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Ministry Urges Schools To Equip Students With Skills, Trades

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The Federal Ministry of Education has urged school owners to ensure that students get functional education inclusive of skills and trades that could be translated into means of livelihood in the future.
A Deputy Director, Senior Secondary Education Department in the Federal Ministry of Education, Mr Achede Joseph, said this at the opening of Strategic Plan Meeting on Monday in Abuja.
The meeting, which focused on leveraging low cost education in Nigeria, was organised by Knosk #100 A-Day School in Kuje.
Joseph said the need for functional education could not be overemphasised, especially from early learning years.
“We, at the Federal Ministry of Education are no longer interested in just paper qualifications of graduates; we want children that will come out of school with skills.
“Education now goes beyond paper certification to acquisition of functional skills that could be translated into means of sustenance and livelihood.
“That is why we the federal ministry of education are empowering the federal colleges especially the federal technical schools.
“By properly equipping these schools so that our children will not just come out with just paper qualifications but will have tangible trades and skills”, he said.
Joseph said the government had also mainstreamed into the educationally curriculum skills acquisition programmes because it realized that skills were the major drivers of the world’s development.
Joseph lauded the Knosk #100 A-Day school for empowering their students with valid skills that would make them graduate and go into businesses and entrepreneurship instead of looking for white collar jobs which were unavailable.
He commended the school for using its little resources to provide solution to the country’s spate of out-of-school children.
He said that the school needed to be recognized and commended on a public platform in order to draw the attention of more funders and sponsors and to also motivate other school owners to absorb out-of-school children.
Founder of the Knosk #100 A-Day School, Mr Kingsley Bangwell, said the school and its project were all primarily established and designed for children from the poorest households and it remained committed to ensuring that the education was affordable.
He said if out-of-school children menace was not addressed at the grassroots, it portended a lot of challenge.
“If this children did not go to school today, in ten years time they would be younger adults without skills, without livelihoods and because they must survive, they will put the rest of us at risk by engaging in illegal means of sustenance.

“So, we are doing what we can to support government because government alone can’t solve this problem, we are doing what we can as a private organization to keep as many children as possible in school and that’s why we set up this school in Kuje.

“The students here get books, uniforms, lunch, sanitary pads for the girls and computer based education.

“And we have run this school primarily raising money on social media by asking people to adopt or sponsor a child in order to keep them in school”, he said.

Bangwell said that it cost #66,000 per term to keep a child in school and many well meaning Nigerians, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and even other private schools had been supporting the school.

According to him, “we’ve been on social media, on Instagram, on Facebook just telling the story of these kids by posting online.

“People visit our pages to see, some come physically to the school to verify someone from the UK had to send someone come check the school before he made a donation.

“So we have donations from Nigerians, non-Nigerians, donations from Australia, Japan, US, and from people we don’t even know, they just watch our social pages, they check and they come to support us.

“And It’s four years now that we’ve been running the school and while we thank support from NGOs like the Grant from MacArthur foundation, we also need more support for our teachers and primarily for the students”, he said.

He called for more sponsorship from individuals, the government and private organisations to keep the school running and keep the students in school.

Bangwell said that the vision of the school was to replicate it across Nigeria and in Africa by the year 2025.

Mrs Olusola Bankole, Member of the Board of Trustees of the School, said that she hoped the strategic meeting with educational stakeholders would attract the right sponsors, partners and donors.

“This event was set up to project the school and its activities to the public and to draw the attention of potential partners and donors.

“We want to be able to let others also know that there is such a school and that this is how far we have gone, these are the impacts we have made and this is what we intend to do in the next phase of our activities.

“Another major essence of this meeting is also to promote the impacts of what we are doing in education; you know one of the basic purposes of education in the Nigerian constitution is to give every child the right to quality education

“But we noticed that what some of these students are even getting is less than quality, what it means is that even the Nigerian government needs to work and the education ministries need to work to meet up with educational standards in the country”, she said.

She urged  the government should look into the spate of out-of-school children and support schools such as Knosk who where providing solutions to the menace.

She reiterated that quality education was expensive and that the welfare of the children in the school could not be left for the school management alone or a few partnering sponsors.

“We currently have the support of the MacArthur Foundation but nobody should miss the facts that education is expensive and quality education is even more expensive.

“The cost of what we give to the children is enormous but without supports we may not be able to continue doing what we are doing.

“Supports from well-meaning people and even support from other private schools who are aware that we are doing the right thing is what has kept the school running and we need more support to ensure that no child is left behind”, she said.

She said that there were various ways to support and keep the students in school, including monthly support, annual, quarterly and continuous.

The Tide’s source reports that Knosk #100 A-Day school is a low cost school for underprivileged children in Kuje community.

The school provides school uniforms, books, lunch and sanitary pads for the girls with a daily fee of #100 per student.

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JAMB Decries Use Of Fake Results For Admission

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The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has decried the high level of forgery of A Level certificates used for the registration.
JAMB Registrar, Professor Is-haq Oloyede, who raised the alarm, recalled that the Board had commenced the 2023 Direct Entry registration on Monday, 20th February but immediately suspended it following the discovery of the plethora of devices and machinations to circumvent and compromise the standard of A ‘level qualifications required from DE candidates.
He disclosed that out of 148 candidates verified by Bayero University Kano (BUK), only 6 were found to be genuine.
“By implication 142 of the results were forged. Oloyede said. Bayero University, Kano (BUK) has also consistently brought to the fore the high rate of forgery of A’Level qualifications for DE.
“It was discovered that in previous years, some candidates used unacceptable and forged A’ level certificates/ qualifications to register for Direct Entry and eventually got admitted. For example out of 148 candidates verified by BUK, only 6 were found to be genuine. By implication 142 of the results were forged.
“The Board, concerned stakeholders and institutions are working assiduously to detect such and the ones already found are being dealt with according to the provisions of the law.
“In order to further checkmate the anomaly and to also prevent recurrence of such irregularity, the Board has decided that the 2023 DE registrations will not only be restricted to JAMB (Professional Test Centres (PTCs) but will also be done under strict supervision,” Oloyode said.
“The Board has provided additional guidelines to all DE registration outlets (JAMB-owned centres), Officers of the Board and candidates on the 2023 Direct Entry registration exercise:
“At the point of registration, all candidates must fill in Registration/Matriculation Number of the previous school attended where the qualification was obtained; Subject(s) of qualification; Awarding Institution; Institution actually attended”, he said.

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‘Nigerians Have Lost Confidence, Trust In INEC’

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As post-election crisis gathers momentum, the European Union Election Observation Mission (EU EOM) to Nigeria’s 2023 general elections has declared that Nigerians have lost confidence and trust in the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) owing to lack of transparency and operational failures.
The EU EOM Chief Observer, Barry Andrews, made the assertion at a Media Briefing to present the Mission’s second preliminary reports, in Abuja, Monday.
Andrews noted that although Nigerians had great appetite for democracy and keen to engage in various civic activities, their expectations were dashed.
According to him, the apathy recorded at the governorship and states House of Assembly elections conducted last Saturday was a clear consequence of failures by political elites and “unfortunately, INEC.”
Andrews said: “Obstruction and organised violence limited the free expression of the will of the voters, despite efforts by civil society to promote democratic standards.
“Throughout the Mission, we saw that Nigerians have a great appetite for democracy and are keen to engage in various civic activities. However, in many parts of the country, their expectations were not met.
“Many were disappointed and we witnessed voter apathy that is in part, a clear consequence of failures by political elites, and unfortunately, also by INEC.
“Positively, INEC introduced some corrective measures ahead of Saturday’s polls, allowing a timely delivery of sensitive materials and improved use of election technologies, yet, the institution continued to lack transparency.”
The Mission also observed that voting started early with INEC ad-hoc officials present and ready to serve voters, but the exercise was unfortunately, disrupted by “multiple incidents of thuggery and intimidation of voters, polling officials, observers, and journalists”.
The Mission noted that Lagos, Kano, and other States in the Southern, Northern and Central parts of the country were mostly affected, adding that the election was equally characterised by casualties, fatalities, as well as vote-buying, which according to the observers, further detracted from an appropriate conduct of elections.
“EU EOM observers also saw misuse of administrative resources, including through various financial and in-kind inducements to voters, giving an undue advantage to the party in power.
“Furthermore, the protracted deadlines for candidacy disputes created uncertainty for voters and electoral contestants alike, while clear underrepresentation of women as candidates demonstrated a stark lack of internal party policies to support constitutionally prescribed inclusion

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‘Youths To Benefit From Climate Change Innovation Hub’

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The Clerk to the National Assembly (CNA), Sani Tambuwal, has expressed optimism that the recently established National Climate Change Innovation Hub would help in harnessing the potential among Nigerian youths towards addressing climate issues.
The CNA stated this during the commemoration of the 2023 Commonwealth Day with the theme ‘Forging A Sustainable And Peaceful Common Future’ held at the instance of National Assembly management, in Abuja, Monday.
Represented by the Deputy Clerk, National Assembly (DCNA), Barrister Kamoru Ogunlana, Tambuwal observed that the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and other climate issues in the world if not properly managed, would posed great danger to world peace and a sustainable future.
He assured that Federal Government had put measures in place to address some issues on climate change through the establishment of youth climate change hub to harness their ideas and include them in decision-making process as well as develop long-term vision for zero gas emissions.
In her presentation, Mrs. Rabi Audu stressed the need for concerted efforts from all stakeholders towards forging a sustainable and peaceful environment.
Audu also urged the youths to engage in activities and programmes that would promoter innovations and inclusivity for all.
According to her, governments and parliaments have to increase opportunities for schools across the Commonwealth countries, adopt higher education partnerships and development programmes that would lead to economic growth, social inclusion and environmental conservation.
While noting that the establishment of more programmes like the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) would aid the attainment of these, Audu further stressed the need for Commonwealth member countries to establish technical and vocational education that would help in gainfully equipping the youths with skills to further tackle high rate of youth unemployment.
Some of the students who participated in the programme tasked parliaments across Commonwealth member States on the need to hold their governments to account particularly on the areas of public spending, international crisis, investment sustainability and promotion of the benefits of inclusive and diverse representation in truly open societies.

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