School leaders said the government’s publication of scientific advice failed to make a convincing case for the early reopening of schools in England, as the government’s chief scientific adviser said an effective testing and tracking system was necessary for more pupils to return to the classroom.
After pressure from teaching unions, the government published 12 documents presented to its Sage committee of scientific advisers looking at the effect of coronavirus on children and how schools could safely reopen to more pupils.
But union leaders said they found little in the documents to reassure staff or parents that reopening primary schools in England by Boris Johnson’s stated target of 1 June was a safe decision.
Patrick Roach, general secretary of the NASUWT teaching union said the evidence was “inconclusive”, while Geoff Barton, leader of the Association of School and College Leaders, said the government “must be able to show very clearly that its five tests have been met before it gives the green light to any wider opening from 1 June”.
Patrick Vallance, the government’s chief scientific adviser, said on Friday that Sage had been very clear that an effective “test, track and trace” mechanism was necessary in the event of schools reopening, and the sooner in place the better in order to make changes to England’s lockdown.
Roach said it remained his union’s view that no schools should reopen more widely until it was safe to do so, and that the publication of the Sage documents would only add to the uncertainty.
“[Sage] states that large-scale community testing is needed to better understand and monitor the prevalence of and susceptibility to Covid-19 in children, yet the government’s plans for the reopening of schools from 1 June are premature whilst a widespread community testing system will not be in place,” Roach said.
Gavin Williamson, the education secretary, said the Sage papers showed that “the phased, cautious return of a limited number of pupils to classrooms has been a carefully considered decision based on the best scientific and medical advice”.
“My department continues to engage with the school, college and nursery sectors and I am enormously grateful for all the planning and preparation they are doing, alongside local authorities and academy trusts,” Williamson said.
A number of local authorities have said their maintained primary schools will not be ready to reopen, while others – including Staffordshire county council, which covers Williamson’s own constituency – have left the decision up to individual schools.
The papers revealed that a low-risk scenario where pupils in England would attend school on alternating weeks was presented to the government as the most likely way to gain popular support, before ministers instead settled on their plan for a widespread reopening on 1 June.
One paper prepared by Sage’s modelling and behavioural subgroups on 16 April warned that, as a result of school closures, some children would have “experienced a shock to their education which will persist and affect their educational and work outcomes for the rest of their lives”.
A period of home learning, the experts added, would reinforce existing inequalities between children, while months off school would mean emerging learning difficulties were missed.
Source of the article: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/may/22/ministers-rejected-school-reopening-plan-recommended-by-sage-experts
«The person was my friend and I didn’t expect any of my friends to call me a name,» says nine-year-old Nai’m.
He has experienced racist abuse at primary school five times in a year. It has left his mother, Carla, in tears.
One of the perpetrators is now on a council register for racism, with another facing temporary exclusion.
Primary-school exclusions for racism in England are up more than 40% in just over a decade with the biggest rise in the North West, official figures show.
BBC News analysis of the figures showed:
496 temporary exclusions for racism from primary schools in the academic year 2017-18
a rise of 40% on 2006-07, when there were 350 exclusions
in the North West there were 36 temporary exclusions in 2006-07, compared with 76 in 2017-18
the number of exclusions for racism across all schools in England has fallen over the same period
Nai’m’s story
Media captionNai’m says the racism left him shocked and sad at the same time
Carla, who moved to Manchester from Bermuda three years ago with Nai’m, says she was called by his school and told another pupil had called him «a black midget».
«I was in disbelief. But it did in fact happen, so I was taken aback,» she says.
«Then, three weeks later, I got a call again and his teacher was upset.»
When she went into school to talk to the teacher, Carla broke down in tears.
«I couldn’t believe that children would actually talk like that,» she says.
«He was only eight at the time and shouldn’t have had to endure this type of treatment.»
Nai’m, who plays for his local professional football club’s junior team, says much of the abuse happens on the school pitch.
But being called racist names by a friend left him «a little shocked and sad at the same time».
Another child told him their parents had told them they weren’t allowed to talk to black or brown people.
Carla says the family have a good relationship with the school, which has been working with them to try to halt the abuse.
Nai’m gave a talk to fellow pupils at a special assembly about Bermuda and the school tried to get the parents to meet but some of the perpetrators’ parents refused.
It is up to each individual school to decide how to deal with and whether to document incidents of racism among pupils – the only national figures are those for exclusions and some campaigners say they are just the tip of the iceberg.
Spotting it early
«This is about it being OK to be different,» John Au tells a special assembly at Lawrence Community Primary School, in Liverpool.
He works for the Anthony Walker Foundation, set up after the Huyton teenager’s racially motivated murder, in 2005, to campaign for diversity and inclusion.
The school contacted the charity after staff overheard worrying conversations between pupils.
Image captionJohn Au delivers an assembly at a Liverpool primary school
«It was things like, ‘Go back to your own country,’ because a lot of the children come from different countries,» deputy head Lisa Flanagan says.
«We also heard children talking about the colour of someone’s skin.
«In some instances, pupils were refusing to learn about another religion because they thought they would be betraying their own beliefs.»
Dr Zubaida Haque, deputy director of race-equality think tank the Runnymede Trust, says racism in schools reflects attitudes outside the classroom.
«We have to understand, schools are a microcosm of society,» she says.
«So if we have an increase in hate crime in society, an increase of bigotry or there’s bullying going on outside of school, racism in papers and in a politician’s narrative, children will pick that up very quickly. And that’s what is happening.»
John Au says his organisation has been receiving an increasing number of requests from schools for help.
«Racism and discrimination is a problem that affects the whole of society. It doesn’t matter how old we are,» Mr Au says.
«Schools should be praised for identifying problems. We have to give them credit for that. When teachers spot things early, it stops them from escalating into something else.»
In a statement Nai’m’s primary school said: «The school prides itself in being an inclusive school and will continue to challenge all forms of racism.
«We strongly believe in educating our pupils by teaching them right from wrong, so that they are able to live in harmony with other people regardless of our differences.
«We want children to accept each other and celebrate our diverse school community.
«We are pleased that our families feel supported by staff and that they are positive about the way we deal with incidents when they arise.»
Source of the article: https://www.bbc.com/news/education-50331687
Early pregnancy and early marriage worsens poverty conditions of families and girls, instead of reducing it, Machakos County Director for Education, Mrs. Shamsa Adan Mohammed has said.
She said access to education was the surest way to breaking the vicious cycle of poverty that teenage pregnancy and early marriages sustained in families.
She girls should take advantage of the Free Primary and Day Secondary Education programme the government provided to break the chains of poverty by completing primary and secondary education.
She made the remarks at Makivenzi ABC Girls Secondary schools during a Joint Mission to assess the preparedness of the Counties in implementing Secondary Education Quality Improvement Project (SEQIP) in 110 sub counties are the most disadvantaged sub counties in 30 counties.
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The team was led by the National Coordinator of the Project, Ms Jane Mbugua, and World Bank Task Team Leader, Ms Huma Ali Waheed. The team visited eight schools in Murang’a and Machakos Counties, which is among 30 Counties to benefit from the project.
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The Project worthy Shs.20 billion, and funded by the World Bank, aims at improving student learning and transition from Primary to Secondary education in 110 sub counties that the most disadvantaged areas in 30 counties.
The Project targets 7,852 Primary Schools and 2,147 secondary schools in 110 Sub counties in the 30 Counties.
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Under the project, Class 7 and 8 and forms 1-4 in targeted schools have already received textbooks in Mathematics, English and Science subjects, thereby achieving a student-textbook ratio of 1:1.
Under the project, Kenya Institute for Curriculum Development (KICD) has received technical support in developing Competence based curriculum grade 4, 5and 6.
Schools in the target regions have been selected schools and are set to benefit from infrastructure support which includes classrooms, science laboratories, library, toilets, water facilities and electricity.
Embedded in the project, is a scholarship programme to enable vulnerable students to complete secondary schools.
The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has recruited 600 teachers to serve the targeted region in the last financial year, to address teacher shortage in the area. Kenya National Examinations Council has been able, under the auspices of the Project, to strengthen national examinations and assessments systems.
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The strengthening of the national examinations and assessments systems follows adoption of the Competence based curriculum. KNEC will now examine and assess the effectiveness of the teaching and learning of the repertoire of skills that learners are expected to learn and internalise.
The project aims at, among others, addressing barriers to access to inclusive quality education in the region, as part of the strategy to meeting the Sustainable Development Goals.
Source of the notice: https://www.kbc.co.ke/ending-child-marriage-and-teenage-pregnancy-in-kenya/
Schools described as ‘under siege’ as actions spread from Birmingham to north-west
Protests against LGBT lessons in schools have been hijacked by those with a “religious, extremist agenda” who are holding schools “under siege”, MPs have said, as the number of schools being targeted has grown.
Anderton Park primary school, in the Moseley area of Birmingham, has become the latest site of demonstrations against the teaching of LGBT rights, following similar protests at other schools in the city. On Friday, the last day before the half-term holiday, staff were forced to send children home after another protest. Earlier this week, protesters claimed 600 of the school’s 700 pupils were withdrawn by parents, a figure disputed by the school, which said more than half remained in attendance.
West Midlands police are investigating threatening emails and phone calls against the school’s headteacher, Sarah Hewitt-Clarkson, and allegations that mostly female LGBT activists were pelted with eggs by men wearing balaclavas as they placed heart-shaped messages and banners on the school fence.
Taking centre stage in the protest is 32-year-old Shakeel Afsar. For six weeks he has stood outside the school with a microphone, chanting with fellow campaigners: “Let kids be kids,” and “Our kids, our choice”. Other protesters have carried placards with the messages: “Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.” They have also demanded the resignation of Hewitt-Clarkson. Although the school does not teach No Outsiders, the programme that informs children about LGBT identities, it does share equality messages and books with pupils.
Afsar, whose daughter attends an Islamic school, went to Anderton Park as a child and has a niece and nephew who currently study there. He grew up in a heavily politicised household in which his father, Najib Afsar, the head of the Birmingham-based Jammu Kashmir Liberation Council (JKLC), would regularly give talks and organise protests against events in the disputed region.
The family has links with a number of local and national politicians and political aides, including the MP Roger Godsiff, who has criticised LGBT+ inclusive education. The family also runs a TV channel – Kashmir Broadcasting Corporation – which is currently off-air but has a website that regularly posts updates on the schools protests.
Najib Afsar, who has described Hewitt-Clarkson as a dictator, says he does not take part in the protests, but that his son has his full support.
“He has a working team of five people. I don’t participate in their activities, because that is their show and we don’t get involved in it,” he said.
However, he later revealed he had written to the school to ask to be appointed as a mediator. The school refused his request. He has also written to local and national politicians about the issue and said it was a boost to his son’s cause to have Godsiff, the Labour MP for Birmingham Hall Green, endorsing their views.
The protests have been met with anger from Labour’s Jess Phillips, the MP for Birmingham Yardley, who lives near the school, and said they were being organised by a group of “12 angry men”.
The MP Jess Phillips confronts Shakeel Afsar outside Anderton Park school. Photograph: BBC News
She recently confronted Shakeel Afsar at the school gates, accusing him of damaging the reputation of Birmingham’s “peaceful and loving” Muslim community.
She said: “It is hate preaching. The protest has to be stopped. I feel like everyone is pussyfooting around a load of bigots. They shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near the schools. These are people with a religious extremist agenda. They are holding schools under siege.”
Phillips said she would ask for an exclusion zone around the school to allow pupils to attend lessons without being disturbed by the protests.
Afsar denied the protests were promoting an extremist agenda. He said: “That’s absolute nonsense. That’s not what is happening. I am here for the community and they feel the school are being intolerant and I am supporting them.”
Hewitt-Clarkson said the school would pursue an injunction to stop the protesters from gathering outside, and claimed the protests were a “one-man show”.
She said: “The first time I met Shakeel he slammed his hand on my desk and demanded that we stop teaching anything about LGBT rights. He was very agitated. He describes himself as a general in army and uses words like battles, army, soldiers, and I have to keep reminding him that this is a primary school. We call it the Shakeel show.”
Headteacher Sarah Hewitt-Clarkson says the protests at her school are a ‘one-man show’. Photograph: David Sillitoe/The Guardian
At Parkfield community primary school in the predominantly Muslim Alum Rock area of Birmingham, where the first protests took place, there has been a moratorium. Nazir Afzal, the Crown Prosecution Service’s former lead on child sexual abuse, has been brought in as a mediator and both the school and parents have remained silent, seeking to distance themselves from other recent activity on the issue.
In other parts of the country groups have also been created. In Oldham inGreater Manchester, 500 parents have joined the Oldham Parents Forum and plan to lobby all 60 schools in the area to begin talks with parents over LGBT lessons.
Nasim Ashraf, a member of the religious group Oldham Interfaith Forum, said he started the forum. Ashraf and his wife, Hafisan Zaman, received payouts from a number of national newspapers when they were falsely accused of a Trojan horse plot to take over Clarksfield primary school in the area.
Ashraf acknowledges his own children are not affected by the LGBT teaching. One of his daughters is at university and his other child is at a Church of England school and will have left by the time the programme is rolled out into the curriculum.
However, he was allegedly called on by parents who were finding it difficult to articulate their concerns. His group has approached seven schools and have plans to speak to 60 in total.
He said: “Some of these parents can’t articulate what they feel and some of them don’t even know what Islam says about this issue. I am here to guide them. Our biggest asset is our children and we need to make sure the schools are adhering to guidelines and policies when teaching RSE [relationships and sex education] and taking into account parents’ beliefs.”
The Manchester Parents Group is headed by Shebby Gujjar Khan, a 30-year-old accountant who has no children. His group, which has almost 250 members, called for protests at primary schools across the region and for parents to withdraw their children. This resulted in parents at several schools, including William Hulme’s grammar school in Whalley Range and Acacias community primary school in Burnage, contacting the management about sex education lessons.
Khan, who says he created his group after parents raised concerns with him about a transgender child attending a local secondary school, claims groups have also been created in Blackpool, Preston, Bradford and Liverpool.
He said: “This is about morality. We have our own religious beliefs and they need to be respected.”
From September 2020, primary schools in England will be required to teach relationship lessons, including classes that will reflect the fact some children have same-sex parents. Parents will not have the right to withdraw pupils from these classes.
The education secretary, Damian Hinds, said the protests had been “hijacked by individuals with a vested interest and no links to the schools”.
He added: “It is unacceptable that children at Anderton Park are missing out on education because of the threat of protests. There is no place for protests outside school gates. They can frighten children, intimidate staff and parents. It is time for these protests to stop.”
Hewitt-Clarkson says she will not bow to the protesters. “This is not about LGBT. This is all about control, coercion, manipulation, dehumanisation of me because I will break and I will be crushed and they will be victorious. We’ve seen this play out here but I won’t meet them and I won’t meet their demands, and they are not winning and that’s why it has escalated. They have to be the victors at any cost, but they will not win.”
Source of the article: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/may/24/lgbt-lesson-protests-hijacked-religious-extremists-mps-say
About 6,000 additional teachers are required to improve the quality of education in northeast Nigeria’s state of Borno, an official said Sunday.
«The government is building a state of the art schools with a decent environment, but our teachers lack motivation,» Jibril Muhammed, chairman of the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) said in Maiduguri, the state capital.
«It is my firm belief that with the necessary motivations for our teachers, the problems in our education sector will be solved.»
He spoke against the backdrop of 40 mega schools constructed by the government to cater for the education of 53,000 children orphaned by Boko Haram insurgency in the state.
Borno state in northeast Nigeria has been devastated by the insurgency.
Muhammed said at least 5,000 teachers are required for primary schools while additional 1,000 be deployed to secondary schools to boost teaching and learning.
He commended the government for prioritizing education in the state but said it should also accord priority to teachers welfare.
The teachers union chief said that teachers were among the worst hit by the Boko Haram insurgency, with about 530 killed and 32,000 displaced.
Teachers are some of the lowest paid public sector employees in the oil-rich West African country.
About 27,000 people have been killed in Borno and two neighboring states since 2009, in one of the world’s most violent conflicts that have destroyed homes and infrastructure.
Source of the notice: http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-06/09/c_138129326.htm
Africa/ Uganda/ 11.12.2018/By: Lawrence Mulondo/ Source: www.newvision.co.ug.
Among the other sectors Save the children is championing in is Health and Nutrition, Child poverty, Child protection, Childs rights and governance.
Save the Children has urged the Ministry of Education to invest more in Early Childhood Development (ECD) in order to have quality children joining primary schools.
In an education Act of 2008, the government recognized pre-primary education as the first stage of education for all children below the age of eight.
The ECD education sector policy by the Ministry of Gender Labor and Social Development recognises four programs including day care Centres, Nursery schools, home care Centres and community Centres.
While attending the first day of the three day Save the Children partnership meeting at Royal Suits Bugolobi, partners agreed that a child that joins primary with an ECD background, has basic knowledge on literacy, giving them a good start.
Save the Children Head of Advocacy and Communications, Alun McDonald said children that attend ECDs have better social skills compared to those who did not attend.
“We recognize that ECD is critical in every child’s life as it determines the kind of adult they will be in future,” he said.
He pointed out that if children do not go through ECD, they find it difficult to learn skills in primary school.
McDonald said Uganda has made a lot of improvement in primary education due to the existence of Universal Primary Education (UPE).
He however said that the country is still weak in terms of ECD due to lack of enough public ECD Centres.
“Uganda has good policies on ECD, however they are not well implemented around the country especially in villages,” he said.
Statistics on ECD
According to Save the Children, only 13.4% of children in Uganda are enrolled in ECD/pre-primary.
Families with the highest income, 53% of children attend ECD, 21.6% of children from middle income families, and only 6.7% of children from the poorest families attend.
Save the Children says, there is also a big difference between urban and rural areas in terms of access to ECD as 53% of children in urban areas attend ECD, but only 19.5% in rural areas.
According to the 2017 UNICEF report 65 of the children between the age of 3 and 5 are developmentally on track in literacy, numerous and physical, social and emotional development.
According to the 2011 Ministry of Education statistics, ECD Centres distribution per region is as follows, Central region 783(33%), Eastern 554 (24%), North East106 (5%), North 354 (15%), South West 128 (5%), and West 436 (19%).
McDonald called on the government to sensitize the public more on the importance of ECD and also put in place a special budget for the construction of free ECD Centres in UPE schools.
The 2016 National ECD policy of Uganda has it that 80% of the ECD centers around the country are privately owned and financially out of reach from most Ugandans, adding that a few children benefit from institutionalized ECD centers leaving many toddlers to stay home with their parents of which many parents have are not experienced to offer ECD programs to their children.
While meeting a delegation from Canada on ECDs in January, the Minister of Higher Education, Dr. John Chrysostom Muyingo said: “Government realised that ECDs are very critical to the children’s education.
A review is being conducted by Curriculum Development Centre to provide an assessment that will fit with the demands of our educational market.”
Muyingo added that ECDs are the essential areas for child upbringing that introduce a child to learning new things in life.
He noted that it is at this stage that learners are introduced to writing, listening and also learning how to play with friends.
“In the past, the government was concentrated on funding primary education and Early Childhood Education (ECE) was left to the private sector and non-governmental organisations.
Save the Children involvement in ECD
Save the Children is currently constructing primary schools around the country that have an ECD complement. Last year, the NGO worked in 91 ECD Centres across Uganda.
McDonald revealed that as Save the Children commemorates 100 years in 2019, the country Directors will focus more on improving ECD in the countries where they are serving.
He said among the things they will be fostering is training ECD care givers and other necessities needed.
Partnerships
To implement their goals in the country, Save the Children works with partners Like New Vision in the Education sector and others.
Among the other sectors Save the children is championing in is Health and Nutrition, Child poverty, Child protection, Childs rights and governance.
Save the Children is partnering with New Vision to extend newspapers to children in different schools around the country like Karamoja, Nakasongola Nakaseke and others through the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD) project.
The move is to inform children of what is going on in the country and the whole world as well as improve on their reading skills.
Challenges
McDonald said that limited funding is always a challenge to them as they extend services to children. He said their areas of operation are usually over whelming.
He added that the fact that Uganda is hosting a number of Refugees from different countries strains services offered by the organization in the areas where they are.
He however said the existence of refugees is also an opportunity as they contribute to the economy of the country.
Meeting objectives
Save the children partnership coordinator, Janet Nambuya said that they called for a meeting with their partners to share experiences and also to share areas where there is need for improvement.
Nabafu added that they called on partners to create a platform for reflection, learning, accountability and networking.
She added that in the meeting they are to disseminate the country strategic plan of 2019-2019.
Source of the notice: https://www.newvision.co.ug/new_vision/news/1491038/govt-urged-invest-childhood-development
THE National Economic Council recently made a crucial decision in its proposal to federal and state governments to allocate 15 per cent of their annual budgets to education in furtherance of a state of emergency declared in that sector. Many stakeholders had before now, advocated this initiative, against the backdrop of the total collapse of the system, from the basic to tertiary levels. In 2018, N605.8 billion was allocated to the sector by the Federal Government, representing seven per cent of the N8.6 trillion budget.
A special task force or committee will be set up to manage the funds at all levels of government and also oversee infrastructure overhaul in selected schools. The Deputy Governor of Edo State, Philip Shaibu, who elaborated on the proposal, said the primary school level was the focus, just as the entire reform will be anchored on a strategic plan of action already designed by the Federal Ministry of Education. He said, “If we address basic education and the foundation is well laid at that level, obviously, the problems in the secondary and tertiary education would have been half solved.”
The strategic document places emphasis on: out-of-school children; adult literacy and physically challenged; science, technology and mathematics; technical and vocational; teacher education; quality and access to tertiary education; ICT in education and improved library services.
Across the 36 states, many primary schools are dilapidated: pupils sit on the bare floor to learn; in the North, especially in Sokoto State, “more than 50 per cent of the entire teachers in the state cannot read” instructional materials supplied to schools, the then Executive Secretary, Universal Basic Education Commission, Ibrahim Moddibo, said in 2012. In Kaduna State within the same period, 21,780 teachers out of 33,000 failed a primary four pupils test, a shocking revelation that Kwara State also experienced. Added to this incongruous mix is the perennial delay in the payment of teachers’ salaries.
The NEC prognosis is right. But this is a minor point at issue, considering that similar attempts in the past were not allowed to work. In fact, the percentage of the budget devoted to education is not as critical as the faulty implementation strategies and monstrous corruption that trammels every national endeavour. In an attempt to make education more functional, the 6-3-3-4 system was introduced, with emphasis on continuous assessment, technical knowledge acquisition and guidance counselling.
However, the country made a total mess of the scheme: teachers for the technical subjects and workshop equipment were not available, just as the transition from Junior Secondary School 3 to Senior Secondary School 1 was automatic for every pupil. Emergency contractors, mostly fronts for the bureaucrats, milked the system. Absurdly, many years after the country inaugurated the system, equipment imported for it was discovered abandoned at the Lagos seaport.
Interventionist funds like UBEC grants and Tertiary Education Trust Fund have been designed to improve the standard of education. But many state governors divert grants for fixing primary schools to other priority areas or embezzle them outright. It is an abuse of office for which some former governors are being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. In many cases, they fail to provide their counterpart funding or meet other due process requirements. This is why N86 billion meant for states was idle as of September.
The situation is not different at TETFund. Its Executive Secretary, Abdullahi Baffa, in July, visited the EFCC acting-Chairman, Ibrahim Magu, and requested his assistance “to tackle the menace of inappropriate projects, abandoned projects, mismanaged funds, and stolen funds, which are almost grounding the institutions.” Angered by how institutions treat the grants as slush funds, President Muhammadu Buhari did not approve TETFund 2017 interventions. But in 2016, it received N213 billion from which universities, polytechnics and colleges of education were allocated N1 billion, N691.6 million and N679 million, respectively.
This is a malodorous landscape that must be cleansed for any serious educational revival to take place. Therefore, giving education priority attention must go beyond official rhetoric. Understanding the fact that education is the bedrock of economic development and the wealth of nations is imperative. Countries in Europe, America and parts of Asia, which have transited from the Industrial Revolution to the Third Revolution – the digital age, are now embracing the Fourth Revolution – the age of quantum computing, robotics, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, autonomous vehicle and 3D printing. They have made the point that investment in productive knowledge makes all the difference. This has brought them enormous wealth and high standard of living.
Nigeria may have been centuries behind, yet, it has to begin the race, which the state of emergency in education symbolises, if successfully executed. Consequently, rather than continue to merely “fund education” without the desired results, it should now “invest in education.” The quality of education cannot rise above the level of the teachers. This is why training and retraining teachers; their motivation; creating an ideal environment for learning to take place; providing instructional materials and effective school supervision should be areas of special focus. Without functional basic and secondary education, Nigeria’s entire education architecture is a superstructure erected on quicksand.
It is for this reason that universities now decry the quality of their intakes. University education in Nigeria has become a huge joke with many misfits serving as administrators and the increasing number of such schools. The base, absurd principle of: “let us establish them first, after which the issue of funding would be addressed,” should stop. With existing funding gaps that provoke the Academic Staff Union of Universities to strike regularly; obsolete libraries and science laboratories, shortage of hostels, lecture halls and the alarming mismatch in the teacher and student ratio, higher institutions of learning in Nigeria should be helped to rediscover their very essence.
Source of the notice: https://punchng.com/beyond-necs-15-per-cent-for-education/
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