By Kingsley Okoye

A bill seeking to establish the Federal University of Technology and Environmental Sciences, Iyin-Ekiti in Ekiti, has passed second reading in senate.

The passage followed the consideration of the bill at the plenary on Thursday.

Presenting the bill, its sponsor, Sen.Bamidele Opeyemi (APC-Ekiti) said the bill, when passed into law would develop world-class technologists, as well as the human resources needed to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Bamidele, who is the Senate Majority Leader said that the purpose of the bill is to create more access to university education in view of the large number of qualified candidates seeking university admission.

According to him, the applicants are annually stranded in their failed attempts to gain admission into universities in the country.

“The objectives of the university are, first and foremost, to set up an ultra-modern institution that will develop world-class technologists, as well as human resources that can sustainably manage our nation’s economy by providing technical and management expertise at the highest level.

“The university, when established, will further advance knowledge through research and nurture unique technological innovation, entrepreneurship and wealth management in its core area of interest.

“Mr. President, distinguished colleagues, the enactment of this bill will help in transforming the technological and educational fortune in producing the desired manpower and expertise that Nigeria is yearning for, to exponentially speed up our economic growth and ensure sustainable development,” he said.

Contributing, Sen.Ahmed Lawan (APC-Yobe) recalled that the bill was passed by the 9th National Assembly.

Lawan said, “I wholeheartedly support this bill, the bill is worthwhile because technology and environmental sciences are very important, indeed crucial, for every country worldwide, especially in the 21st Century.

“If we want to develop, like most countries are today, we have to move away from being extremely traditional. We cannot afford to continue with this basic things. In most cases, outdated courses are taught in our schools or universities.

“This is the 21st Century and human beings, more appropriately, human resources, should be the source of developing our country, we have had petroleum from the 1950s to date, ” he said.

The former senate president said that it was high time to establish institutions that are 21st Century inclined to engender knowledge-based economy.

“We are still grappling with poverty, unemployment and so on. Some countries have nothing, but human beings, yet they have made tremendous progress, a good example is Singapore.

“Aside, most countries are now embracing knowledge-based economies, I believe the time is right.

“When we establish a new institution, it should be an institution that will provide education and enlightenment for the 21st Century development agenda,” he added.

Corroborating Lawan’s position, Sen.Victor Umeh(LP-Anambra) said that the university would focus on technology and environmental sciences.

“In this country, Mr. President, time has come when we shall be establishing specialised universities to pursue certain areas and fields of knowledge.

“By focusing on the advancement of technology and environmental sciences, we are confining this university to these two important areas.

“When we produce graduates from this university, we will be thinking of graduates with excellent knowledge,” Umeh said.

The Deputy President of the Senate, Sen. Barau Jibrin, referred the bill to the Committee on Tertiary Institutions and Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) for further inputs.(NAN)

By Usman Aliyu

A don, Prof. Lucky Abdulsalami, has alerted that libraries may go into extinction unless librarians learn to adapt and seek out creative answers to societal change for effective library and information services marketing.

Abdulsalami, who is the Librarian of the Igbinedion University, Okada, Edo, stated this on Wednesday in Okada, while delivering the 23rd Inaugural Lecture of Nigeria’s premier private university.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the lecture is titled “Marketing of Library and Information Services: The Role of the Library”.

The don noted that though libraries remained the best source of wisdom and knowledge, the introduction of new technology and its application in libraries had opened up new avenues for marketing the library and its services.

“Libraries and library professionals are attempting to seize possibilities to beat out competitors – commercial vendors and technology specialists – in the age of competitive competition.

“Most libraries across the world have begun to sell library and information services, and have created a record for each event for accreditation.

“As a result, libraries are developing marketing and promotion strategies to provide suitable services that will satisfy the needs of current trends while respecting, identifying and changing demands of more difficult users,” said the university librarian.

Abdulsalami, who is the first to deliver an inaugural lecture from the Department of Library and Information Science of the institution, advocated excellent library services, and appropriate staffing and facilities in the context of marketing librarians and the services they provided.

“With increased alternatives for information, librarians must learn to gain a competitive edge and promote the added value in the services they provide.

“For effective information handling and management, effective marketing should be used to promote access to library and information services as a panacea towards sustainable libraries in the digital age,” he asserted.

Earlier, Prof. Lawrence Ezemonye, the Vice Chancellor of the university, said the occasion was significant in the career of an academic staff member and held to acknowledge appointment or promotion of full professors.

An inaugural lecture, the vice chancellor, said provided a platform for sharing discoveries, ideas and insights with the public and the larger academic community as well as engaging the town and gown.

Ezemonye, who recounted recent developments in the university, said the school had expanded its collaborative research with local and international partners to enhance knowledge production for national and global development. (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Muhammad Suleiman Tola

By Ruth Oketunde

Stakeholders in the education sector have identified multiple school levies as one of the key factors driving Nigerian children out of school.

The stakeholders spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on the sidelines of a ground-breaking summit on Nigeria’s out-of-school crisis, hosted by the UK charity, IA-Foundation, which ended in Lagos on Sunday.

The theme of the summit was: “Street to School: Panacea to a Menace”.

In her contribution, the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of IA-Foundation, Mrs Ibironke Adeagbo, argued that government at all levels should take immediate steps to discourage multiple levies in schools.

She said that multiple levies in schools were imposing heavy burdens on many parents, forcing them to resort to the option of withdrawing their children and wards from schools.

According to her it has become imperative to apply practical, proactive and pragmatic approaches for Nigeria to change the narrative in the out-of-school crisis.

The British-born Adeagbo, who has thrown her hat into the ring to make the difference in Nigeria’s education sector, lamented that having 20.2 million out-of-school children in Nigeria was distressing.

“In global comparison, one out of every five out-of-school children is in Nigeria.

“UNESCO says that Nigeria has 20.2 million children out of school, which give or take is 10 per cent of our population.

“If this does not keep you awake at night, I wonder what does.

“This menace should be a burning issue and should no longer be business as usual.

“Together, we shall strive to make a difference that will help change the current trajectory,” Adeagbo said.

On her part, Mrs Mojisola Hunponu-Wusu, a panelist at the event, said that everyone must contribute to the reduction of out-of-school children in Nigeria.

“Members of the family should realise that there must be a contribution to that and reallocation of what they consider a priority for children both male and female to be educated to optimal levels,” she added.

Also speaking, a traditional ruler, Oba Adedokun Abolarin, commended IA-Foundation for raising the bar by taking young Nigerian children back to school.

“I commend your vision for ensuring a better future for our country through the activities of IA-Foundation.

“I commend you for tenaciously doing what many of us ought to be doing as social entrepreneurs and as people who can pivot into the future using the past as a model,” he said.(NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

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Edited by Silas Nwoha

By Ruth Oketunde

Human rights lawyer and activist, Femi Falana has called on the National Assembly (NASS) to step into Nigeria’s worrisome out-of-school crisis, to save the future of the country.

Falana made the appeal in a speech he read at a Summit on Nigeria’s Out-of-School Crisis, hosted by the UK charity, IA-Foundation in Lagos at the weekend.

The outspoken activist said that refusal of state governments to make counterpart contributions to the Universal Basic Education Fund in the country was hampering access to basic education in Nigeria.

A 2022 UNESCO report had said that approximately 20 million children are out of school in Nigeria, which is Africa’s most populous nation.

Falana in his speech, made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Sunday, stressed the need for the NASS to act fast, lamenting that the number of out-of-school children in the country was alarming.

According to him, in pursuant to Section 2 of the Compulsory Free Universal Basic Education Act, it is important for the states governments to make counterpart contributions to the Universal Basic Education Fund, which has continually been ignored.

The activist argued that the NASS should ensure an amendment of the constitution to empower the accountant-general of the federation to deduct the counterpart fund payable by every state government from source.

“In June last year, the Executive Secretary of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Mr Hamid Bobboyi, bemoaned the refusal of state governments to provide counterpart funding and access the annual matching grants given by the commission to develop their basic education system.

“The commission was particularly concerned that about N110 billion of the intervention funds accessed from UBEC were not utilised by the states in 2021, with the money left in the coffers of State Universal Basic Education Boards (SUBEBs).

“Sometime in 2017, we learnt that the Federal Government had decided to refund state governments all monies so far deducted from their accounts to meet the London Paris Club obligations.

“We were able to convince the Federal Government to deduct the counterpart fund that the state governments had failed to contribute to the Universal Basic Education Fund.

“The suggestion was accepted by the Federal Government and that was how the sum of N71.3 billion was deducted from source and remitted to the account of UBEC.

“Thereafter, UBEC added the matching grant of N71.3 billion and the states received a total of N142.6bn for the provision of needed facilities in public primary and junior secondary schools in the country.

“What the National Assembly should do is to address the refusal of state governments to make counterpart contribution to the Universal Basic Education Fund pursuant to Section 2 of the Compulsory Free Universal Basic Education Act.’’

According to him, the National Assembly should as a matter of urgency, ensure the amendment of the constitution to empower the accountant-general of the federation to deduct the counterpart fund payable by every state government from source.

Falana explained further that since each of the 36 states of the federation had adopted the Child’s Rights Act and enacted a Child’s Right Law, it had become the joint responsibility of the federal, state and local governments to ensure that every Nigerian child was given an opportunity to acquire free and compulsory education.

He added that the Discrimination Against Persons With Disabilities (Prohibition) Act, 2019 guaranteed free education up to senior secondary school level for every person with disability.

“In the same vain, all public schools, whether primary, secondary or tertiary shall have at least one personnel trained to cater for the educational development of persons with disabilities or special facilities for the effective education of persons with disabilities.

“These laws have been observed in their breach because the members of the political class, drawn from all registered political parties have not demonstrated any commitment to the education of every child in Nigeria.

“The members of the legislative and executive organs of governments have failed to appreciate the danger of having 18.5 million out-of-school children, the highest in the world.

“Therefore, amending the Compulsory Free Universal Basic Education Act to make it more stringent for parents will not work in a poverty-stricken environment,” Falana stated. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Silas Nwoha

By Angela Atabo

The European Union (EU) has announced the investment of an additional 5.4 million euros in building the capacity of teachers in the Northwest.

The EU Commissioner for International Partnerships, Jutta Urpilainen, made this known at the official launch of the 4O million Euro intervention programme on education and youth empowerment in North Western Nigeria through the Global Gateway initiative.

According to Urpilainen, the investment is in line with EU’s commitment to crash the high number of out of school children in the Northwest region of Nigeria by improving access to quality education and empowering youths in the region.

“This component is complemented by a 5.4 million euro separate programme that we signed today, which is dedicated to teachers aiming to build their resilience and capacity in challenging environments.

“We have to remember that there is no education without teachers and that’s why we also have to invest in teacher training.

“The third objective of our programme is really that it empowers youth with the skills they need, providing vocational education as promoting behavioral change campaigns to challenge harmful social norms and empower girls,” she said

Urpilainen said that the European Union was equally out to provide vocational education and training for Nigerian youths in order to equip them with the necessary skills required to excel in the Labour market.

“This ambitious programme launched today has been designed with Nigerian authorities to ensure the ownership and an adequate response to the local needs.

“The EU is not only targeting the youth through this specific programme, it is also bringing the youth to the driving seat and this is why as the EU, we set up the Youth Sounding Board, also here in Nigeria, as well as in many countries to make sure that what we do is for the youth but also by the youth.”

Urpilainen said that young people had to be included in decision making, creating spaces and structures where young people would feel visible.

She said that Nigeria was not only the economic powerhouse on the continent and the most populous country in Africa, but also a strategic partner of the EU in the West region.

She, therefore, said that the programme would focus on lifting out of school children off the streets to get the required education, especially girls through various components aimed at achieving one objective; access to quality education and youth empowerment.

“Education is the most transformative sector in which we can invest and it is the cornerstone for creating resilient societies and finding solutions to the biggest challenges of our time.

“So the EU investment on access, skills and quality education and youth empowerment in North-western Nigeria brings actually all these different components together. It will be deployed in Northwest Nigeria.”

Urpilainen said the programme launched, apart from tackling out of school children, would also include direct assistance to families, cash transfers, social protection, income generation, gifts and indirect assistance through agricultural practices.

She added that another objective of the programme is to promote validated teaching and learning in targeted schools.

She said the programme would support child centred medical, sexual reproductive health, racial gender equality training and support community-based and state-level capacities to deliver on education.”

Responding on behalf of the Northwest governors, Gov. Umar Namadi if Jigawa, commended the EU for supporting the region to address the scourge of out-of-school children .

“The Northwestern states have the highest population in the country, we are more disadvantaged when it comes to education so this support is coming at the right time.

“For each of us, education is a priority and we have decided collectively and individually to invest in education and we are ready to change the narrative in the next four years.

“This support has come at the right time and I assure you that this support will go a long way in helping us to revamp education in our various states.

“This intervention we will utilise in the best way possible and I assure you that the outcomes would be something commendable to improve our educational system and other aspects of social development,” he said.

The Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman, said that education was key to development and that youths needed to be empowered to succeed .

“If our youths are not properly catered for, trained and empowered, we are toying with the future of the country. Not catering for them will allow poverty to grow and insecurity to foster.”

Mamman called on the state governors to focus on prioritising education and youth empowerment, adding that the soon to be released education sector roadmap covered the same objectives of the European Union in revamping the sector.

He said that the Ministry’s focus is to shift to basic education to tackle out-of-school children, adolescent girls who need to be trained and empowered.

He added that the government is ready to commit 25 per cent of the budget on education.

“All the President needs, according to him, are policies that will justify that budget and that is what we are working on,” Mamman said. (NAN)

Edited by Vincent Obi

By Funmilayo Adeyemi

Hon. Abubakar Fulata, Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on University Education has called for salary increment for primary, secondary and university teachers.

The chairman said the teachers should  earn N250,000, N500,000 and N1 million respectively as monthly renumeration.

Fulata was speaking at a One-Day National Stakeholders’ Workshop on the Development of a Roadmap for the Nigerian Education Sector (2023-2027), in Abuja on Thursday.

Fulata said that it is important for Nigerian teachers to be more encouraged by paying them adequately to teach the children.

He also stressed the need to translate all subject textbooks into local languages so as to catch up with the world.

According to him, efforts have been made by past administrations as regards the country’s education but those efforts had not yielded the  desired results.

“It is a thing of concern that from decades, several efforts on policies made by successive government to resuscitate and improve the education sector and those efforts have continued to create very little progress.

“All over the world, the subject of language of instruction has always been local language of those countries. If you go to the UK, education is taught in English, if you go to France, education from the basic level up to the tertiary level is taught in French.

“It is in Nigeria that you teach language of instruction in English. Our problem has always been that we are teaching our children subjects they ought to have been taught in their local language.

“All Mathematical, Physics, Chemistry textbook and what have you should be in our local languages. There is no way we can catch up with the world if we continue teaching our children in a foreign language.

“No primary school teacher should earn less than N250,000 in a month, no secondary school teacher should earn less than N500,000 and no university teacher should warn less than 1million in a month.

“The nation must declare a state of emergency in education. We must commit at least 25 per cent to 30 per cent of our national budget to education.

“It is high time we pay them adequately so that them can teach our children,” he said.

The Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, said that the ministry has great policies on papers but they are not meeting the needs of the people.

Mamman explained that the country’s education does not translate to the needs of the society, hence the need to critically have a roadmap that would translate to development.

He added that those roadmaps must however be implemented within the shortest timeline.

“President Bola Tinubu has charged the ministry to do all it can to reposition the sector.

” We have problems that has been militating the visions, missions and objectives on ground. We have great and fantastic policies but the issue is that our people are not seeing our problems addressed.

“We have institutions churning out graduates who are not employable and we cannot go on like this forever.

“So, in line with our President’s mandate, we must have a roadmap to guide the implementation of how to take the sector forward.

” The idea of the conference is to have a whole lot of time for implementation of our policies,” he said.

He charged participants to work within limited time so that Nigerians could begin to feel the impacts of the policies made within the timelines.

He pledged to engage state governments on the ministry’s crusade to move the sector forward.

In the same vein, the Minister of State for Education, Dr Yusuf Sununu, emphasised the need to recognise gender mainstreaming in the roadmap so that Nigeria will have the benefit of a balanced education system.

“Education, you would all agree is one sector of development that Nigerians have been known to speak with one voice in terms of its importance to development.

“However, this recognition of its importance is yet to translate to tangible results that show that an educated person stands a better chance of living a fulfilled life.

“This disconnect, between purpose and reality, could be said to be responsible for inadequate attention to the sector, wrong perceptions of the relative importance of the different forms and types of education.

“Indeed, I must also say that the inability of our youths to gain employment after going through the rigors of academic may be responsible for a gradually building dis-interest in the pursuit of education,” he said.

Sununu, however, said this trend must be curtailed to make Nigerian education responsive to every day realities and beneficial to the individual as well as the nation. (NAN)(www nannews.ng)

Edited by Julius Toba-Jegede

By Justina Auta

The Civitas Auxillium Foundation (CAF), an NGO, Wednesday, donated desks with chairs, books and writing materials to six schools inside Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp in Wasa District in the FCT.

The Chief Operations Officer and Founder of CAF, Mrs Elizabeth Duille, said the effort was part of the organisation’s “CAF-Kit a Child School Outreach Programme”, supported by Equipping the Needy Initiative, Abuja.

Duille said the initiative targets less privileged children, particularly those in IDP camps, to ensure they have access to quality education, educational materials to enable them to explore their potential and achieve their dreams.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the benefitting schools included Moving Star Academy, Tanzak Best Academy, Seat of Wisdom Academy, ECWA Zion Academy, Deseret Preston Academy and Well Bred Academy.

She said: “The aim of this organisation is to support vulnerable women and children, who have been victims of violent conflicts across Nigeria, and most of them reside in the IDP camps.

“There are over 5,000 IDPs residing in this camp.

“So, we selected six schools with an average of 800 pupils that we are currently working with.

“We identified their needs and discovered that there was no basic infrastructure in over 50 per cent of them.

“They have no chairs, schoolbooks to write and, of course, textbooks.”

According to Duille, the foundation provided wooden desks with attached chairs, 2,000 notebooks and kits of writing materials, including biros, pencils, erasers for the schools.

“Our aim is to ensure that they access quality education and learn in an environment that is conducive, where they can actually sit on desks rather than the floors to learn,” she said.

She further said that the organisation also supports women in IDP camps with training, loans and equipment to enable them to source a living and ensure smooth transition back into society.

“We empower women at the IDP camps to ensure that they begin to have their lives back.

“Some actually do have skills but do not have resources to start up anything financially to cater to their families.

“We believe that everyone should have the dignity of earning and the dignity of having to sustain himself or herself and their families.

“They can actually become able to move out of the camp and live in a society where there is dignity, where there is infrastructure and where they will not be having that stigma of saying we were in IDP camps,” Duille said.

A representative of Equipping the Needy Initiative, Mr Nathaniel Agu, reiterated their commitment to helping the needy, orphans and vulnerable groups in society.

“This will go a long way in putting smiles on the faces of these children and I urge the government and other stakeholders to support them to make Nigeria a better place,” Agu said.

Speaking on behalf of the schools, Mr Abdullahi Atiku of Tanzak Best Academy expressed appreciation to the foundation for its donation and efforts in ensuring that the less privileged students could also achieve academic excellence.

Atiku appealed to the State and Federal Governments and other well-meaning organisations to support schools in IDP camps to ensure that no child was left behind in accessing quality education.

Similarly, a parent, Mr Aliyu Haliru-Adamu, said the donated items would relieve them from the burden of spending their lean resources on such items for their children.

A student, Faith Yohanna, said: “This gesture will go a long way to help us learn in a more conducive environment.

“Most of us came from the North-East because of insecurity, so the books and other learning materials will help save our parents’ money and enable us to have the other things we need in school.” (NAN)

Edited by Sam Oditah