Tuesday 25 October 2016

Sokoto initiates bill for right to education, employs science teachers


Aminu Waziri Tambuwal
Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, has initiated the Right to Education Bill 2016, in recognition, and protection of right to education for children between six and 18 years in the state.
This is the first time any state in Nigeria will seek to legally make education a fundamental human right of all children.
The bill is one of the major components of the policy on the state of emergency in education declared in the state in December 2015.
“Sokoto will be the first state in Nigeria to provide right to education, thereby bringing it in comformity with the status of fundamental objective and directive principle of state policy under Chapter Two of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999,” according to Justice Commissioner Suleiman Usman.
Usman, who spoke while fielding questions from reporters in Sokoto, stressed that this step, would consolidate the declaration of emergency in education by the administration in concrete terms.  Read more...

Abolition of sub-degrees, diplomas narrows revenue, admission opportunities


A cross section of Nigerian students
Last week, indications were rife that that the sledgehammer may soon drop on Nigerian universities offering diploma programmes at the undergraduate level.
The strongest hint to that effect came from the Executive Secretary of the commission, Prof. Abubakar Adamu Rasheed, when he received the Executive Secretary of the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), Dr. Masaudu Kazaure, in his office, in Abuja.
On that occasion, Rasheed maintained that only polytechnics had the statutory right to run diploma programmes.
Rasheed told his guest, “We are going to formally put a deadline on it, that there should be no diploma again, to be run by universities. Let us allow those that are statutorily allowed to run diploma programmes, the polytechnics, to continue with them,” he said.
Whoever thought that the pronouncement may be long in coming to fruition was clearly mistaken as Rasheed, barely a week after the initial hint, announced the ban, and instructed universities to leave the running of such programmes to polytechnics and concentrate efforts on producing human capital in the core undergraduate, part-time and postgraduate courses
Expectedly, the announcement has sent ripples across Nigerian universities, where it has been received differently.    Read more....

Friday 21 October 2016

How to protect pupils from social media dangers


Social Media
As scammers continue the use of social media platforms to defraud, blackmail and even lure unsuspecting members of the public to their untimely deaths, experts have warned parents on the dangers of allowing their children and wards unfettered access to networking sites.
They made this known in Lagos State, during a workshop themed, “Social Media and Online Safety for Children,” organised by the Institute for Work and Family Integration (IWFI), in collaboration with The Lagoon School, Lekki, where they also stressed that children could also be exposed to cyber bullying.
Managing Director, Swift Networks, Charles Anudu, who spoke on the topic, “Potential Dangers in this Digital Age: Protecting Your Family,” noted that the key to protecting children is creating a rapport between them, and their parents by keeping the “communication line open, educating them on the good and bad of the social media, while not prying too much into their privacy, lest they feel insecure. However, ensure an atom of control.”  read more....

Expand education access for girl child, principal tells govt


The Principal, Queen’s College, Lagos, Dr. Lami Amodu , has said that all efforts at transforming and taking the country to the next level may not be achieved if more attention is not paid to the education of the girl child.
She, thus, called on corporate bodies and individuals to partner the Federal Government in expanding access for the education of the girl child.
Amodu said this while speaking at the 89th Founder’s Day interdenominational thanksgiving service and anniversary of the college in Lagos.

Wednesday 19 October 2016

STEM crucial to scientific, technological development


Ebuka Okoli and Amaechi Abuah at the International Physics Olympiad (IPhO), in Switzerland, with their tour guide, Moro Gabriele
If Nigeria must free itself from a monolithic economy, and make headway in innovative scientific and technological development, there is the compelling need to invest massively in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), so says the Director of Education, Trinity International College, Ofada Ogun State, Mrs. Funmi Aderinoye.
She spoke to The Guardian shortly after three of her students represented Nigeria at the recently concluded International Physics Olympiad (IPhO), in Switzerland, and at the international Chemistry Olympiad in Georgia in July 2016. The students are Ebuka Okoli, Amaechi Abuah, and Amam Oghenefejiro.
According to Aderinoye, “Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), is significant in the development of any nation. It is the bedrock of any meaningful or sustainable economic growth and development. This is because it enhances and entrenches in the system, capacity building that enforces the synergy of human and material resources to propel national development.
read more...

Tuesday 18 October 2016

Why NYSC is mobilising 86, 000 nationwide


*Anxiety over inability to mobilise UNIBEN graduates for service
Owing to financial constraints occasioned by recession, only 86, 000 would be mobilised for the 2016 Batch B Orientation, from the massive backlog on queue for the national assignment.
According to the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), this figure will bring to 260, 000, the total number of corps members mobilised this service year.
The process for this round of mobilisation, which started with the display of the list of all approved programmes for institutions on NYSC portal for cross checking and feedback in mid September, was followed with the collation of prospective corps members’ data by corps producing institutions (CPIs), submission/uploading of senate/academic board approved results for full/part-time graduates and revalidation of lists by CPIs, and the ongoing uploading of corrected lists by corps producing institutions, which ends tomorrow.
Spokesperson of the NYSC, Mrs. Abosede Aderebigbe, told The Guardian in an interview that the number of would-be corps members for the 2016 Batch B, was worked out as a percentage, and sent to heads of corps producing institutions, including vice chancellors rectors of polytechnics, who were directed to send participants based on the figures they were given.
She stressed that it was the limited funds available for use that necessitated the schools’ helmsmen being asked to determine who should go, based on the figures they were given, even as they have been also directed to consider gender, departments among others.
Aderebigbe added that, “We have complained to the minister in our ministry, the Ministry of Finance; committees on youth in both arms of the national assembly and other relevant bodies on the need to increase funding to enable us mobilise more ready-to-serve graduates.

Ambode approves N380m for payment of bursary, local scholarship


Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State on Monday approved the payment of bursary and local scholarship to Lagos State indigenes in tertiary institutions across the country.
Mr Obafela Bank-Olemoh, Special Adviser to the Governor on Education, who made the disclosure while speaking to journalists, said the beneficiaries would be fresh applicants and others receiving subsequent payment.
Bank-Olemoh listed the beneficiaries to include 2015/2016 set and other sets receiving second and third payments for years 2013/2014 and 2014/2015.
He said that the state government was committed to sustaining the scholarship and bursary scheme in spite of the economic situation of the country.
According to him, the governor is committed to ensuring that indigenes are empowered through education to contribute productively to the local and global economies

Monday 10 October 2016

World Mental Health Day 2016


World Mental Health Day (10 October) is a day for global mental health education, awareness and advocacy. It was first celebrated in 1992 at the initiative of the World Federation for Mental Health, a global mental health organization with members and contacts in many countries. On this day, each October, thousands of supporters observe an annual awareness program to bring attention to Mental Illness and its major effects on people’s lives worldwide. In some countries this day is part of an awareness week, such as Mental Illness Awareness Week in the US and Mental Health Week in Australia.
This years's theme ‘Dignity in Mental Health-Psychological & Mental Health First Aid for All’ will enable us to contribute to the goal of taking mental health out of the shadows so that people in general feel more confident in tackling the stigma, isolation and discrimination that continues to plague people with mental health conditions, their families and carers.