TheNewsGuru

Tag: Schools

  • Ondo declares three-week holiday as floods submerge schools

    Many schools and communities have been submerged by floods in Ondo State, Southwest Nigeria, as a result of the unabated torrential rains being experienced in many parts of the country.

    This made the State Governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu to direct public primary and secondary schools submerged by the floods to proceed on three weeks of holiday from Monday.

    Mr Donald Ojogo, Commissioner for Information and Orientation, in a release on Saturday, said the directive followed flash floods which affected most flood-prone areas in the state, especially the riverside communities.

    According to the commissioner, “the order becomes necessary in order to forestall possible attendant incidents that may likely affect lives of vulnerable pupils in those areas as a result of the floods.

    “It is also aimed at protecting valuables from avoidable destruction.

    “All Head Teachers and Principals are to enforce this directive and, in particular, ensure that all perishable educational materials are evacuated while government works out remedial logistics, believing that the floods would recede within the period of the three weeks holiday,” Ojogo said

  • Why We're Returning Ekiti Schools to Missions – Fayemi

    The Ekiti State Governor, Kayode Fayemi, has explained that his administration’s policy to return schools to missions will further improve the quality of education in the state.
    He said the implementation of the policy would commence in September and the schools to be returned would be named at the start of the next academic session.
    Mr Fayemi made this known while hosting the Prelate of the Methodist Church, Nigeria, Samuel Uche, in his office in Ado Ekiti on Friday.
    He said the return of the schools would stamp the administration’s respect for values, promising that government would work out an efficient and workable model as practised in other states where schools had been transferred back to the missions.
    He said that his government would pay the teachers and give grants to the schools while the missions would take care of administration.
    On security, Mr Fayemi assured that the measures put in place by his administration to tackle the farmers-herders clash and crime in the state would be stepped up so that the peaceful disposition of the state will be sustained.
    He warned that anyone caught engaging in any criminal act would be made to face the consequences and addressed as a criminal irrespective of the tribe.
    Speaking earlier, the cleric said the purpose of his visit was to pray for the governor and the state.
    He described Mr Fayemi as a good product Ekiti State is lucky to have, judging from his antecedents during his first term as governor and as minister in the mines and steel ministry.
    He pleaded for the transfer of some Methodist schools in the state back to the mission so that godly morals would further be instilled in the students.

  • Election postponement: Lagos Orders Private, Public Schools to Resume Monday

    Public and private schools in Lagos State have been directed to resume on Monday, February 18, 2019 as against Tuesday, February 19, 2019 contained in the earlier reviewed calendar.

    This followed the postponing of the presidential and National Assembly elections on Saturday, February 16, 2019 by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

    As a result of the postponement of the polls, the Lagos State Government effected a change in the school calendar.

    Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Mrs Idiat Oluranti Adebule, who supervises the Ministry of Education in the state, announced the new change in the calendar on Saturday.

    She informed all the Lagos State School stakeholders and the general public that all schools in Lagos state are expected to close on Friday, February 22 and resume on Monday, February 25.

    Mrs Adebule said the second leg of the break will be on Friday, March 8, 2019, with the resumption fixed for Monday, March 11, 2019.

    “All public and private schools, school leaders and school associations are implored to take note and adhere strictly to the new School Calendar.

    “This measure is to ensure that the academic development and future of the pupils and students of the state are not compromised by the alteration of the election time table,” the Deputy Governor said.

  • ‘2,300 teachers killed, 1,000 schools destroyed by Boko Haram’

    The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) says Boko Haram has killed 2,300 teachers in Nigeria’s northeast since the start of the insurgency in 2009.

    According to the 2018 UNESCO global education monitoring report (GEM), the UN agency said 19,000 teachers have been displaced in the region, affecting access to education.

    “In north-eastern Nigeria, as of late 2017, there were 1.6 million IDPs, including an estimated 700,000 school-age children, as a result of violent attacks on civilians by Boko Haram, which began in 2009 (UNOCHA, 2017b),” the report read in part.

    “Boko Haram has destroyed nearly 1,000 schools and displaced 19,000 teachers (HRW, 2016). Reports indicated it had killed almost 2,300 teachers by 2017 (UNOCHA, 2017a).

    “The latest education needs assessment found that out of 260 school sites, 28% had been damaged by bullets, shells or shrapnel, 20% had been deliberately set on fire, 32% had been looted and 29% had armed groups or military in close proximity.”

    UNESCO decried the shortage of qualified teachers in the northeast, stating security and poor remuneration as reasons why the teachers are emigrating from the region.

    “Ongoing safety concerns, coupled with teacher salaries that do not cover even basic expenses and delays in payment, perpetuate a shortage of qualified teachers,” UNESCO added.

    “Most of those who remain work on a voluntary basis”.

    The report also revealed that there is a shortage of teachers in the Almajiri school system, predominant in northern Nigeria.

    “In the almajiri system, a teacher can be responsible for up to 100 students, predominantly poor boys who often end up on the street begging for alms,” the report read.

  • Why Edo Govt. will not handover schools to missions yet – Obaseki

    Why Edo Govt. will not handover schools to missions yet – Obaseki

    Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, has said the state government will not hand over schools to missions or other stakeholders yet, because the state is still gathering data and studying the outcome of such experiment in the past, amid other issues that must be addressed.

    Obaseki made the submission when he received the National Executive Council members of Annunciation Catholic College Irrua Old Boys Association (ACCIOBA) led by the association’s National President, Dr. Frank Odafen, on a courtesy visit to Government House, in Benin City.

    Governor Obaseki said, “The state will not relent in tackling challenges confronting the education sector. We have started implementing reforms to improve access to quality education at the basic level, because we believe education has always given the state a competitive advantage.”

    He noted that more funds will be sourced to improve basic education, which is the foundation of a vibrant, knowledge-driven economy, adding “Part of the reforms to improve the sector is the reassigning of the Commissioner of Science and Technology, Hon. Emmanuel Agbale to oversee the Education Ministry four weeks ago. We have also appointed consultants to assist the state in sourcing resources to enable us address the challenges confronting the sector.”

    On the request that the Annunciation Catholic College (ACC), Irrua be handed over to Old Boys of the school and the Catholic Mission, Obaseki said government holds the school in trust for the people, and that such move would require extensive stakeholder engagement.

    He said “As governor, I am to uphold public trust. I swore to uphold the constitution which empowered me to hold certain assets of the state in trust for the people. I am not at liberty to give out such assets.”

    “We are still gathering data and studying the outcomes of the handover of schools carried out as experiments few years ago. The exercise has raised several issues that must be addressed,” he said.

    National President, ACCIOBA, Dr. Frank Odafen, lauded the governor for the infrastructural development across the state, noting, “ACCIOBA as a group, will support ongoing reforms to improve education in the state. We will join hands with government to return Edo to its glorious past when it topped list of states in the country with access to quality education.”

    He added, “We will continue to contribute our part in improving education, as we have built halls, constructed roads, perimeter fencing, offered scholarships to students and facilitated payment of salaries to ten teachers in Annunciation Catholic College, Irrua.”

     

  • We can’t protect all schools in north-east – Defence spokesman, Agim

    The Nigerian military on Friday said it is “not possible” to protect all schools in the north-east from Boko Haram insurgents.

    John Agim, defence spokesman, said this while speaking on a Channels Television programme on Friday.

    He explained that the military does not have the capacity required for its presence in all the schools.

    “The military doesn’t have the manpower to deploy (troops) to all the schools. It is very difficult… it is not possible,” he said.

    “People don’t know the land mass that we have in the north-east and the number of troops that are deployed in that place,” he said, adding: “The land mass is very large.

    The defence spokesman also denied allegations that the failure of the military contributed to the recent abduction of 110 schoolgirls in Dapchi, Yobe state.

    “Where the military was deployed in Dapchi, they (the troops) were taken away. They were deployed for other assignments. So, it is possible that the Boko Haram can operate in a place for a long time without the military presence,” he said.

    “They were withdrawn out of Dapchi for another assignment on January 10 and this attack took place on February 19.”

    The Dapchi incident was the second large-scale abduction of students in the north-east. In 2014, the insurgents kidnapped 276 schoolgirls from Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, in Borno state.

  • Monkey pox: Ministry allays fears, appeals to parents to send wards back to school

    The Enugu State Ministry of Education has appealed to parents to send their wards back to school, assuring them that no unapproved activities were carried out in any school.

    The state commissioner for Education, Prof. Uche Eze, gave the assurance in a signed statement issued in Enugu on Friday.

    TheNewsGuru.com recalls that on Wednesday, virtually all schools in South East abruptly suspended academic activities over an unconfirmed rumour of vaccination being administered on pupils in primary schools by soldiers.

    It was alleged that some military personnel were forcing people to engage in a free medical vaccination and were been injected with Monkey pox virus.

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that parents in the state especially in Enugu metropolis quickly withdrew their children and wards from schools as early as 10 a.m. that fateful day.

    While some schools which gates were locked with padlock , were forcefully opened, some of them had their gates damaged due to the stampede to get the children out from schools.

    But Eze said that his ministry’s investigation revealed that the Monkey pox news had been found out to be untrue and unfounded.

    “We are appealing to parents to do the needful by sending their wards and children back to school.

    “The ministry had taken appropriate pro-active steps to ensure that our schools are safe and no unauthorized and unapproved activities are carried out in any school in the state.

    “The ministry had strengthened its supervisory and monitoring units with more hands as well as given them additional mandates in order to keep a close eye on schools especially on activities on-going in and round schools,’’ he assured.

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that since Wednesday, after the unfounded Monkey pox rumour incident, school attendance has dropped slightly in the state.

     

     

  • Army/IPOB crisis: Ikpeazu extends curfew, postpones resumption of schools

    Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State on Friday extended the curfew imposed in the state capital till Sunday.

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that the dusk to dawn curfew was earlier scheduled to end on Friday.

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that the curfew was imposed following violence between members of the pro-Biafra separatist group, IPOB, and soldiers in the state.

    According to a statement by Enyinnaya Appolos, the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, the state government has also postponed the resumption of schools in the state.

    Primary and secondary schools in the state, initially scheduled to resume on September 18 will now resume on September 25.

    Read the full statement below:

    Further extension of curfew in Aba

    Abia State Governor, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu, wishes to express his appreciation to Abians and residents, particularly those living and doing business at Aba, for their support and cooperation during this trying period.

    For a commercial city that is also the economic hub of the state and the South East region, the effect of the socio-economic disruption at Aba is too massive to measure at this time and the Government fully appreciates all the sacrifices made to ensure early restoration of normalcy.

    We also wish to commend the efforts of the men and women of the security services currently working round the clock to restore law and order and safeguard lives and properties of law-abiding citizens and residents.

    After a profound review of the security situation across the state, we are compelled to extend the current curfew imposed on Aba to enable us to consolidate the peace and normalcy that is gradually returning to the city.

    The government is, therefore, seeking your continuing support and understanding for the further extension of the dusk to dawn (6pm to 6am) curfew at Aba to Sunday 17th of September 2017.

    Furthermore, in order to ensure the safety of our children and wards who were billed to resume school on the 18th of September 2017, we hereby direct that the resumption be postponed till the 25th of September 2017 across the state.

    It is our hope that all the measures taken so far will help to rapidly restore full normalcy to all areas of the state.

  • JUST IN: Benue shuts 2,424 unapproved schools

    The Governor Samuel Ortom led Benue State Government on Tuesday announced the closure of 2,424 schools in the state.

    The state commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Professor Dennis Ityavyar, who stated this at a meeting with stakeholders said that the schools closed down failed to meet the necessary requirement; good environment, play ground and good classrooms.

    Ityavyar gave the breakdown of schools to include; 1,977 primary, 433 secondary schools and 14 tertiary institutions cut across the three senatorial districts of the state.

    The commissioner said that the proliferation schools in the state is responsible for poor performances of students in both external and internal examinations.

    Production of half baked graduates leading to the establishment of so many miracle centres.

    Benue state ranked 14 out of 36 states in the 2017 West African Examination Council.

    The commissioner said, “the decision to embark on the closure of illegal schools across the 23 local governments of the state is a deliberate step towards improving the standards of quality education in the state.”

    He warned the authority of the closed schools to adhere to the closure order until all the criteria are met adding that whoever who float the order will face prosecution.

    To ensure adequate compliance, the commissioner said that powerful team has been set up in all the local governments, members, according to him are traditional rulers, opinion leaders, representatives of the state commissioner of police and Director State Security Services as well as area education officers.

     

     

  • Edo bans use of schools, roads for parties

    Edo bans use of schools, roads for parties

    The Edo Government has banned the use of the premises of public schools, roads and other public places for social events.

    The Commissioner for Communication and Orientation, Mr Paul Ohonbamu made the announcement on Wednesday in Benin in a statement issued to newsmen.

    He warned that violation of the ban would be dealt with in accordance with extant laws.

    He said that henceforth, the government would not condone those who flout the ban.

    The commissioner directed government agencies to ensure the ban is complied with.

    “By our ancestry as Edo people, we have always shown the example of public order and decency which others have emulated over the years.

    “This administration is determined to make Edo a model of magnificence and beauty once again,“ Ohonbamu said.

     

    NAN