Teachers’ Allowance is not paid, we will embark on strike. The strike will be total. NUT will also join teachers of the unity schools and other federal schools in the strike.

    “The time is ripe in Nigeria for the regulated scale of salary and other conditions of service to take a central stage in national attention if, indeed, the quality of teaching and the quality of

    education are to translate into national fortune.”

    The union also blamed the nation’s worsening educational standard on the state of infrastructural decay, saying  the situation  has led to serious crises of confidence among stakeholders in tertiary institution.

    The NUT said that unless there is a revolutionary improvement in the state of facilities  in  primary and secondary schools, every other expenditure on education would amount to a waste of the country’s resources.

  • ‘Make Masters degree benchmark for college teachers’

    The Provost, Kogi State College of Education, Ankpa Prof. Isa Ochepa has advocated a Masters Degree qualification as minimum entry point for its lecturers.

    He spoke during the 26th-29th combined convocation of the college.

    However, he, said it would be better for a larger percentage of teachers in a college to have the PhD, which is the minimum benchmark for teaching in the university.

    He said: “To strengthen our academic system, we have to encourage our staff to pursue further studies. Personally, it is my conviction that an academic environment of this nature should be dominated by Ph.D holders. It is through such that we will be able to provide the quality of instructions expected of us.

    “Through that, we can also embark on meaningful research which will promote the dynamism of the academic system. That is why I insisted and still insist that Masters degree should be the minimum qualification for appointment into the college. As for those already in the system, I have challenged everyone to sit up in this regard.”

    Ochepa, who also chairs the Forum of Provosts, called on the Kogi State government to help the institution address the menace of erosion and provide funds for accreditation of its courses.

    In his address, Governor Idris Wada warned residents not to encroach on land belonging to tertiary institutions across the state.  He warned that the government would demolish any structure built on such land without paying compensation.

    He urged management of the institution to always make results available to students as soon as they graduate, to avoid certificate forgery.

     

  • On the plight of teachers

    The universally old and popular maxim that states, “change is the only constant phenomenon on earth” is so apt when one goes in retrospect to rationalise and analyse the fall of the teacher.

    From time immemorial, in every human society, those who belong to the noble guild or profession of teaching are held in high esteem. Teaching as a role is all encompassing as it cuts across the family, religious bodies, school and the work place. Teaching as a profession evolved through a long period of time as the role and function become more complex.

    In the ancient Greek society, itinerant teachers were common sight as parents engaged their services for the transfer of knowledge to their wards. The great and cerebral Socrates was above equals in that era that threw up the likes of Pluto, Aristotle, et al.

    Teaching as a profession through evolution enjoyed a pride of place in every clime. Even the informal and non-formal types due to the common thread that links all together, ‘repository of knowledge’. The sudden shift in policy priority that saw to the relegation of this noble profession to the background awed many people.

    Those who ought to know pretended not to know and today, the festering old wound is malignant. The victims are searing in pain so excruciating that they had to fight with the tenacity of self-preservation as the first instinct of man for survival.

    A cursory perusal of history textbooks, commentaries and analysis of developments in the education sector perhaps would reveal the missing link. The where, why and when things went awry in this sector call for sincere and holistic studies in order to proffer a lasting solution.

    Until the restoration of that old prestige to the teaching profession, enabling and empowering teachers through monetary incentives, the wound festers, when the sore festers, the victims who feel the pain can never stop complaining.

    In my own humble submission, I do strongly believe that the education sector holds the magic wand that can transform the country. Imagine a scenario where the country becomes host to foreign students from all over Africa and beyond. Also, importing teachers outside the shores of the country to teach and repatriate home foreign exchange.

    Britain and Ghana are just but few examples of countries in the league of education for foreign exchange (the knowledge economy that will outlast all natural resources). This is the fullness of time for government to have a rethink and translate this emphasis into a strategic plan.

    Going by the recommended percentage of a national budget by the UNESCO for the development of education sectors, we have a long way to go. It takes political will power, transparency, accountability and the genuine belief in human capacity building to rescue the deterioration the sector is in today.

    Given the vital role of education to human societies, human capital development, technology, political maturity and social cultural orientation, we risk underdevelopment by neglecting commensurate investment in the sector. The sad negative implication is clear as a crystal ball that one needs any analysis to discern the horrendous impact across generations.

    Is this gory scenario what successive leadership of this country wants to bequeath to the youths that supposedly are the leaders of tomorrow? Where then is the future for the youths to inherit and carry out their own leadership role as a continuum. The remedy to the impending anomie lies in fixing the education sector which is a crucial social institution for socialisation.

    We know many of the political elites today are beneficiaries of the purposeful leadership of the generations of leaders before them. It’s high time they borrowed a leaf from those old classes of leaders.

    At the turn of yet other journeys into a new centenary of Nigeria existence, the education sector has been at the front burner of national discourse. There have been and still ongoing educational summits by stakeholders to grapple with the ugly menace bedevilling the sector that has overtime become an albatross

    Given the germane logic of teachers’ demands which encompass emolument, benefits and provision of needed facilities in school, they stand indicted on moral ground. These prolong demands that have stifled progress in academic activities across the tertiary institutions in the country should serve as a revolution in the sector. The government should for the sake of Nigerian children meet these critical demands. The government will now be justified to role out tall orders that border on restoring morality, ethics and values to the education sector. The child/leaner will become a force to reckon with as their evaluations will decide the fate of their teachers. Teachers in various tertiary institutions abuse their authority by stepping out of bound in their teacher – student relationship. Unfair and unhealthy sex, money for marks/ grades negotiation has been the bane of the Nigeria’s education sector.

     

    By Comrade Ogbu A. Ameh

    Abuja

    Onwaters20ll@gmail.com

  • ‘Unserious’ teachers may go in Kano

    The Kano State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) has threatened to sack unserious primary school teachers.

    The Chairman of the board, Alhaji Wada Zakari, issued the threat when he paid an unscheduled visit to Kofar Naisa Primary school in Kano yesterday.

    He said the board would not fold its arms and allow “some unserious” teachers sabotage the State Government’s effort toward improving the quality of education in the state.

    Zakari, who frowned at the attitude of some truant teachers, directed the Education Secretary of Gwale Local Government Education Authority to query 55 teachers of Kofar Naisa and Yan’awaki Primary Schools who were absent during the visit.

    He warned that any teacher, who failed to give satisfactory reasons for his or her absence, would face disciplinary action. Zakari enjoined school inspectors to rise up to their responsibilities by ensuring that teachers come to work regularly and close at the scheduled time.

  • 11-month teachers’ strike keeps polytechnics grounded

    11-month teachers’ strike keeps polytechnics grounded

    The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) has been on strike for 11 months.  Students are lamenting the long stay at home. Lecturers are urging them to endure for their own good, reports KOFOWOROLA BELO-OSAGIE.

    On Tuesday, vice chancellors, rectors, provosts and registrars of universities, polytechnics and colleges of education met with the Registrar, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof Dibu Ojerinde, in Abuja, to determine the cut-off marks for the 2014 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) written in April/May.

    The meeting signified the start of the admission process for the 2014/2015 academic session. However, polytechnics are in a dilemma. The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) has been on strike for the past 11 months.

    The strike which began in April 2013, was suspended in July, and resumed on October 4, 2013. It is still on.

    Many polytechnics have lost a session. Mr Adeyemi Adejolu, Deputy Registrar, Information and Protocol at the Federal Polytechnic, Ado-Ekiti in Ekiti State, said a set of National Diploma (ND) I students admitted for the 2013/2014 session had been unable to resume because of the strike.

    “It has affected normal academic activities. Students admitted for the 2013/2014 session cannot resume. At the time ASUP went on break last July, we rounded up the session and screened new students for admission. But the students admitted have not been able to resume for lectures. We can say we have lost a year. The dilemma we are in right now is that JAMB stakeholders’ committee is meeting today (Tuesday) in Abuja to fix national cutoff. That means we will have another set waiting to come in,” he said.

    Deputy Rector of the Federal Polytechnic, Oko, Anambra State, Dr Don Muo, has expressed similar concerns. Urging ASUP to call off the strike, he said the lengthy impasse has stagnated students’ progress and denied them lectures for the required length of time.

    Polytechnic students are also lamenting the strike. Emeka Onwudinjo, National Diploma II student of Mass Communication at the Federal Polytechnic, Oko, said the long stay at home was unexpected and has led to some students getting into trouble.

    “The strike has had a terrible effect on students. Students have been involving themselves in criminal acts. A few days ago, one was caught involved in kidnapping. He was paraded in Awka. There is a popular saying that an ideal mind is the devil’s workshop. Assuming the Federal Government negotiated with ASUP and they call off the strike, I don’t think the boy would have found himself in this situation. We did not expect that the strike would be this long,” he said.

    Suliat Abodunrin, a National Diploma (ND) I student of the Federal Polytechnic Offa (FEDPOFFA), told The Nation that but for the four-month Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES) that she is currently undergoing, she would have been at home like most of her peers. By now, she said she should have completed her ND programme, like many of her peers in state-owned polytechnics that did not join the strike, but she has been slowed down by the industrial action.

    “I believe they have wasted our time. They (lecturers) should reach a compromise with the government so we can return to school. We don’t want to seem ungrateful because some of their demands will benefit us but they should also think of us,” she said.

    But the ASUP leaders argue that they are indeed thinking of the students in some of their demands. The union, which has tabled 13 demands before the Federal Government, is unsatisfied with the way the negotiations have been handled.

    At a congress at the Yaba College of Technology (YABATECH) last Thursday, the National ASUP President, Dr Chibuzor Asomugha, said the strike would continue until the government addressed the issues.

    He said: “As a union, we are constrained to say that unless urgent steps are taken by President Goodluck Jonathan to address the decadent conditions of Nigeria’s polytechnics today, the nation shall surely be headed for jeopardy. We shall remain resolute and continue with the strike until all the issues put before Government by our union are satisfactorily addressed.”

    The 13 demands of the union include the following: HND/BSc dichotomy; non release of the White Paper on the Visitations to Federal Polytechnics; the refusal of government to fund the implementation of CONTISS 15 migration for the Lower cadres and its arrears as from 2009; non-establishment of a National Polytechnics Commission (NPC) and the continued recognition of the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) as a regulatory body for Polytechnics; and the snail pace of the review of the Polytechnic Act by the National Assembly.

    Others are: Under funding of the Polytechnic sub-sector and the discrimination in disbursements of TETfund grants; non re-negotiation of the FGN/ASUP agreement; implementation of Integrated Personnel Payment System (IPPIS) in polytechnics only; poor state of most state owned polytechnics; appointment of unqualified persons as Rectors and Provosts of Polytechnics, Monotechnics and Colleges of Technologies by some state governments; non implementation of the approved salary package (CONPCASS) and 65-year retirement age for their Polytechnics, Monotechnics and College of Technologies; and the Needs Assessment of polytechnics.

    In an interview, Asomugha said the Federal Government has not demonstrated the readiness to end the strike. He complained that the Supervising Minister of Education, Chief Nyesom Wike, rather than resolving the issues, has been complicating matters by contracting himself.

    He said: “We are particularly worried about the disposition and posture of the Supervising Minister of Education, Chief Nyesom Wike, who appears not to have grasped the intricacies of the workings of tertiary education. By his utterances and actions, The Minister has tended to frustrate the resolution process contradicting himself on most pronouncements concerning reasons for the strike.

    “Perplexingly, when the House of Representatives Committee on education convened a stake holders meeting aimed at resolving the strike, the Hon Minister of Education had informed the stakeholders that the CONTISS 15 Migration had been queried by the Salaries Income & Wages Commission and an Inter-Ministerial Committee set up by Government to look into the matter. The Hon minister promised the inclusion of the unions in the Committee which was to submit its report in one week. Surprising the union has not been invited for any of that committee’s meetings.

    “Again when the Senate Committee on Education called for a stakeholders’ meeting on the matter on 24th June, 2014, neither the Minister nor any of the other government agencies honoured the Senate’s invitation. The same Hon Supervising Minister had gone ahead to make arbitrarily appointment of university professors as rectors of polytechnics in wanton breach of extant laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”

    Asomugha also said the union was dissatisfied with the way the committee set up to address the HND/BSc dichotomy handled the case.

    “A committee was set up but we were not satisfied with their work. We are waiting for them to submit their report so we will raise our own objections,” he said.

    On the appointment of rectors from outside the polytechnic system, Asomugha said many polytechnic lecturers have the requisite qualifications to be made rectors instead of imposing professors from the university system.

    “Don’t we have Ph.D holders in polytechnics? There is no academic qualification called professor. The highest qualification is the PhD and there are many that have it in the polytechnic system,” he said.

    In an interview, Mr Tunji Owoeye, chairman of the Federal Polytechnic, Ado-Ekiti ASUP, claimed that Wike was employing tactics to frustrate the union’s negotiations. He therefore called for Wike’s removal.

    “There is a deadlock now because it seems the minister is using setback tactics. This same minister who said the CONTISS 16 would be paid twice has now gone to the ministry of wages to say that CONTISS 16 is illegal. So, instead of paying arrears now, those who were promoted to CONTISS 15 will be de-migrated,” he said.

    Defending the strike, Owoeye said though students may be affected now, they would be the beneficiaries of one of the key demands, the abolishment of the HND/BSc dichotomy.

    “The strike may be adversely affecting students but we are doing it for their sake. Look at the disparity between HND and BSc Accounting holders. Are you saying they are different from each other? We are urging the Federal Government to do the harmonization and allow polytechnics to offer BTECH degrees,” he said.

    Explaining why the union is against the IPPIS, Owoeye said it would deny them of payment that is rightfully theirs.

    “We don’t want the IPPIS because it centralises the payment system. For instance, if you are on sabbatical in another institution, your salary continues to run. How do they recognize that at the centre? It also affects other contributions like our cooperative etc. We are not civil servants but they want to turn us into civil servants,” he said.

    When contacted, Simeon Nwakaudu, Special Assistant (Media) to the Supervising Minister of Education refused to comment on the crisis.