Education
Prolonged ASUU Strike Infringes on the Right of Nigerian Youth to Education, Says Moghalu
For eight months now, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has been on strike. The prolonged strike constitutes a serious infringement on the right of Nigerians, especially the youth, to education. According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, education is a fundamental human right for everyone.
Arising from a press statement signed by Kingsley Moghalu,
Convener, To Build A Nation (TBAN) and former Deputy Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, said Nigeria has had too many ASUU strikes for any meaningful university education system. But the current strike has simply gone on for too long. Whereas industrial actions are legitimate, they become dysfunctional when they become protracted.
He lamented That the government has allowed the current ASUU strike to continue for many months, by not reaching agreement with the lecturers, is very unfortunate. It amounts to a dereliction of the duty of the government to the wellbeing of the citizens. This strike has inflicted mental torture on university students, who are left to wonder when they will complete their programmes.
Kingsley Moghalu,
Convener, To Build A Nation (TBAN) and former Deputy Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria
Sadly, the ASUU strike falls into an established pattern. The government has not given due attention to education. The country has been underinvesting in education for years and is far behind its comparator developing countries and emerging economies in terms of public investment in education. For instance, the allocation to education as a percentage of Nigerian government’s total expenditures averaged just 7.7% between 2015 and 2020. In comparison, South Africa’s budgetary allocation to education was consistently above 18% in the same period, rising above 20% in 2020, according to data by the World Bank.
At a time that the government was negotiating with ASUU over pay – even if the payment platform has dominated the negotiation – it submitted the 2021 Appropriation Bill in which only 5.6% of the total public expenditures was allocated to education. This indicates that the government is not giving enough considerations to the major issue in its long history of dispute with ASUU. The main issue has been the funding of the tertiary institutions, of which the emoluments of the lecturers are just a part.
The ASUU strike now needs to end. To demonstrate commitment to adequate funding of education, the government needs to withdraw the 2021 Appropriation Bill and increase its allocation to education to at least 15%. This is a necessary first step to signal the wider reforms that are necessary to reposition the country’s education system.
But it is not enough to throw money at problems. Education in Nigeria needs comprehensive reform. Such reform must include: 1. Review of tertiary institution admission criteria and standards, balancing access to education with quality of education; 2. Curriculum review to ensure priority for science, technology, vocational skills and entrepreneurship; 3. Review of educational pedagogy; 4. Massive investments in learning equipment and other educational infrastructure; 5. Fundamental improvement of teacher pay (part of the subject of the ASUU strike); 6. Fundamental overhaul and strengthening of the regulation and regulatory oversight of the education sector; 7. Restoration of the CULTURE of education as a priority value system for Nigeria.
New Officials to oversee the affairs of the 2007 set of Old Student Association, Federal Government College Kano State, have been elected.
Among those elected are Lieutenant Babagida Adamu President, Hope Anigbe Vice President while Okon Andrew emerged Vice President two.
Others include Doctor Hassan AbdulRahman Secretary General, Bernard Odiba Financial Secretary, Rahmat Bashir Auditor, Fatima Mohammed Yakubu as Treasurer with Jafar Umar Welfare Officer.
The rest are; Theresa Enuulu Assistant Welfare Officer, Patience Ogbaji Public Relations Officer (PRO), Bashir Yusuf Legal Director, Daniel Obaga Sports Director as well as Rahmat Idris Editor, among others.
The election which was conducted during the 2020/2021 annual reunion of the 2007 set of the school saw the new officials emerged unopposed.
In his acceptance Speech, the President of the Association, Babangida Adams promised to work for the unity and progress of the Association, noting that he will not let members down.
In a remark, the principal of the school, Bello Rabeh, commended the efforts of the 2007 set at coming together to celebrate and foster unity among themselves.
He charged them to remember the almamata as God blesses their endeavors.
View Full List Below:
President: AB Saleh
VP 1: Hope Anegbe
VP 2: Okon Victor Andrew
Secretary General: Hassan Abdulrahman
Asst. Sec. Gen: Hauwa Ibrahim
Fin. Sec. 1: Bernad Odiba
Fin Sec 2: Rahmat Bashir
Treasurer: Fatima Mohd Yakubu Jafar Umar
Welfare 2: Theresa Patience Ogbaji
Legal Adviser: Bashir Yusuf
Auditor: Daniel Obaga
Editor: Rahmat Idris
Ex-Officio 1: Abba Tijani
Ex-Officio 2: Fatima Ladan
Chairman, Reunion Committee. – Sulaiman A. Sulaiman
Chairman, Student’s Academic Committee: Hussein Abdulrahman
Chairman, Student’s Counselling Committee: Sadiq Ahmed
Chairman, Fundraising Committee: Zakari Ahmad
Chairman, Disciplinary & Constitution Review Committee: Ibrahim Buratai
Education
Borno Governor Approves N624.3m For Payment Of Scholarship Grant To 23, 776 Indigenous Students
With an ongoing effort to sustain his educational programme, Borno State Governor, Professor Babagana Umara Zulum has approved N624.3m for payment of scholarship to 23,776 citizens of Borno State in 49 tertiary schools across Nigeria.
The Commissioner for Higher Education, Science, Technology and Innovation, Dr Babagana Mustapha Mallambe who announced this in a statement on Sunday, disclosed that payments to students have already began with N320m paid to students in nine institutions, under the first batch while second batch of students will start getting payment on Monday, January 18, with the sum of N304.3m to be disbursed.
“From a total of N624,370,000 approved and released by His Excellency, Prof Babagana Umara Zulum, for scholarship to 23,776 Borno students, the ministry has disbursed N320m under the first batch, to students in nine tertiary schools located in Borno State. Those paid include part 4 and 5 students of University of Maiduguri, students in Borno State University, Ramat Polytechnic Maiduguri, Sir Kashim Ibrahim College, College of Education Waka – Biu, Mohammed Goni College of Legal and Islamic Studies, College of Business Administration Konduga, Umar Ibn Ibrahim College of Education, Science and Technology-Bama and those in Mohammet Lawan College of Agriculture” Mallambe announced.
The commissioner added, that from Monday, January 18, 2021, the ministry will begin the disbursement of another N304,370,000 to Borno students in 40 higher institutions across Nigeria.
Dr Babagana Mustapha Mallambe also disclosed that Governor Zulum had approved financial support to resident doctors of Borno origin located in different parts of the country, to enable them fund capacity development programmes that would be potentially beneficial to Borno people in the long run.
The National Examinations Council (NECO) has released the internal Senior Secondary School Examination (SSCE) results with a two per cent increase of candidates who made five credits and above in all subjects.
Nation reports that the Council also derecognised 12 schools for their involvement in mass cheating and whole school cases of malpractice.
The Registrar, Professor Godswill Obioma, who announced these at the NECO Headquarters in Minna said the schools derecognised include four schools in Adamawa, two in kaduna, two in Kastina, Two in Niger, one in Taraba and one in FCT.
NECO
According to him, 24 supervisors were blacklisted for various offences ranging from poor supervision, aiding and abetting, connivance with non candidates to write answers on chalkboards.
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