The Nation Newspaper

Tag: test

  • Jonathan to subject aspirants to test

    Jonathan to subject aspirants to test

    President Goodluck Jonathan may have jettisoned the internal democracy of the Peoples Democartic Party (PDP), by directing that only the aspirants, who are loyal to him, should be supported to contest the 2015 general elections.

    Aspirants are to undergo risk assessment and valuation, to determine their level of loyalty to the President.

    The development was made known in a statement by the Office of the Special Adviser to the President on Political Affairs in conjunction with the Nigerian Economic and Political Action Committee (NEPAC), which announced the commencement of risk assessment and candidate valuation for aspirants jostling for offices.

    The assessment, tagged: ‘Presidential Support Base Programme’, would evaluate and shortlist aspirants on classified basis.

    NEPAC Director-General Dr. Godson Nnaka, in the statement yesterday, noted that the assessment would ensure that only those proven to be loyal to Jonathan are supported to win elections.

    “The objectives of this programme is to identify, evaluate and shortlist aspirants on classified basis, who, if supported, will maintain maximum loyalty and be part of a strong support base for President Jonathan beyond 2015,” he said.

  • Ubido, Okoro, others for fitness test

    Ubido, Okoro, others for fitness test

    •Achor Philip out of the league season

    Heartland’s Julius Ubido, Ebele Obi, Osas Okoro and Emmanuel Iwu will today face late fitness tests for the Naze Millionaires’ Glo Premier League Week 36 tie against FC Taraba at the Dan Anyiam Stadium, Owerri on Sunday.

    The trio of Ubido, Okoro and Iwu didn’t make the short trip to Umuahia for their Oriental Derby against Abia Warriors which ended 1-1 because they suffered knocks in their last home game against Warri Wolves and the tie before that.

    Ebele Obi – the elder brother of Chelsea of England midfielder, John Mikel Obi – was billed to man the post against Abia Warriors but he sustained an injury in the warm up to the tie and was replaced by another goalkeeper, Chinedu Udeh who had the best game of his Heartland career against the Umuahia side, according to reports.

    Heartland’s Media Officer, Cajetan Nkwopara told SportingLife that the players’ fitness would be tested today before they would be passed fit or otherwise ahead of the league game against FC Taraba on Sunday.

    Heartland are on 51 points from 35 games and they are up against the Jalingo Boys who are on 46 points from 35 games.

    Nkwopara also disclosed that Heartland players and officials are wishing their injured goalkeeper, Emmanuel Philip Achor who underwent a hip surgery speedy recovery.

    The goaltender suffered the injury in the club’s final training session against Enyimba at Aba in Week 29 and has been ruled out of the season.

  • Major test for generation next

    Major test for generation next

    What should be students’ role in creating a sustainable society? This was the puzzle speakers tried to unravel at the 13th CAMPUSLIFE Correspondents’ Workshop for student-writers held in Lagos last weekend. It was organised by The Nation in collaboration with Coca-Cola Nigeria Limited and the Nigerian Bottling Company (NBC) Limited. KEMI BUSARI, CALEB ADEBAYO (Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife), ESE OKODUWA (Delta State University) and Sani Makama (Nasarawa State University, Keffi) report.

    As leaders of tomorrow, students have a role to play in the affairs of the country. But, they need a conducive environment to operate; an environment that is unencumbered by diseases, such as cancer, Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), hepatitis and Ebola Virus. These public health issues and their environmental consequences must be addressed in the interest of national development.

    In addressing these challenges, what should be the role of students? This was the focus at 13th CAMPUSLIFE Correspondents’ Workshop held last weekend in Lagos.

    Co-sponsored by Coca-Cola Nigeria Limited (CCNL) and the Nigerian Bottling Company (NBC) Limited, the workshop themed: Towards a sustainable environment, was a platform for some students and Corps members to use their writing skills to faster a sustainable society.

    Speaking on Rethinking healthy lifestyle through the sustainability lens, Mrs Iwalola Akin-Jimoh, the Executive Secretary of Youth Empowerment Foundation (YEF), said her experience in youth development has shown that young men possessed limitless capacities to change their society.

    She urged student-writers to explore opportunities around them and use their skills to expose health conditions on their campuses.

    Tertiary institutions, she said, were not unsusceptible to the growing national public health conditions, noting that students must be in the vanguard of engendering a healthy and environment-friendly society.

    Advising the students to use the platform for personal development, Mrs Akin-Jimoh said she loved working with youngsters.

    “For me, my advocacy began with my love for sport. But as a nutritionist, I felt I could do more than that to affect the lives of the people around me. This made me to start YEF 25 years ago and it was based on the experiences I had at the Nigerian Sports Camp,” she said.

    She added: “I will advise you all to explore opportunities offered by The Nation and Coca-Cola  through the CAMPUSLIFE platform to expand your network and bring about personal development. I will always use myself as a case study of how one can build an advocacy network and become a mentor to the generation coming after.”

    For an active healthy lifestyle, young writers, she said, must volunteer, mobilise and educate their peers, faith-based organisations and civil society organisations on health-related issues.

    Mrs Akin-Jimoh divided the participants into five groups of 10 students each. She asked them to identify four health challenges on campuses and two professional organisations  that could help in tackling them.

    The objective, according to her, is to demonstrate the strength in teamwork and collaboration in achieving a planned objective.

    She said: “If you work as a team, you would have built a capacity where you can support yourselves to a certain level and become change agents.”

    How can student-writers identify and report health and environmental challenges on their campuses?

    Seun Akioye, a multiple award-winning reporter with The Nation, answered the participants in his  presentation titled: Achieving sustainable environment: The role of campus journalists. He said industrial activities had endangered the planet more than any other, noting that more than 110 countries, including Nigeria, suffer from desertification. This, he said, costs the world about $42 billion yearly in loss and productivity.

    The environmental challenge, according to him, prompted millions of farmers to move to urban centres to seek alternative livelihoods; a situation that puts tremendous strain on overstretched services in the city.

    Millions of Nigerians, including students, he said, could be compelled to leave their homes in the next 10 years if measures were not taken to stop desertification.

    He urged the students to deploy their reporting skills in exposing environmental challenges peculiar to their campuses, saying they must employ the truth and investigative instinct to tell their stories.

    Akioye said: “Environmental sustainability involves making decisions and taking actions that are in the interest of protecting the natural world, with particular emphasis on preserving the capability of the environment to support human life.

    “As student-journalists, you have unlimited opportunities to change the perspectives and your environment by taking a deep look inside and a wide look around. There are issues around you and in your immediate environment, which can serve as a pillar of great environmental stories. Doing an investigation does not apply to corruption of politicians alone. There is corruption of the environment. You can bring to the front burner, issues that have been neglected from farming in Ile-Ife to fishing in the Niger Delta.”

    He urged the participants to always humanise their stories and evaluate the dangers involved in the reporting process. He urged them to read award-winning reports to learn how to write in-depth investigative reports that may help their schools’ managements to solve problems.

    To present their reports to wider audience, Akioye urged the students to use the social media.

    Coca-Cola Nigeria Limited Community Affairs Manager Emeka Mba said the company is always willing to provide platforms for intellectual debates by the youth. The firm, he said, has been sponsoring the workshop because of its commitment to encouraging youths to be part of the nation-building process.

    He said: “This is about the eighth year Coca-Cola Nigeria Limited and its bottling partner, Nigerian Bottling Company, have been investing in students across higher institutions. We believe the youths have a message to deliver and we will always be willing to provide the platform for them to express, not only their minds on burning issues, but their talents in a wide range of areas. This is in line with Coca-Cola Nigeria’s philosophy of shared happiness.”

    Mba enjoined the participants to imbibe the values and attitude of sustainability in their endeavours.

    Earlier, CAMPUSLIFE co-ordinator Wale Ajetunmobi, while welcoming the participants, said the management of The Nation valued their contributions to the section in the last seven years.

    Ajetunmobi said The Nation has demonstrated its leadership in the media by its sustenance of campus journalism through its 10-page pullout.

    He took the participants through writing rules.

    Christopher Amanze, a first-time participant from the Abia State University (ABSU), said: “Every bit of the workshop session was educative, but the most memorable was the interactive session with the speakers and other participants. This is a good programme that must be sustained. I am grateful to The Nation and Coca Cola System for giving me an opportunity to learn the skills I could not have learnt in the classroom.”

  • Placement test chaos

    I covered the Lagos State Placement Test on Saturday and marveled at the carelessness of schools and parents that resulted in some pupils missing the examination.

    The test was introduced by the Lagos State government to improve the quality of pupils that cross over from primary to its junior secondary schools.  When the implementation of the Universal Basic Education (UBE) scheme started in 2006, the then Minister of Education, Mrs. Chinwe Obaji, announced the end of the National Common Entrance Examination which was written nationwide by Primary 6 pupils basically to admit candidates into the unity schools.  States too conducted their own versions of the examination.

    The NCEE was stopped in the name of implementing the UBE law which requires school aged children to get nine years of compulsory basic (primary and junior secondary) education.  The abolishment of the examination meant that unity schools no longer had junior secondary arms.

    The abrogation of the NCEE (which was generally written by all Primary Six pupils in public and private schools irrespective of whether they would attend the unity colleges) encouraged the culture of mass promotion, particularly in public schools – though private secondary schools still conducted entrance tests for candidates they admitted.

    The NCEE was restored about five years ago after unity school teachers, parents, alumni and others convinced the Federal Government that the examination did not hinder the implementation of the UBE in any way.

    The Lagos State government re-introduced the examination (now called the Placement test) three years ago to reverse poor performance.  Primary Six pupils wishing to do their secondary education in public junior secondary schools have to make at least 50 per cent in English and Mathematics, and cumulatively to scale through.

    It was unbelievable to hear that schools were still trying to register a day before the examination last Saturday.  On the examination, it was no surprise their names were nowhere to be found.

    The Chairman of the Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) was very upset that some schools and candidates showed up without any proof of having registered.

    First of all, I fault the Lagos State Examination Board for failing to enforce a closing date for the registration for the examination.

    The Education Commissioner, Mrs Olayinka Oladunjoye had extended the period for registration by one week on June 8.  But that one week extended to July 4, a day before the examination.  If the board forgets any lesson from last Saturday’s experience, it should not fail to forget the need to set a deadline and stick to it.

    For this examination, the third since it was introduced two years ago, the board, in collaboration with the SUBEB and the Ministry of Education worked hard to improve the organisaiton and integrity of the examination by introducing personalized OMR (Optical Mark Recognition) answer scripts, which ensured that each candidate’s bio-data was pre-printed on the sheets.

    Introducing such measure means that a procedure must be followed.  Every candidate must be accounted for.  And such procedure takes time.  Leaving the registration open-ended meant the board accepted candidates it could not possibly produce OMR for at the last minute.

    While it is true that those who did not take the examination (some of whom did not even properly register in the first place), are a minute percentage of the about 140,000 registered, it is important that such incidents are avoided in the future.  If they occur, they should not be traceable to loop holes such as allowing candidates to register till the last minute.

    On the part of the schools, I cannot understand why they had to wait until the very last minute to enter for an examination that a registration timeline of over four months.  Parents of the affected pupils who missed the examination ought to question the schools their wards attend.  This should especially be done because it was gathered that many of the private schools charged far above the N5,000 stipulated by the examination board.

    For our education system to move forward, the rule of law must be respected.  When laws are made then ignored or sidetracked by sacred cows, then we should not expect to make much progress.  I hope all parties involved have indeed learnt their lessons.  We look forward to better conduct of the examination next year.

  • Cooreman prepares for Jets test

    Cooreman prepares for Jets test

    Experienced Premier League manager Maurice Cooreman will put up his side Gombe United against lower division campaigners Mighty Jets as he prepares for the road trip to Akwa United.

    It is his second season at Gombe United after his arrival in the 2012/13 season.

    “We’ve played Adamawa United as well as Wikki Tourists and the next match will be against Mighty Jets.

    “I’ve been using different players to see what works best for the team,” Cooreman, who started work back in 2003 with Gabros International, told supersport.com.

    Gombe United defeated Adamawa United 1-0 and played a 2-2 draw against relegated Wikki Tourists.

    Journeyman Victor Barnabas scored a brace in Wednesday’s friendly against Wikki, while Haruna Babalo was the goalscorer against Adamawa United on Tuesday.

  • 9 operators fail risk management test

    9 operators fail risk management test

    About nine Pension Fund Operators have failed the risk management test conducted by the regulator, the National Pension Commission (PenCom), as well as non-adherence to corporate governance principles, The Nation has learnt.

    The test conducted during the second quarter of last year revealed cases of non-compliance, weak risk management and violation of the Code of Corporate Governance by some of the operators.

    In a report, the Acting Director-General (DG), PenCom, Mrs. Chinelo Anohu-Amazu, said the consultative philosophy in the regulation and supervision of the industry was maintained in the quarter, adding that the risk-based examination approach was intensified in order to promote transparency, provide early warning signals as well as encourage pension operators to regularly self-evaluate their positions.

    According to her, the Commission’s examination on nine operators revealed cases of delays in the payment of retirement benefits; un-credited pension contributions due to non-submission of appropriate schedules by employers and unresolved customer complaints.

    She added that the nine pension managers also failed to fill vacant management positions and did not implement any disaster recovery plans.

    As a result, the Commission forwarded letters to the concerned operators as well as monitored their efforts at resolving them, she said.

    She also disclosed that a review of the risk management reports submitted by the operators revealed that some faced operational risks associated with receipt of contributions without appropriate schedule, litigations, and non-funding of retirement savings accounts (RSAs) by employers.

    She said: “Accordingly, the Commission advised the concerned operators to strengthen their mitigating measures to avert the identified risk.”

    On the actuarial valuation by the Commission, Mrs Anohu-Amazu said the actuarial valuation reports on the Defined Benefit Schemes for the year ended December 31, 2012 were received.

    The reports showed that some of the schemes were under-funded and the affected scheme sponsors were directed to come up with funding arrangements to bridge the funding gap.

    The DG further said: “During the quarter, the commission received and reviewed 27 governance reports from licensed pension operators. The reports indicated violations of the code of corporate governance by some of the operators. The review further showed that some operators did not evaluate the performance of their Boards, Board Committees and individual Directors.

    “Similarly, in some cases, the number of Board meetings held were inadequate as against the minimum stipulated by the Code. In addition, some board members did not attend Board and Committee meetings regularly. Subsequently, the affected operators were advised through various letters to address the issues observed on non-compliance with the Code of Corporate Governance.”she said.

  • 3,000 write pre-degree test

    3,000 write pre-degree test

    Thousands of applicants participated in the pre-degree examination held last Saturday by the Ekiti State University (EKSU). OLATUNJI AWE (300-Level Political Science) reports.

    No fewer than 3,000 candidates trooped to the Ekiti State University (EKSU) main campus in Ado Ekiti to write its pre-degree examination last Saturday.

    The weather was cold but the candidates, some of who were accompanied by their parents, were undeterred. The test, started behind the schedule 8 a.m hiccups. Candidates gathered at the 1,500 Lecture Theatre for credential verification, amid tight security. The applicants’ details were vetted to prevent impersonation.

    Chief Kola Obayanju, a parent, praised the management for creating a “peaceful atmosphere” during the examinations, urging other parents not to influence their children’s admission in anyway.

    The atmosphere became more peaceful when the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Development) Prof Esther Aderibigbe arrived at the examination hall. There was a pin-drop silence in the venue as she moved round to inspect the exercise. She commended the university officials and security personnel, urging them to resist exam malpractice.

    After the screening, candidates moved into a 3,000-capacity hall where the Computer Based Test (CBT) was conducted. Each candidate was required to answer 50 questions in 50 minutes.

    Damilola Adewusi, an applicant, after the examination, said: “The test was not difficult compared to previous ones I had written. The conduct was okay and we should commend the management for reducing hiccups.”

    Another candidate, Ifeoma Okorie, said: “The organisation was in conformity with standards. There was no complaint on any computer we used and there were experts who helped those having problems computing their details.”

    The Director of Pre-degree programme, Prof E. B. Kolawole, said the successful outcome of the exercise was as a result of the process put in place by the management. He added that the “low turnout” of candidates was because of the presence of the Federal University of Oye (FUOYE) in the state, which many applicants see as alternative.

    He stressed that the results of the exercise would be ready by 5pm on the day but said the candidates would not be able to check their score online until the Governing Council of the university approve the result.

    Kolawole said the result would be out tomorrow.

  • 133 refs fail fitness test

    133 refs fail fitness test

    The results of the fitness tests organised by the Referees Unit of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has been released.

    NFF’s head of referees unit, Sunday Okayi, who made the disclosure on Thursday, announced that of the 593 referees that participated in the physical fitness test, 477 passed, 133 failed, while 13 others were disqualified.

    The tests were held since 4 – 8 November, and Okayi explained that the reason for the delay in publishing the result was to avoid the controversies that marred the 2012 edition of the test.

    “We have to take our time to compile this result because of what happened after the 2012 fitness test,” Okayi explained.

    “There were complaints over the results we released last year, with some of the disqualified and failed referees coming up with accusations and we do not want a repeat of such this year.”

  • Referee Osita dies in fitness test

    The ongoing Nigeria Football Referees Association (NFRA) fitness test in Abuja on Wednesday claimed its first casualty at the training pitch of the Abuja National Stadium, when a member of Lagos State Referees Society A. Osita collapsed and died few minutes later at the Abuja National Stadium. The referee may have died out of exhaustion. The referee who took part in the fitness exercise could not complete the race before he collapsed and was rushed to the Abuja National Hospital where he passed on.

    Earlier, the President of the Nigeria Referees Association Ahmed Maude had told SportingLife that all the referees were meant to undergo various medical test in a Federal Medical Center in the various states, and were also subjected to rounds of test by the Medical team of the referees at the venue of the test.

    It would be recalled that two seasons ago two referees died while participating in the routine exercise geared towards picking the referees to handle football matches in the 2013/2014 soccer season. FIFA alos uses the results from the fitness test to grade its referees ahead of the new season.

  • 55,000 write YABATECH entrance test

    55,000 write YABATECH entrance test

    NO fewer than 55,000 candidates have written the Yaba College of Technology (YABATECH) Post-Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (Post-UTME).

    The exercise was conducted amid tight security by officers of Sabo Police Station.

    The Public Relations Officer of the college, Mr Adams Adekunle, promised that the admission formula would be merit-based.

    Addressing the candidates at the institution’s Sports Complex, Deputy Speaker of the institution’s Students’ Union Government (SUG), Aisha Ayinia, advised them not to engage in examination malpractices, which the institution frowns on.

    When CAMPUSLIFE visited the screening venues, candidates were undergoing biometric verification. A principal officer, who spoke to our correspondent, said the verification was meant to check exam fraud.

    An invigilator, Mrs Stella Awoh, said the examination was in three sessions, adding that it was properly planned.

    Speaking to CAMPUSLIFE, a candidate said: “It’s a normal exam. So far, everything has gone well. But I hope there would be fairness when the results would be released.”