Showing posts with label Education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Education. Show all posts
Friday, January 10, 2020
Video - Akiddie is an innovative educational app for children
Online learning has become so important and popular.Two young Nigerians have combined the power of technology with storytelling by developing an innovative e-learning app that tells African children's stories in their native language. CGTN's Deji Badmus has that story.
Tuesday, November 26, 2019
Nigerians spending half a billion dollars to school in America
The rot in Nigeria’s educational system is costing the country hundreds of millions of dollars.
Over the past academic year, the economic impact of spending by Nigerian students studying in the United States reached $514 million, data from the Institute of International Education shows. The figure outstrips the economic impact of students from France, Germany and the United Kingdom in the US.
Keeping in trend with a long-standing preference for seeking education abroad, Nigeria was the only African country ranked among the top 25 origin countries for international students in the US over the past year.
The entire budgetary allocation for education in Nigeria for 2019 came in at $1.7 billion (620.5 billion naira), which critics pointed out was 15% to 20% below the minimum level recommended for developing countries by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).
Nigerian students studying in the US crossed the 13,000 mark in the last academic year—double the number at the start of the decade. In comparison, there have never been more than 50 US students studying in Nigeria each year in the last decade.
The choice of seeking education in the US is largely driven by local problems. Perennial under-funding of education in Nigeria has resulted in significant decline in both the quality of teachers and infrastructure in schools. At the tertiary level, the problems are compounded by recurring strike actions by public university lecturers amid protests of low wages and benefits.
These problems have fueled a rise in expensive private universities which offer the promise of fixed calendars without strike action and better facilities as viable alternatives for middle and high-income families seeking higher standards. But there’s still a capacity problem as Nigeria’s university system, which holds over 150 schools, remains mostly over-populated. As such, only one in four Nigerians applying to university will get a spot. Between 2010 and 2015, only 26% of the 10 million applicants that sought entry into Nigerian tertiary institutions gained admission, according to Nigeria’s statistics agency.
The appeal of foreign universities also goes beyond the availability of better facilities as parents typically seek to unlock a higher level of opportunities for their children. It’s a sentiment that’s currently driving migration of middle-class Nigerians to Canada and Europe.
In cases where the students return home, their expensive, foreign degrees also provide an edge in Nigeria’s very competitive labor market. In comparison, about half of graduates from Nigerian universities annually are estimated to remain unemployed.
By Yomi Kazeem
Quartz
Over the past academic year, the economic impact of spending by Nigerian students studying in the United States reached $514 million, data from the Institute of International Education shows. The figure outstrips the economic impact of students from France, Germany and the United Kingdom in the US.
Keeping in trend with a long-standing preference for seeking education abroad, Nigeria was the only African country ranked among the top 25 origin countries for international students in the US over the past year.
The entire budgetary allocation for education in Nigeria for 2019 came in at $1.7 billion (620.5 billion naira), which critics pointed out was 15% to 20% below the minimum level recommended for developing countries by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).
Nigerian students studying in the US crossed the 13,000 mark in the last academic year—double the number at the start of the decade. In comparison, there have never been more than 50 US students studying in Nigeria each year in the last decade.
The choice of seeking education in the US is largely driven by local problems. Perennial under-funding of education in Nigeria has resulted in significant decline in both the quality of teachers and infrastructure in schools. At the tertiary level, the problems are compounded by recurring strike actions by public university lecturers amid protests of low wages and benefits.
These problems have fueled a rise in expensive private universities which offer the promise of fixed calendars without strike action and better facilities as viable alternatives for middle and high-income families seeking higher standards. But there’s still a capacity problem as Nigeria’s university system, which holds over 150 schools, remains mostly over-populated. As such, only one in four Nigerians applying to university will get a spot. Between 2010 and 2015, only 26% of the 10 million applicants that sought entry into Nigerian tertiary institutions gained admission, according to Nigeria’s statistics agency.
The appeal of foreign universities also goes beyond the availability of better facilities as parents typically seek to unlock a higher level of opportunities for their children. It’s a sentiment that’s currently driving migration of middle-class Nigerians to Canada and Europe.
In cases where the students return home, their expensive, foreign degrees also provide an edge in Nigeria’s very competitive labor market. In comparison, about half of graduates from Nigerian universities annually are estimated to remain unemployed.
By Yomi Kazeem
Quartz
Tuesday, September 10, 2019
Video - Nigerian entrepreneur creates jobs to drive economic empowerment
A multiple award-winning Nigerian professional Chef is turning her passion for food into an enterprise that is creating opportunities for young aspiring chefs. Fatima Haruna has trained over 80,000 people on various culinary skills and her classes are usually packed. She says her dream is to train as many young Nigerians as possible, so that they too- can become economically empowered.
Thursday, June 13, 2019
Plastic bottles paying for education in Nigeria
A school in Nigeria is accepting plastic bottles in lieu of school fees from parents. African Clean Up Initiative and WeCyclers are two organisations working with Morit International School in Ajegunle, Lagos, for the project, reports BBC. The Recycle Pay project allows parents to use plastic waste as currency to pay their children's school fees. The twofold positive impact of this scheme? Families save money while reducing plastic pollution and cleaning up the city in the process.
The process for the Recycle Pay project is simple: Parents can bring a bag of plastic waste to a facility where it is weighed. The weight is then converted into a monetary value, which can be deducted from the amount owed as fees to the school. The collected waste is taken away by a recycling company twice a month.
"I struggle to pay for school fees, sometimes I pay half the price and later pay the remaining balance," parent Sherifat Okunowo explained in an interview to BBC. "But with the introduction of this project, the plastic has made it easy for me to pay school fees."
"This project that is going on right now, I think is very, very good," another parent, Jane Enyinnaya, confirms. "It has really reduced the burden on parents."
The school's principal echoes this sentiment. "It has really reduced the burden on parents," he says. "We now collect fees faster-the school wins, the children win, the parents win, everybody wins."
According to My Modern Met, the Ajegunle district in Lagos has three million residents, making it one of the most densely populated slums in the county. The Recycle Pay project has not only helped clean up the area, it has also made access to education easier.
NDTV
The process for the Recycle Pay project is simple: Parents can bring a bag of plastic waste to a facility where it is weighed. The weight is then converted into a monetary value, which can be deducted from the amount owed as fees to the school. The collected waste is taken away by a recycling company twice a month.
"I struggle to pay for school fees, sometimes I pay half the price and later pay the remaining balance," parent Sherifat Okunowo explained in an interview to BBC. "But with the introduction of this project, the plastic has made it easy for me to pay school fees."
"This project that is going on right now, I think is very, very good," another parent, Jane Enyinnaya, confirms. "It has really reduced the burden on parents."
The school's principal echoes this sentiment. "It has really reduced the burden on parents," he says. "We now collect fees faster-the school wins, the children win, the parents win, everybody wins."
According to My Modern Met, the Ajegunle district in Lagos has three million residents, making it one of the most densely populated slums in the county. The Recycle Pay project has not only helped clean up the area, it has also made access to education easier.
NDTV
Tuesday, June 4, 2019
Students from Nigeria return home to heroic welcome after China contest
A team of 6 Nigerian students who emerged 3rd at the recently concluded Huawei Global ICT Competition in Shenzhen, China, have returned home to heroic welcome. At least 49 teams from 30 countries took part in this years contest.
Monday, April 29, 2019
Video - Nigerian libraries look to engage more readers
Nigeria lags behind globally in having a vibrant reading culture, despite producing several internationally acclaimed authors like Wole Soyinka and Chinua Achebe.
Wednesday, April 10, 2019
Video - More than 11,000 youths complete government skills training in Nigeria
In Nigeria, more than 11,000 young people have received start-up Kits. This is after completing Government-sponsored Skills Development Training. Nigeria has a record 26 million unemployed people -- and the government is exploring ways to change this.
Friday, March 29, 2019
Video - Nigerian-American teen feted for her girls' education campaign
Nigerian-American teen activist Zuriel Oduwole has been honoured by the Nelson Mandela Foundation for her work on girls' education in Africa. Before the age of 10, Oduwole started campaigning to keep girls in school. CGTN's Julie Scheier caught up with Oduwole, while she was in Johannesburg.
Thursday, January 24, 2019
Students uncertain of graduation due to strike in Nigerian universities
The futures of more than a million Nigerian university students are on hold as a lecturers' strike drags on less than a month before a presidential election, as Yemisi Adegoke reports from Lagos.
Olamide Tejuoso had been looking forward to the start of 2019.
She was expecting to be a fresh graduate beginning her career with a paid internship at a media company. The first step in realising her dream of becoming a writer after four years of studying at the University of Ibadan.
But instead of excitement, the communications student feels frustrated because of the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
Students at Nigeria's state-funded universities have not resumed their studies due to an indefinite nationwide strike by academic staff that began in November.
The union has accused the government of failing to honour past agreements over the redevelopment of tertiary education.
They are also protesting about poor facilities, poor funding and an alleged plan to increase tuition fees.
There have been talks between the union and the government but negotiations are dragging on.
'Can't make plans'
Meanwhile, the future of Nigeria's 1.2 million federal university students is in limbo.
"It's depressing," says Ms Tejuoso. "As a final year student, you have all these plans, but you're not seeing the reality."
"I should have graduated last December, but because of this strike I'm limited. I can't do any major travel, I can't take any major job because I don't know when we're going to resume."
She now keeps herself occupied by writing and trying to work on her final project.
Ms Tejuoso has also enrolled in a sewing class, but she is anxious and desperate to get back to university.
"We've had more than two months [of the strike] already and it's making the future look so bleak," she says.
"We don't know what's going to happen. Because of the elections, [resuming in] February is in doubt. We don't even know what the future holds for us."
ASUU president Biodun Ogunyemi, who himself has two children at public universities, says the strike is to secure the future of tertiary education, and ultimately the students' future.
'Restore dignity'
"We have always told our students and their parents what we're doing is in their own interests," Prof Ogunyemi says.
"We don't want them to earn certificates that will be worthless, we don't want them to get an education they can't be proud of, we want the restoration of the integrity of their certificates."
One of the major demands of the union is the implementation of past agreements and the spending of $2.7bn (£2.1bn) in total to revamp universities.
Annually, the government currently allocates about $1.8bn (£1.4bn) to the education sector overall, which accounts for 7% of federal government spending. Federal universities get nearly $750m of that.
But the lecturers say that it is not enough.
In a move to reassure striking workers, Employment Minister Chris Ngige said that the president was determined to "reposition our universities [and] will do everything possible to remove the present challenges".
This is the second strike since President Muhammadu Buhari came to power in 2015, but the tradition of the ASUU taking industrial action stretches back further than that.
Its members have been on strike almost every year since since the country's return to democracy in 1999.
Prof Ogunyemi, who became ASUU president in 2014, says this is because the education sector has been sidelined by successive governments.
"What is missing is how to get political leadership that will appreciate the role of education in the development of individuals and the country," he says.
With a presidential election less than a month away, both candidates of the major parties have talked about their commitments to education, promising to increase funding.
But despite the frequency of the strikes in the university sector, neither has raised the issue of labour relations in the tertiary sector in their party manifestos.
"This is election period. If one wants to campaign fully this is a place you should work on," says Lydia Agu Uka, a biochemistry student at the Federal University of Technology Owerri.
"But they ignore this crucial part, they focus on trivial matters, things that don't really count at all."
Since the strike began she has started selling second-hand items through a website. Earning money online has become a common way for Nigerian students to earn extra cash.
One of the country's most popular and successful employment websites, Jobberman, was started by three students during the 2009 ASUU strike.
Although Ms Agu Uka enjoys running her business she is worried about how the time off is affecting her studies.
"At a point you start to lose focus, which is not right," she says. "I don't know when last I actually opened a biochemistry textbook."
Despite this Ms Agu Uka and many other students support the aims of the strike.
But not all of her peers agree. The Nigerian Association of Students has accused lecturers of holding the strike for their own personal interests and have threatened mass protests.
While students like Ms Tejuoso are hopeful the outcome of negotiations will be successful there are concerns that if real action is not taken strikes will continue to be a constant feature of student life.
"Public universities are really, really suffering," she says. "It's a bad reality. We need the government to start focusing on our education."
BBC
Olamide Tejuoso had been looking forward to the start of 2019.
She was expecting to be a fresh graduate beginning her career with a paid internship at a media company. The first step in realising her dream of becoming a writer after four years of studying at the University of Ibadan.
But instead of excitement, the communications student feels frustrated because of the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
Students at Nigeria's state-funded universities have not resumed their studies due to an indefinite nationwide strike by academic staff that began in November.
The union has accused the government of failing to honour past agreements over the redevelopment of tertiary education.
They are also protesting about poor facilities, poor funding and an alleged plan to increase tuition fees.
There have been talks between the union and the government but negotiations are dragging on.
'Can't make plans'
Meanwhile, the future of Nigeria's 1.2 million federal university students is in limbo.
"It's depressing," says Ms Tejuoso. "As a final year student, you have all these plans, but you're not seeing the reality."
"I should have graduated last December, but because of this strike I'm limited. I can't do any major travel, I can't take any major job because I don't know when we're going to resume."
She now keeps herself occupied by writing and trying to work on her final project.
Ms Tejuoso has also enrolled in a sewing class, but she is anxious and desperate to get back to university.
"We've had more than two months [of the strike] already and it's making the future look so bleak," she says.
"We don't know what's going to happen. Because of the elections, [resuming in] February is in doubt. We don't even know what the future holds for us."
ASUU president Biodun Ogunyemi, who himself has two children at public universities, says the strike is to secure the future of tertiary education, and ultimately the students' future.
'Restore dignity'
"We have always told our students and their parents what we're doing is in their own interests," Prof Ogunyemi says.
"We don't want them to earn certificates that will be worthless, we don't want them to get an education they can't be proud of, we want the restoration of the integrity of their certificates."
One of the major demands of the union is the implementation of past agreements and the spending of $2.7bn (£2.1bn) in total to revamp universities.
Annually, the government currently allocates about $1.8bn (£1.4bn) to the education sector overall, which accounts for 7% of federal government spending. Federal universities get nearly $750m of that.
But the lecturers say that it is not enough.
In a move to reassure striking workers, Employment Minister Chris Ngige said that the president was determined to "reposition our universities [and] will do everything possible to remove the present challenges".
This is the second strike since President Muhammadu Buhari came to power in 2015, but the tradition of the ASUU taking industrial action stretches back further than that.
Its members have been on strike almost every year since since the country's return to democracy in 1999.
Prof Ogunyemi, who became ASUU president in 2014, says this is because the education sector has been sidelined by successive governments.
"What is missing is how to get political leadership that will appreciate the role of education in the development of individuals and the country," he says.
With a presidential election less than a month away, both candidates of the major parties have talked about their commitments to education, promising to increase funding.
But despite the frequency of the strikes in the university sector, neither has raised the issue of labour relations in the tertiary sector in their party manifestos.
"This is election period. If one wants to campaign fully this is a place you should work on," says Lydia Agu Uka, a biochemistry student at the Federal University of Technology Owerri.
"But they ignore this crucial part, they focus on trivial matters, things that don't really count at all."
Since the strike began she has started selling second-hand items through a website. Earning money online has become a common way for Nigerian students to earn extra cash.
One of the country's most popular and successful employment websites, Jobberman, was started by three students during the 2009 ASUU strike.
Although Ms Agu Uka enjoys running her business she is worried about how the time off is affecting her studies.
"At a point you start to lose focus, which is not right," she says. "I don't know when last I actually opened a biochemistry textbook."
Despite this Ms Agu Uka and many other students support the aims of the strike.
But not all of her peers agree. The Nigerian Association of Students has accused lecturers of holding the strike for their own personal interests and have threatened mass protests.
While students like Ms Tejuoso are hopeful the outcome of negotiations will be successful there are concerns that if real action is not taken strikes will continue to be a constant feature of student life.
"Public universities are really, really suffering," she says. "It's a bad reality. We need the government to start focusing on our education."
BBC
Monday, December 3, 2018
Video - Striking teachers, rigid government and students’ misery in education in Nigeria
It has been nearly a month since the students of government universities in Nigeria have had any class. For, the teachers have been on a strike protesting funding for education in the country. While those who can afford are moving towards private institutions, those who can’t are staring at an uncertain future as the deadlock between the government and the teachers continues.
Friday, October 12, 2018
MultiChoice opens film school in Nigeria
MultiChoice Talent Factory Academy, West Africa, officially opened on Monday in Lagos, with the objective of providing Africa’s next generation of film and television storytellers after a 12-month training programme. Speaking at the launch of the Academy, Lagos State Commissioner for Tourism, Arts and Culture, Mr. Steve Ayorinde, commended MultiChoice Nigeria for giving youths selected from across the country an opportunity to understand the film production.
Ayorinde said: “What MultiChoice did deserves huge commendation and these 20 students need to acknowledge the fact that stakeholders in the entertainment industry in Nigeria and across the continent expect a lot from them.”
Also speaking at the launch, Ghanaian Deputy Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Dr. Ziblim Iddi, congratulated the 20 students selected for the inaugural edition of the Academy and charged them to be committed. On his part, Managing Director, MultiChoice Nigeria, John Ugbe, said: “The film and television industry is the pioneer of creative industries in Africa and is particularly relevant as a tool for shaping the African narrative. “We have been telling authentic and well-produced stories that only Africans themselves can tell. But there is a lot of raw talent that need to be nurtured and polished. “The Academy will give such talent the opportunity to hone their skills, thereby increasing the pool of world-class talent. It is also about teaching the business of film and television.
“We are fortunate to have the calibre of broadcast partners that we do in M-Net and Africa Magic, who believe in this project and have been on it with us from the very beginning.”
Wednesday, August 29, 2018
Video - Digital innovation in Nigeria offering new learning opportunities
Here's a look at digital innovation that could offer an alternative learning opportunity away from the conventional education system.
Thursday, May 17, 2018
Video - Nigeria's Inspector General of Police struggles to read own speech
The Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, on Monday in Kano, inaugurated a Technical Intelligence Unit at the Kano State Command as part of renewed effort to curb crimes in the country.
Speaking at the occasion, Idris said that the facility, code named ‘COBWEB Solutions Intelligence Platform’ was established to enhance the Nigeria Police capacity for effective and responsiveness in the art of policing.
He said: “We are going to train our officers in the area of technical intelligence to enhance their capacity to address the intelligence challenges we are having in the country.
“The TIU in Kano for North West Zone, will aid police efficiency, effectiveness and their capacity to detect crime.”
Idris called on police commands in the zone to utilize the opportunity provided by the four technical intelligence platforms in Abuja, Lagos, Owerri and Kano to boost policing.
He said: “I will not relent on my efforts to ensure that the challenges of crime faced in the country, be it kidnapping, armed robbery, militancy and terrorism among others will soon be resolved with the use of TIU.
“The technical intelligence unit in line with international best practices will link all state police commands with technical intelligence COBWEB platform as soon as funds are made available.”
Idris said that the fight against insurgency, kidnapping, armed robbery, cattle rustling and other heinous crimes had systematically been won by 70 per cent.
He said that thousands of arms and ammunition have been recovered therefore making it difficult for criminals to access illegal arms for their criminal activities.
Idris said: “These achievements would not have been possible without the use of technical intelligence unit in Abuja managed by the Special Intelligence and Tactical Response teams.
“I have kept faith with the promise despite efforts at various quarters to distract me. Nigeria Police have recorded breakthroughs in crime prevention, detection, and prosecution among others.”
The IG assured Nigerians that the Police was doing everything possible to protect lives and properties in the country.
He appealed to Nigerians to be patient with the Police saying they are doing everything possible to tackle the challenges.
Speaking, the Commissioner of Police, Kano State command, Rabiu Yusuf, commended the Inspector General of Police for making the command one of the pilot states for the project.
He said the unit was saddled with the responsibilities of detecting and tracking down hoodlums as well as unfolding their heinous agenda.
Yusuf said: “The tracking system will reduce crime and criminality in the state, with a view to boosting economic activities.
In his remarks, Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State, represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Alhaji Usman Alhaji, expressed gratitude to the IGP for establishing the facility in Kano.
Ganduje said that establishing the unit in Kano, which is a mega city, would improve commercial activities and reduce the rate of crime in the state.
Related story: Video - How "Oga at top" became an internet meme
Tuesday, May 8, 2018
Video - Boko Haram hamper learning in North eastern Nigeria
Nigeria's government says more than 1,500 primary schools in the North have been destroyed by Boko Haram since 2014. The group continues to target schools as part of their campaign against western education.
Monday, April 23, 2018
Video - Nigeria authorities fire 4,500 teachers due to incompetence
The Nigerian government has sacked 4,500 teachers, recently recruited in the north-western state of Kaduna. Authorities say they are incompetent and not qualified to teach primary school pupils. Nigeria's local government has been trying to reform the education sector over the past year.
Thursday, April 19, 2018
Free food in school scheme changing education in Nigeria
Dozens of children cheer at the Baptist Nursery and Primary School compound in Bode-Ijaiye suburb of Abeokuta city, the capital of Ogun state, as their friends try to outpace each other on a 100-metre dash in a dusty field.
Ogun state inter-school football and track-and-field competitions are just around the corner, and teachers want to prepare the children physically and mentally for the task ahead.
Away from the laughter and shouts of encouragement on the field, four female cooks with aprons on top of traditional indigo-dyed adire gowns ladle porridge mixed with vegetables and fish into hundreds of stainless steel bowls with lids.
As the cooks ambled into a nearby classroom and began to place bowls on wooden desks, the 64 pupils remained quiet. After the dish was served, the students stood and began to sing "Bless this food O Lord for Christ sake Amen." Then they sat down and began to eat.
"I want to say a big thank you to the federal government of Nigeria and the Ogun state government for providing food for us," 10-year-old Ramon Samuel told Al Jazeera before opening the lid on his bowl.
Samuel and his classmates receive free meals every school day thanks to a national programme, which aims to provide nutritious meals to young schoolchildren in order to increase enrolment, help them stay in school, and reduce malnutrition, particularly among children from low-income families.
The Home Grown School Feeding initiative, a movement launched in 2003, is driven by national governments to improve the lives of schoolchildren and farmers alike. It is practised across the continent, including in Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Ethiopia, Namibia, Botswana, Ivory Coast, and South Africa.
The concept is not confined just to the continent as Brazil, Japan, and Italy have similar programmes aimed at keeping children fed while promoting local agriculture.
Though the scheme began in December 2016 in Nigeria, it is not entirely new here. Nigeria's former President Olusegun Obasanjo launched a pilot programme in 13 states in September 2005, but after a few years, only southwestern Osun state maintained it.
The plan was reintroduced by President Muhammadu Buhari in December 2016 as part of his administration's multi-million dollar National Social Investment Programmes to address poverty, hunger and unemployment in Nigeria.
The school programme operates in 20 out of Nigeria's 36 states and has fed nearly seven million pupils in about 40,000 public schools, the programme's manager Abimbola Adesanmi told Al Jazeera. She said more than 68,800 jobs have also been created through the initiative.
Deworming
Nigeria's programme also offers health services including deworming children in public primary schools across 17 states. Adesanmi said worms affect the health of schoolchildren, potentially causing anaemia, malnourishment, and the impairment of mental and physical development.
"In the short term, children with worms may be too sick or tired to attend school or to concentrate. Basically, we do not want to feed worms, rather children," she said.
Teachers in Ogun say the programme is not only helping young students stay in school, but also attracting those from private schools. Ogunkola Adefunke Deborah, headteacher of Baptist Nursery and Primary School, said her pupils now "come to classes regularly" and are "very punctual".
"We have over 80 new pupils, most of them came from private schools," she said. "Before you hardly see parents coming here, but now they come to ask us why their kids beg to be brought to school early and why they always return home with their pocket money."
Deborah shared an anecdote of a boy who refused to go home even when he was sick because he didn't want to miss a meal.
Rebecca Faronbi, 72, was devastated when her son died and left her with four grandchildren to take care of. Her three-year-old granddaughter now receives the free meals at school.
"Until the feeding programme started I was struggling to feed the children. My granddaughter wakes me up before 7am and tells me she wants to go to school because she will get free food there," Faronbi said in the Yoruba language, which is widely spoken in southwestern Nigeria.
Rampant malnutrition
Research has shown that 42 percent of schoolchildren in Nigeria suffer malnutrition, and this has caused a high rate of absenteeism.
UNICEF estimates about 2.5 million Nigerian children under the age of five suffer from severe malnutrition each year, with about half a million children dying from it.
With a quality assurance tracking system known as #TrackWithUs, the programme handlers have urged Nigerians to visit nearby schools to check if meals meet the required standards and report any cooks who aren't serving proper food.
Several cooks were fired in southern Cross River state last November for serving biscuits in lieu of meals.
"The campaign has helped us track activities in schools and strengthened our existing monitoring and supervision mechanism," Adesanmi said. "Since there is a reward and sanction system in place we have been able to name and shame cooks who do not comply with our standards."
A major barrier to the programme's success is the inability of state governments to scale up the meals to senior classes in elementary schools. The federal government caters to pupils from Grades 1 to 3, but with many states struggling to pay salaries, pupils in higher grades are not being fed.
Experts hope the government will not repeat the same mistakes made a decade ago when a combination of inadequate funding, poor logistics, and corruption crippled the scheme.
"We need to promote community participation, community ownership, community implementation, community monitoring, strong institutional arrangements and multi-sector partnerships," Adesanmi said.
Ogun state inter-school football and track-and-field competitions are just around the corner, and teachers want to prepare the children physically and mentally for the task ahead.
Away from the laughter and shouts of encouragement on the field, four female cooks with aprons on top of traditional indigo-dyed adire gowns ladle porridge mixed with vegetables and fish into hundreds of stainless steel bowls with lids.
As the cooks ambled into a nearby classroom and began to place bowls on wooden desks, the 64 pupils remained quiet. After the dish was served, the students stood and began to sing "Bless this food O Lord for Christ sake Amen." Then they sat down and began to eat.
"I want to say a big thank you to the federal government of Nigeria and the Ogun state government for providing food for us," 10-year-old Ramon Samuel told Al Jazeera before opening the lid on his bowl.
Samuel and his classmates receive free meals every school day thanks to a national programme, which aims to provide nutritious meals to young schoolchildren in order to increase enrolment, help them stay in school, and reduce malnutrition, particularly among children from low-income families.
The Home Grown School Feeding initiative, a movement launched in 2003, is driven by national governments to improve the lives of schoolchildren and farmers alike. It is practised across the continent, including in Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Ethiopia, Namibia, Botswana, Ivory Coast, and South Africa.
The concept is not confined just to the continent as Brazil, Japan, and Italy have similar programmes aimed at keeping children fed while promoting local agriculture.
Though the scheme began in December 2016 in Nigeria, it is not entirely new here. Nigeria's former President Olusegun Obasanjo launched a pilot programme in 13 states in September 2005, but after a few years, only southwestern Osun state maintained it.
The plan was reintroduced by President Muhammadu Buhari in December 2016 as part of his administration's multi-million dollar National Social Investment Programmes to address poverty, hunger and unemployment in Nigeria.
The school programme operates in 20 out of Nigeria's 36 states and has fed nearly seven million pupils in about 40,000 public schools, the programme's manager Abimbola Adesanmi told Al Jazeera. She said more than 68,800 jobs have also been created through the initiative.
Knock-on effect
Adeleke Adewolu is the commissioner of special duties and inter-governmental affairs in Ogun state. He said the meals are not only nutritious but also serve as a "social safety net" for low-income households.
"If children eat nutritious food it will enhance their learning ability and this will have a knock-on effect on their cognitive development and help to encourage enrolment and retention," Adewolu said.
The programme provides income for thousands of people, including farmers, cooks recruited from local communities, and those involved in the processing and transportation of food, he said.
In Ogun, the coordinating team collaborated with the ministries of education, health, agriculture, women's affairs and community development to divide farmers into cooperative groups and link them to about 3,000 cooks who were trained and deployed to more than 1,500 schools. Farmers received training in seed quality and fertilisers to grow enough food to meet demand.
The cooks - who are responsible for procuring ingredients for the daily meals - are given a budget of 70 naira ($0.23) per child each day. With help from the state government, they received 57,000 naira ($188) in loans to purchase water drums, pots, bowls, uniforms, and cooking utensils.
"It gives me great joy to help in feeding the children in Baptist Primary School," said Omole Imoleayo, who left a career in banking to join the programme. "We receive our payment without delays and I have more time for my family now."
Sourcing foods locally helps millions of small farmers who produce up to 90 percent of Nigeria's food but are mired in grinding poverty.
"This has created a well-structured market for the farmers since they now know how much to produce and when it is needed," said Tinuola Shopeju, Ogun's programme manager.
Shopeju said the initiative is a "perfect model" for addressing food insecurity and improving local agricultural production in Nigeria, which imports about $20bn worth of food annually.
The menu differs daily and every state adopts its own meal schedule. In Ogun, schoolchildren get rice, stewed fish, and beans but also delicacies such as Ikokore - a dish made from water yam.
Adeleke Adewolu is the commissioner of special duties and inter-governmental affairs in Ogun state. He said the meals are not only nutritious but also serve as a "social safety net" for low-income households.
"If children eat nutritious food it will enhance their learning ability and this will have a knock-on effect on their cognitive development and help to encourage enrolment and retention," Adewolu said.
The programme provides income for thousands of people, including farmers, cooks recruited from local communities, and those involved in the processing and transportation of food, he said.
In Ogun, the coordinating team collaborated with the ministries of education, health, agriculture, women's affairs and community development to divide farmers into cooperative groups and link them to about 3,000 cooks who were trained and deployed to more than 1,500 schools. Farmers received training in seed quality and fertilisers to grow enough food to meet demand.
The cooks - who are responsible for procuring ingredients for the daily meals - are given a budget of 70 naira ($0.23) per child each day. With help from the state government, they received 57,000 naira ($188) in loans to purchase water drums, pots, bowls, uniforms, and cooking utensils.
"It gives me great joy to help in feeding the children in Baptist Primary School," said Omole Imoleayo, who left a career in banking to join the programme. "We receive our payment without delays and I have more time for my family now."
Sourcing foods locally helps millions of small farmers who produce up to 90 percent of Nigeria's food but are mired in grinding poverty.
"This has created a well-structured market for the farmers since they now know how much to produce and when it is needed," said Tinuola Shopeju, Ogun's programme manager.
Shopeju said the initiative is a "perfect model" for addressing food insecurity and improving local agricultural production in Nigeria, which imports about $20bn worth of food annually.
The menu differs daily and every state adopts its own meal schedule. In Ogun, schoolchildren get rice, stewed fish, and beans but also delicacies such as Ikokore - a dish made from water yam.
Deworming
Nigeria's programme also offers health services including deworming children in public primary schools across 17 states. Adesanmi said worms affect the health of schoolchildren, potentially causing anaemia, malnourishment, and the impairment of mental and physical development.
"In the short term, children with worms may be too sick or tired to attend school or to concentrate. Basically, we do not want to feed worms, rather children," she said.
Teachers in Ogun say the programme is not only helping young students stay in school, but also attracting those from private schools. Ogunkola Adefunke Deborah, headteacher of Baptist Nursery and Primary School, said her pupils now "come to classes regularly" and are "very punctual".
"We have over 80 new pupils, most of them came from private schools," she said. "Before you hardly see parents coming here, but now they come to ask us why their kids beg to be brought to school early and why they always return home with their pocket money."
Deborah shared an anecdote of a boy who refused to go home even when he was sick because he didn't want to miss a meal.
Rebecca Faronbi, 72, was devastated when her son died and left her with four grandchildren to take care of. Her three-year-old granddaughter now receives the free meals at school.
"Until the feeding programme started I was struggling to feed the children. My granddaughter wakes me up before 7am and tells me she wants to go to school because she will get free food there," Faronbi said in the Yoruba language, which is widely spoken in southwestern Nigeria.
Rampant malnutrition
Research has shown that 42 percent of schoolchildren in Nigeria suffer malnutrition, and this has caused a high rate of absenteeism.
UNICEF estimates about 2.5 million Nigerian children under the age of five suffer from severe malnutrition each year, with about half a million children dying from it.
With a quality assurance tracking system known as #TrackWithUs, the programme handlers have urged Nigerians to visit nearby schools to check if meals meet the required standards and report any cooks who aren't serving proper food.
Several cooks were fired in southern Cross River state last November for serving biscuits in lieu of meals.
"The campaign has helped us track activities in schools and strengthened our existing monitoring and supervision mechanism," Adesanmi said. "Since there is a reward and sanction system in place we have been able to name and shame cooks who do not comply with our standards."
A major barrier to the programme's success is the inability of state governments to scale up the meals to senior classes in elementary schools. The federal government caters to pupils from Grades 1 to 3, but with many states struggling to pay salaries, pupils in higher grades are not being fed.
Experts hope the government will not repeat the same mistakes made a decade ago when a combination of inadequate funding, poor logistics, and corruption crippled the scheme.
"We need to promote community participation, community ownership, community implementation, community monitoring, strong institutional arrangements and multi-sector partnerships," Adesanmi said.
Tuesday, April 3, 2018
Video - Low job prospects for Nigerian graduates who studied abroad
The number of Nigerians who travel abroad for studies is on the rise. The trend is visible at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels and the destinations are varied and diverse. Many of these Nigerians are returning home after their studies, but are often unable to find employment.
Tuesday, January 30, 2018
French journalist asks acclaimed Nigerian author Adichie 'are there bookshops in Nigeria?'
On January 25 at “La Nuit des Idees” (The Night of Ideas) in Paris, French journalist Caroline Broue asked the author of several award-winning books, including Half of a Yellow Sun, Purple Hibiscus and Americanah, whether her books were read in her home country of Nigeria, and if there were bookshops.
“I think it reflects very poorly on French people that you have to ask me that question … You’ll be shocked to know that they are, yes ... They are read and studied, not just in Nigeria but across the continent of Africa,” Adichie responded.
The author was then asked to speak about her country, as Broue admitted that the French know very little about Nigeria, “certainly not enough”, and when the French do speak about Nigeria “it’s about Boko Haram and the problems of violence and security”.
“I do not expect a French person to know almost everything about Nigeria. I don’t know almost everything about France. But to be asked to ‘tell French people that you have bookshops in Nigeria because they don’t know’ is to cater to a wilfully retrograde idea – that Africa is so apart, so pathologically ‘different,’ that a non-African cannot make reasonable assumptions about life there,” Adichie responded
Adichie said that she was taken aback when her “Intelligent, thoughtful and well prepared” interviewer asked a question that was “far below the intellectual register of her previous questions.”
“I know now that she was trying to be ironic ... it was a genuine, if flat, attempt at irony and I wish she would not be publicly pilloried,” Adichie said.
Thursday, December 14, 2017
Nigerian teachers shortlisted for $1million Global Teacher Prize
Two Nigerians are among 50 finalists shortlisted for the 2018 Global Teacher Prize.
The winner, which will be announced March next year in Dubai, will receive $1 million prize money for being “an exceptional teacher who has made an outstanding contribution to their profession,” according to the information posted on the Global Teacher Prize website.
The shortlisted Nigerian teachers are Itodo Anthony and Ayodele Odeogbola of the Gateway Excel College Otukpa, Benue State, and the Abeokuta Grammar School, Ogun State, respectively.
The prize, which is considered the ‘Nobel Prize for teaching’, is sponsored by the Varkey Foundation, a non-profit organisation with interest in the education of underprivileged children around the world.
“The prize serves to underline the importance of educators and the fact that, throughout the world, their efforts deserve to be recognised and celebrated,” says the organisers of the prize.
“It seeks to acknowledge the impacts of the very best teachers – not only on their students but on the communities around them.”
The organisers said that one of the shortlisted Nigerians, Mr. Anthony, founded a community-based organisation for youths – New Frontiers Youth Forum – in May 2017 and used it to raise young leaders who in turn would act as the agent of positive change within the community.
“This October, The Forum commissioned a community library. The community had no library where students and others could study in comfort or have access to resources they could afford,” the organisers said.
They said further of him: “At the beginning of his career, in a small rural school in Nigeria, not many people understood why Anthony would get a masters degree from a UK university and end up teaching in a village for ‘peanuts’.
“But this was part of his mission – to elevate the teaching profession to a place of pride, to say with his own life that the profession is a noble one whose value is not tied to how much we earn. Today, the same people who mocked his decision to teach especially in a rural area are publicly celebrating his and his students’ successes.
“When he teaches in class he tries to introduce positive values from other parts of the world to broaden their view of life. When he told them that in some European countries a woman gets half the property at divorce, it shocked them, coming from a culture where gender inequality is grave and women can actually be kicked out of their husband’s homes at will.
“So he preaches the virtues of justice, institutional soundness, community service, value creation, among others that are elements from other cultures that can help create an ideal value system in Nigerian youth.”
An obviously elated Mr. Anthony reacted to his shortlisting thus, in a post he put up on Facebook, Wednesday: “As a Top 50 finalist, a teacher becomes a part of the prestigious Varkey Teacher Ambassadors programme, which has the Top 50 finalists from the past three editions as members.
“For me this is one of the biggest attractions of the prize, the opportunity to share a platform with over 200 of the world’s finest teachers, to learn and share best practices.
“Top 50 was my primary target and I achieved that.
“In the past three editions of this prize no Nigerian teacher made Top 50 and that was pretty unsettling for me, seeing how Kenyan teachers dominated African representation. This year we are two Nigerians, me and my friend Odeogbola Ay. I am happy we’re changing the narrative and opening the path for other Nigerian teachers,” he said.
The winner, which will be announced March next year in Dubai, will receive $1 million prize money for being “an exceptional teacher who has made an outstanding contribution to their profession,” according to the information posted on the Global Teacher Prize website.
The shortlisted Nigerian teachers are Itodo Anthony and Ayodele Odeogbola of the Gateway Excel College Otukpa, Benue State, and the Abeokuta Grammar School, Ogun State, respectively.
The prize, which is considered the ‘Nobel Prize for teaching’, is sponsored by the Varkey Foundation, a non-profit organisation with interest in the education of underprivileged children around the world.
“The prize serves to underline the importance of educators and the fact that, throughout the world, their efforts deserve to be recognised and celebrated,” says the organisers of the prize.
“It seeks to acknowledge the impacts of the very best teachers – not only on their students but on the communities around them.”
The organisers said that one of the shortlisted Nigerians, Mr. Anthony, founded a community-based organisation for youths – New Frontiers Youth Forum – in May 2017 and used it to raise young leaders who in turn would act as the agent of positive change within the community.
“This October, The Forum commissioned a community library. The community had no library where students and others could study in comfort or have access to resources they could afford,” the organisers said.
They said further of him: “At the beginning of his career, in a small rural school in Nigeria, not many people understood why Anthony would get a masters degree from a UK university and end up teaching in a village for ‘peanuts’.
“But this was part of his mission – to elevate the teaching profession to a place of pride, to say with his own life that the profession is a noble one whose value is not tied to how much we earn. Today, the same people who mocked his decision to teach especially in a rural area are publicly celebrating his and his students’ successes.
“When he teaches in class he tries to introduce positive values from other parts of the world to broaden their view of life. When he told them that in some European countries a woman gets half the property at divorce, it shocked them, coming from a culture where gender inequality is grave and women can actually be kicked out of their husband’s homes at will.
“So he preaches the virtues of justice, institutional soundness, community service, value creation, among others that are elements from other cultures that can help create an ideal value system in Nigerian youth.”
An obviously elated Mr. Anthony reacted to his shortlisting thus, in a post he put up on Facebook, Wednesday: “As a Top 50 finalist, a teacher becomes a part of the prestigious Varkey Teacher Ambassadors programme, which has the Top 50 finalists from the past three editions as members.
“For me this is one of the biggest attractions of the prize, the opportunity to share a platform with over 200 of the world’s finest teachers, to learn and share best practices.
“Top 50 was my primary target and I achieved that.
“In the past three editions of this prize no Nigerian teacher made Top 50 and that was pretty unsettling for me, seeing how Kenyan teachers dominated African representation. This year we are two Nigerians, me and my friend Odeogbola Ay. I am happy we’re changing the narrative and opening the path for other Nigerian teachers,” he said.
Friday, December 8, 2017
Video - Nigeria's Non-Academic Staff Union calls for higher pay, improved working conditions
Members of Nigeria's Non-Academic Staff Union -- NASU -- have gone on strike. Union leaders argue that the government must do more to improve working conditions and salaries at the 60 state universities across the country.
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