Connect with us

Education

FG Organises Leadership Workshop For Head Teachers, Principals

Published

on

No fewer than 218 head teachers and school principals nationwide are to  benefit from the Federal Government’s Academic Leadership Workshop.
The Director-General, National Teachers’ Institute, Kaduna, Prof. Garba Azare, disclosed this at the maiden edition of the Academic Leadership Workshop organised for head teachers and school principals in Abuja last Tuesday.
Azare said the leadership workshop was part of the nationwide capacity building workshop for Nigerian teachers under the 2017 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) project.
He said this phase of the workshop would cover new areas of digitalý literary and academic leadership.
“These two additional components are deemed to be very crucial in the quest to revolutionise the education sector in the country.
“While ICT is generally regarded as a tool for a complete overhaul of teaching and learning transactions in the school set-up, it cannot be relied on to achieve the much needed transformation without functional leadership to drive it.
“Schools can be lucky to have all the requirements for effective two-way transaction but may under perform if the right calibre of leaders are not appointed for them.
“It is a against this background that the institute deems it expedient to include academic leadership in the array of its workshop components.”
He said the training was aimed at equipping head teachers and school administrators with effective classroom process techniques.
He said it was designed to develop their management skills on how to promote school and community relationship to achieve improved students’ performance.
Azare said the government was determined to equip them with management process.
According to him, the government is determined to acquaint them with roles and responsibilities of school managers and administrators with emphasis on team building, effective communication, mentoring, coaching and counselling.
In her remarks, Senior Special Assistant to the President on SDGs, Mrs Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, said her office had recognised the crucial role of head teachers in the attainment of SDG4.
According to her, capacity building workshops for teachers have been designed to enhance the capability of public sector basic and senior secondary school teachers for more effective performance.
“It is also to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education nationwide where no one will be left behind; the main objectives of the SDGs is that no one should be left behind.
“The inclusion of head teachers by NTI in this training is a sign that they do not want anyone to be left behind.”
Orelope-Adefulire, represented by Dr Ify Okegbu, said there was a need to build synergies to ensure that head teachers were recruited, empowered, properly trained and retrained.
She urged the participants to work hard and achieve the objectives of the training and ensure that they shared whatever they learnt with their colleagues.
In his remarks, Mr Ani Bassey-Eyo, Director, Axiom Learning Solutions, the technical consultants for the workshop, said the programme was aimed at building a crop of academic leaders.
Bassey-Eyo urged the participants to impart the learning outcomes in their students.
“It is not just about getting a certificate but ensuring every child leaves school with something be it a sport, music or academics.
“Everyone of you must start to put simple plans to build that teacher, that corps member in your community so they also can be future mentors,” he said.
ýThe News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that three-day workshop holding from July 17 to July 19, will be held simultaneously in six state capitals in the six geo-political zones.
The centres include  Abuja, Akure, Bauchi, Benin, Enugu, and Kano.ý
ý
The 218 participants were selected as follows: three head teachers and three Junior Secondary School principals or vice-principals per state and two participants from the FCT.

Continue Reading

Education

Former VC Advocates Drug Test For University Lecturers

Published

on

Prof. Muhammad AbdulAziz, the immediate past Vice Chancellor of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU), Bauchi state, has advocated drug tests for lecturers to sanitise the university system.
Mr AbdulAziz stated this in a valedictory speech to the Senate of the University at a handing-over ceremony to his successor, Prof. Sani Kunya, the new acting Vice Chancellor of the institution.
While commending the decision by the Federal Ministry of Education to introduce drug tests for students seeking admission to all universities, he said such tests should be extended to lecturers.
According to him, it would further sanitise the university system and promote sanctity and academic excellence.
“We have discussed with the Federal Ministry of Education and they want to introduce to all universities that before any student would be registered in the universities, he or she must undergo drug tests.
“If students should undergo drug tests, I believe that even some of us, the lecturers, need to undergo the same test so that we know our status.
“We also have to volunteer ourselves to have this test done on us because we have to sanitise the university.
“If the students are to be subjected to drug tests to determine their mental health status, nothing is wrong if the lecturers too are subjected to the same test.
That is the only way to check excesses in the university system,” he said.
Mr AbdulAziz said the modest achievements recorded during his tenure were in the areas of infrastructural development, academic content development and community services.
He said the achievements recorded could not have been made possible without the support of all stakeholders in the system.
He appreciated the federal government for the support rendered to the University through the Federal Ministry of Education and its various agencies like the National Universities Commission and the Tertiary Education Trust Fund.
Read Also:Students to undertake drug test before admission UniAbuja
Also speaking, the new acting VC of the university expressed gratitude to the Senate for finding him worthy of the honour and to the federal government for his confirmation.
“I want to assure you that I will justify the confidence reposed in me by not disappointing you all.

Continue Reading

Education

Don Seeks 20%Increased Budget Allocation To Education

Published

on

A  Professor of Economics in the Faculty of Social Sciences University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Prof Willie J. Okowa has called on government at all levels to increase her  Education  sectorial budgetary  allocation to twenty percent of their annual budget , saying that such efforts will improve the development of education in the country.
Okowa said each government wether local, state or federal governments should devote an increased proportion of her annual budget to education such that in the next five to ten years , so that we can see at least 20 percent of her budget to the education sector.
He made this call while presenting the 42nd convocation lectures at  the just concluded Iaue convocation ceremonies held at the university auditorium in port harcourt, recently.
He posisted that the economy has a nexus with sustainable higher education to the effect that a robust economy plays a key role in the sustainability of higher .education , while a sustainable higher education plays a supportive economic growth and development
“On the hand,a failing economy can hardly support a sustainable higher education”.
According to him ,a growing economy easily provides the finances to fund sustainable higher education while a education provides the relevant skills and the manpower needs required to propel economic growth and development,”of course, The Inadequate provision of higher educational facilities will fail to the manpower needs required by the economy to support its growth and development”
“The ability of an economy to adquately find higher education also depends on the rate of the population ,the higher the rate of growth of population, the more the number of the people that require higher education .Hence ,a rapid population growth puts more pressure on the ability of the economy to adquately fund higher education, irrespective of its performance.”
“Population growth , economic growth and the adequate funding of higher education are therefore intricately interlinked.The adequacy of the funds that an economy provides to finance higher education also depends on how well the managers of our education institutions manage such funds.
If people who lack character , integrity and merit are appointed to helms of affairs institutions,then funds can hardly be adequate .on the other hands ,if people of character, integrity and merit are given such appointments ,then the outcome will be much better” he stated.
The erudite scholar opined that Nigerian universities and colleges are also passing through strange times and outlined outdated laboratories , inadequate classrooms, adding that many students involved in drugs and prostitution.

By: Akujobi Amadi

Continue Reading

Education

Bauchi Govt Threatens To Revoke Scholarship Of Unserious Students

Published

on

The Bauchi State government has cautioned that it will cease payment of external exam fees for Senior Secondary Three, SS3 students found skipping classes.
Commissioner for Education, Jamila Dahiru gave the warning in Bauchi during her school resumption inspection and monitoring visits to some schools on Wednesday.
The Tide’s source recalls that Governor Bala Mohammed earlier allocated N396.9 million for the 2023/2024 external exams of 14,170 students in public schools.
The external examinations paid for included the West African Examination Council, WAEC, the National Examination Council l, NECO, National Board for Arabic and Islamic Studies (NBAIS) and the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB.
However, the Commissioner, who was furious with the low level of attendance of especially the SS3 students in some schools, recounted how she met less than 20 percent of the SS3 students who were around when she visited a particular school.
She stressed the need for students to return to class and prepare diligently, threatening to revoke scholarships for ‘unserious ones.’
Her words: “We just realised that most of these students, after being taught from JSS1 to SS3 and with Gov. Bala Mohammed paying for their external exams, and as soon as they were done with their mock exams, they left school and won’t return until the first day of their external exams.
“It is sad to acknowledge that we are not responsible as parents because I want to believe that they have parents who are seeing them attending schools simply because they are getting ready to just write their external examinations.
“We want to make them come back to class, we want to emphasize that we are investing in the right people because it is just telling us that it is the government that bothers about their education while they don’t care and probably their parents that are allowing them to stay at home also do not care.

Continue Reading

Trending