The authorities of Rivers State Universal Basic Education Board (RSUBEB), Port Harcourt, say a total of 36,015 pupils across the 23 local government areas of the state have been enrolled into the BESDA programme in the state
The Director, Research, Planning and Statistics of the state UBE board, Evangelist Emmanuel Ogbugo disclosed this while giving the scorecard of the programme during a one-day training/capacity workshop organised by the board to create and train LGA safeguards regulatory team held at St Andrew’s Anglican Primary School in Port Harcourt over the weekend.
Ogbugo, while giving the scorecard, said out of the 36,015 pupils enrolled into the programme, 18,430 were girls’ while 17,585 were boys, adding that the figure represents 32% of the 110,654 out-of-school children in the state as captured in the NEDS 2015 data report
According to him,1,225 facilitators have so far been engaged ,14,400 jolly phonics books distributed , 40,000 free school uniforms, ,40,000 free school sandals as well as 1800 other supplementary reading books have also been distributed across the 15 participating LGAs in the state.
He averred that the achievements recorded by the state BESDA team was due to collaborative support from non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and civil society organisations in the state, adding that over 13.2 million children were out of school across the country.
He described the BESDA programme as introduced by the World Bank, the Federal Government, UBEC and the state government as an interventionist approach to ensure that every child in the country has access to education .
“All hands must be on deck to ensure that those roaming the streets are brought back to school because they are the ones constituting environmental problems in the society,” he stated.
Also speaking, the Director, Social Mobilisation (DSM) and the BESDA team leader in the state, Mr Ogwe Ibe in his opening remarks said the essence of the workshop was to train the safeguards regulatory teams across the 23 local government areas on the BESDA environmental and social safeguard rules with regards to BESDA programme and its implementation
He said similar workshops had been held to disseminate proper information on BESDA environmental and social safeguards programme, adding that BESDA programme was designed to enable every child have access to education and reduce environmental hazards in the society.
Delivering a lecture on the topic: Addressing Violence or Abuse ‘Against Children,’ the Director, Legal/Administration, Barr Karibi George said violence against children ranges from emotional, physical and sexual abuses, adding that children were at risk of violence from other students, teachers or older youths either at school or at home.

By: Akujobi Amadi

The Niger State Government has revealed that 80 per cent of staff of the State Ministry of Education are allegedly working with forged certificates from the state-owned College of Education, COE, Minna.
This development came to public glare due to the ongoing screening of all staff of the state workforce.
The screening committee during the exercise discovered that 80 per cent of the staff of the ministry have been working over the years with fake certificates obtained from the state-owned College of Education.
It was gathered that the mastermind of the certificate racketeering of the institution has been nabbed by the State Police Command over the issue.
Reacting, the Chairman of the Screening Committee and state Commissioner for Works, Engineer Ibrahim Mohammed Panti, told journalists in Minna that the five members of staff of COE fingered in the forged certificates scandal have offered useful information to the police as investigations were on to unravelling more on the issue.
He said, “ The suspected printer had admitted during interrogation that he had printed and sold out unspecified number of such fake certificates to many students which they have used and still using to secure employment within and outside the state.”
The Commissioner stated that most of the culprits in the fake certificates scam could neither write their names correctly nor communicate in simple English language.
He also disclosed that all the culprits have already been sacked and will be replaced as soon as possible with those having genuine Certificates.
“All the vacancies are going to be filled with people with genuine certificates.
“The essence of the screening is to determine the actual staff strength of our workers and block all wastages through over bloated salaries,” Panti said.
The chairman further revealed that the committee members have received several threats from some faceless persons suspected to be part of those involved, warning, “we will not be deterred in concluding the assignment given to us by the state government.”

The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the October 10 governorship election in Ondo State, Mr Eyitayo Jegede, has described an increase in tuition fees by the state government as a wicked act.
He promised to reduce the tuition fees of tertiary institutions in the state if elected.
He made the promise at the palace of Olukun of Ikun Akoko in the Akoko South West Local Government Area of the state.
“Most of the leaders who deliberately increased school fees benefitted from free education during their time; so all we can say is that it (increment in tuition fees) is a wicked act,” he said.
In his remarks, the Olukun of Ikun, Oba Michael Adedoyin, commended Jegede for his maturity and violence-free campaigns. Particularly referring to the clash between the supporters of the PDP and the All Progressives Congress in Oba Akoko, Oba Adedoyin said Jegede stands commended for not involving in the clash.
“I really thank you for not retaliating, which could have led to bloodshed; and it is not good to shed blood simply because you want to get to power,” he said.