16-year-old genius gains bragging rights in the Cowbellpedia Mathematics Competition

The highly educational and inspirational TV quiz show – Cowbellpedia Mathematics Competition for Junior and Senior secondary school students is a testament to the undeniable fact that the future of our beloved country is indeed very bright.

The third season (2017) of the competition which witnessed an array of extremely brilliant minds flying and shining naturally without any form of encumbrance is truly a sight to behold.

16-year-old Ernest-Eze Munachi from Loyola Jesuit, Abuja has indeed left an indelible print of excellence in the sands of time as he emerged the overall winner in the senior category of the competition.

His meteoric rise to fame didn’t come as a surprise because he had won the Cowbellpedia Mathematics Competition for junior category in 2015.

Munachi displayed an exceptional sense of acuity, brilliance and self-confidence; winning the final competition with a total of 110 points.

He has done what no student has done since the inception of the competition by winning in both the Junior category (2015) and Senior category (2017). He now has the bragging right as the Mathematics champion in the whole of Nigeria for 2017.

As the winner of the competition, he went home with a cash prize of one million Naira (N1,000,000), educational trip abroad, five desktop computers + printer + textbooks (for his school) and four hundred thousand Naira (N400,000) for his Mathematics teacher.

Following closely in 2nd position (1st runner up) was Oluwanifise Onofowokan from the Ambassadors College, Ota, with 75 points.

Her performance was nothing short of sterling. She went home with a cash prize of seven hundred and fifty thousand Naira (N750,000), three desktop computers + printer (for her school) and three hundred thousand Naira (N300,000) for her Mathematics teacher.....The Nation

JAMB meets with stakeholders to appraise UTME

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) will meet with critical stakeholders on Wednesday to appraise the conduct of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

JAMB spokesperson Fabian Benjamin, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Lagos, that the meeting, scheduled to hold in Abuja, would brainstorm on the conduct of the examination and identify possible areas for review.

Among the stakeholders expected at the meeting were Foreign Affairs Ministry officials, university lecturers, vice- chancellors and rectors of polytechnics, he said.

“We are also expecting top media executives, state commissioners of education and heads of colleges of education.

“Other stakeholders expected at the meeting are labour unions of Nigeria universities such as ASUU, Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU), among others,’’ he said

Benjamin said the board had held a similar meeting with owners of Computer Based Test (CBT) centres and administrators nationwide to appraise the registration and conduct of the 2017 UTME.

The JAMB Registrar, Prof. Is’haq Oloyede, had during meeting with administrators of the CBT..............NAN

ASUP: Indefinite strike action commences today

The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, ASUP, said it will commence a “total and comprehensive indefinite” strike on Monday due to the federal government’s failure to fulfil the outstanding agreement made with the union.

The National President of the union, Usman Dutse, confirmed this.

According to the union president, there was a meeting between the union and ministry of labour on October 16 with an agreement to develop a memorandum of understanding to resolve the issues.

“We were told by the federal ministry of labour that a memorandum of understanding will be given, but we’ve not gotten one till date and that is why our members say there is no seriousness on the side of the government.”

Mr. Dutse said another meeting with the federal government has been scheduled for Wednesday, November 15.

“All academic activities will be suspended during the strike,” he said.

“Our union is constrained to lament that our sector is on the verge of collapse and needs all the emergency attention it urgently deserves.”

Efforts to get a reaction from the Ministry of Labour on the strike were unsuccessful. Its spokesperson, Samuel Olowookere, did not respond to calls and text messages sent to him.

INEC: Commendations to the school for educating students about voting

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Friday commended the authorities of Mother of Perpertua Juniorate, Asaba, Delta, for including voter education in its syllabus.

The Administrative Secretary of INEC in the state, Mrs Rose Oriaran-Anthony, gave the commendation when she played host to the management of the school in Asaba.

Oriaran-Anthony said she was delighted when students showed interest in democracy, adding that such a development gave assurances of political advancement in the country.

She said INEC was working hard to ensure conduct of credible election in the country and would need the support of all stakeholders.

The administrative secretary noted that INEC as a body established by the Federal Government derived its powers from the constitution.

She urged the students to utilise the opportunity offered by the new subject and be impacted with the right values.

She conferred on the school, an honorary award of “Voter Education Ambassador,” noting that the school was the first in the state to come up with such a brilliant idea.

Responding, Mrs Grace Dunkwu, a teacher in the school, thanked the commission for the honour bestowed on it.

Dunkwu said that the purpose of the visit was to seek cooperation from the commission in teaching the subject.

Highlight of the occasion was the presentation of teaching and learning materials to the school by the commission.

UBEC: In 7years 1million teachers have been trained

The Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) says it has committed more than N35 billion in training 1,172,700 primary school teachers across the country in the last seven years.

The Executive Secretary of the commission, Dr Hamid Bobboyi, made the disclosure on the side-line of a summit organised by Education Writers Association of Nigeria (EWAN) on Friday in Lagos.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Bobboyi, represented by his Deputy, Dr Sharon Oviemuno also said the commission had constructed e-libraries in unity colleges.

“The commission has spent over N35 billion in the training of 1,172,700 teachers across the country between 2009 and 2015.

“It also constructed and handed over 62 e-library complexes to some federal unity colleges and 51 Junior Model Girls Secondary Schools nationwide,’’ he said.

According to him, pursuing manpower and infrastructure development to strengthen basic education is part of the mandate of the commission.

The executive secretary, however, said the strides were being impeded by lack of political will and commitment to basic education by some state governments.

According to him, some of the states have been very slow in accessing matching grants to tackle challenges in the sector, while their budgetary provisions to the sector is also very low.

Bobboyi stressed that the schools system was still bedevilled by security challenges which must be tackled to develop people’s confidence and encourage enrolment.

He said focus must be made to strengthen the capacity of schools to provide spaces to the over 10.5 million out-of-school children in the country.

“We plan to create a 100 per cent access for school-age children to graduate from the Basic Education institutions, possess literacy, numeracy and basic life skills so as to live meaningfully and contribute to national development.

“We also target 100 per cent, basic education schools to have conducive teaching and learning environment.

“In terms of equity, we are striving to eliminate gender disparity in basic education, redress all forms of disadvantages and promote inclusive education.’’

According to him, the commission would also cater for young persons, who for one reason or the other had an interruption in their schooling, through appropriate complementary approaches.

Details..

UNILORIN has experienced 17yrs of uninterrupted academic sessions, worth applauding

The House of Representatives Committee on Higher Education on Friday applauded the University of Ilorin’s 17 years uninterrupted academic sessions.

The Chairman of the committee, Malam Aminu Sule, gave the commendation when he spoke with newsmen after an oversight visit to the institution in Ilorin.

He pointed out that as long as the scenario was acceptable to the teachers and students of the University; then, “kudos to Unilorin”.

Sule said that the committee, among others looked at factors militating against effective education in the nation’s tertiary institutions.

Sule also said that the committee examined how capital funds released to higher institutions were appropriated and expended.

He expressed regrets that some higher institutions had not fully appropriated the capital from 2016 budget as there were still uncompleted projects in some of the institutions.

“The budget has not been put to use to the latter,” he said.

The lawmaker said the government should examine factors responsible for strike in the nation’s tertiary institutions.

Shocking answers from Kaduna Teachers to 'Primary 4' questions

The Kaduna State government has released the answer scripts of some teachers who participated in the competency test set by the government.

Basic questions like the full name of the governor, the three state of matter and so on were found difficult to answer by some of the teachers.

The government said it plans to sack over 20,000 teachers who failed the test, a move opposed by the workers’ union.

These are the teachers, educating the leader's of tomorrow. Please what are our leader's of tomorrow supposed to learn from teachers that can't spell correctly.

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