President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio, on Monday, pledged the 10th Senate’s continued commitment towards supporting President Bola Tinubu’s policies on student loan programmes and other initiatives aimed at addressing out-of-school children in the country.

Senator Akpabio gave the assurance in Abuja during the 8th NILDS -UNIBEN Postgraduate and NILDS 3rd Higher National Diploma Programmes Convocation Ceremony, noting that: “despite lingering challenges in the nation’s educational sector, data shows that Nigeria has recorded better performance in its Human Development Index in the UNDP 2024 report than it did in 2019.”

Also the Institute conferred Fellow awards on notable Nigerians, namely: former Head of State, General Abdulsalam Abubakar; President of the 8th Senate, Senator Bukola Saraki; Speaker of the 8th House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara; Minister of State for Labour, Hon. Nkeiruka Onyejeocha and Professor Mike Obadan, an economist, educationist, and public service administrator, in recognition of numerous contributions to the growth of democratic institutions as well as consolidation of in Nigeria.

After years of processing academic transcripts manually, causing long delays and denying many students the benefit of further studies abroad or better work opportunities, several universities in Nigeria have initiated online transcript systems to deliver an effective service. Students can now apply and pay online and receive their transcripts within days.

Universities that have started the process include large state universities such as the University of Ilorin (Unilorin), Ahmadu Bello University, the University of Benin, Lagos State University, the Federal University of Technology Minna, Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), and the University of Maiduguri. However, a handful of universities still process transcripts manually, or have a blended process.

Digitising transcript application and processing is a gradual process. For universities that have started, the development started fewer than 15 years ago. Universities such as Unilorin and Lagos State, started in 2015 while OOU’s process started in 2022 and the University of Maiduguri was operational in 2023.

In one of the biggest projects of its kind in Africa, Ethiopia’s Ministry of Innovation and Technology has recruited 150,000 participants into the country’s ambitious Five Million Ethiopian Coders Initiative, expected to be rolled out in the next three years.

Millions of young people, including graduates from higher education institutions, are expected to join the project and acquire foundational coding skills. One of the aims of the recruitment process is to ensure that 50% of the recruits are young women.

Officially launched by the prime minister of Ethiopia in July 2024, the initiative is a joint effort between the governments of Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It forms part of the Digital Ethiopia 2025 strategy, which includes bolstering the country’s digital economy.

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a shift towards the use of social media platforms in teaching. The South African Department of Basic Education, for one, instructed all schools to adopt online teaching and learning to save the 2020 school year, disrupted by the pandemic and the forced closure of schools.

It is getting clearer that this shift towards technology use will continue. Some researchers have noted that it has also put the focus of the learning process more on students than on teachers. The education department, school management, teachers, students and application developers should work together on these issues to make technology more effective in teaching.

Young people aged between 15 and 24 usually attend secondary school or higher education institutions and use social media. Incorporating social media into school activities could make learning more interesting to this age group. Their participation and performance in their studies might then improve.

For the past two decades, investing in girls’ schooling has been hailed as a cornerstone of promoting gender equality in sub-Saharan Africa. Between 2016 and 2018 the World Bank Group invested US$3.2 billion in education projects benefiting adolescent girls.

The logic is straightforward. Girls face significant barriers to education, among them poverty, insufficient academic support, adolescent pregnancy, child marriage, and school related gender-based violence. Reducing these barriers can substantially improve their educational outcomes.

But is this approach – investing in girls’ education – fair to boys, and enough to make a meaningful impact on girls’ lives in the long term? Having studied the relationship between interventions and the way people’s lives develop in adverse contexts, we argue that the answer is no on both counts.

The Nigeria Union of Teachers has said the inclusion of vocational skills into the basic education curriculum will help reduce the number of out-of-school children in the country. In an interview with The PUNCH, Secretary General, NUT, Dr Mike Ike-Ene, explained that when students acquire practical skills early on, they have valuable tools to rely on, even if they drop out of school.

According to him, this preparation enables them to engage in productive work and generate income, ensuring they remain active and self-sufficient. Last week, the Federal Government of Nigeria, through the Ministry of Education, announced plans to incorporate vocational skills such as carpentry, fashion design, catering, graphic design, and shoemaking into the basic and secondary education curriculum.

Many stakeholders have praised this policy, believing it will help reduce unemployment and shift the focus away from an overemphasis on certificates and white-collar jobs. Ike-Ene said, “This approach is commendable because it shifts the focus from merely obtaining certificates to valuing practical skills.

The Skyned Consults Corporation, a Canada-based EduTech firm said its fourth international study exhibition will connect African students to global education opportunities. Titled, the ‘International Study Exhibition: Your Limitless Future Starts Here’, the event held its first exhibition in Abuja last Saturday, October 19, at the NAFIL Event Centre.

Scheduled to be held in Lagos on October 26, 2024, at Greenwood Court Aren, Skyned’s management noted that this year’s exhibition would connect students with top universities from Canada, the UK, Australia, and the USA, providing them with direct access to innovative programs, expert insights, and potential financial benefits.

Speaking at the showcase, a Registered Canadian Immigration Consultant and Co-Founder of Skyned Consults, Nedu Okoronkwo, noted that since its inception in 2020, the outfit had been at the forefront of providing life-changing educational opportunities for African students, completely free of charge.

Kingsley Moghalu, a former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has been appointed as the first president of the African School of Governance (ASG). The African School of Governance Foundation (ASGF) disclosed this in a statement on Monday.

Mahktar Diop, managing director of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), said Moghalu’s leadership will drive ASG’s academic and research initiatives. He noted that Moghalu will lead the institution’s academic vision to deliver learning programmes that reflect the complex governance challenges facing the continent.

“His sterling track record of leadership in international and national policymaking institutions, and academia, as his thought leadership influence, will help make ASG a transformative graduate school and develop a new generation of purpose-driven leaders with the skills and mindsets to help Africa address the challenges of the 21st Century.

The Federal Government has commended the Catholic Church for its collaborative efforts to ensure functional education in Nigeria. Prof. Tahir Mamman, Minister of Education, gave the commendation at the 4th National Catholic Education Summit, organised by the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria (CSN) on Wednesday in Abuja.

The theme of the summit was, “Global Compact on Education in the Nigerian Context”. It was an effort by the Catholic Bishops of Nigeria to galvanise effective collaboration toward ensuring academic excellence and inclusivity in the country.

Mamman, represented by Dr. Claris Ujam, a Director in the ministry, said that the summit came at a time when many programmes, projects and strategies put in place by the government at all levels were already yielding fruits.

President Bola Tinubu on Thursday sacked five members of his cabinet as well as redeploying 10 others and appointing seven new ones. The Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, disclosed this to newsmen at the State House, Abuja after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting.

He said the five sacked Ministers include Uju-Ken Ohanenye (Women Affairs); Lola Ade-John (Tourism); Prof Tahir Mamman (Education); Abdullahi Muhammad Gwarzo (State, Housing and Urban Development) and Dr. Jamila Bio Ibrahim (Youth Development).

The 10 redeployed Ministers include Hon Dr. Yusuf Tanko Sununu, former Minister of State, Education now Minister of State Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction; Dr. Morufu Olatunji Alausa, Minister State, Health now Minister of Education; Bello Muhammad Goronyo Minister of State, Water Resources and Sanitation now Minister of State Works; Hon. Abubakar Eshiokpekha Momoh, Minister of Niger Delta Development now Minister of Regional Development and Uba Maigari Ahmadu Minister of State Steel Development now Minister of State Regional Development.

To mark this year’s International Day of the Girl Child, stakeholders have called on policymakers to prioritise the safety of students, especially girls, in schools. Also, they urged policymakers to advance and implement existing policies that ensure students are protected from all forms of violence, both in person and online.

They made the call when Women in Law & Development in Africa, Ghana (WiLDAF Ghana), a non-profit organisation, organised a roundtable discussion on how to promote safe school policies in the educational sector in Accra.

It was also to present the findings of a scoping study conducted by the organisation to examine existing policies, laws and national mechanisms on School-Related Gender-Based Violence in Ghana (SRGBV). The study is dubbed “Review of Laws and National Mechanisms on School-Related Gender-Based Violence in Ghana (SRGBV)”.

Esomnofu Ifechukwu of Crown Grace School, Mararaba, Nasarawa State, emerged the winner of the 10th edition of the coveted Maltina Teacher of the Year Competition at the Grand Finale held in Lagos on Friday, October 11, 2024.

Ifechukwu, who was adjudged the 2024 Maltina Teacher of the Year, received a cash prize of ten million naira. Additionally, he will be rewarded with an all-expense-paid capacity development training overseas and honoured with school infrastructure worth N30 million in his school.

In his goodwill message, the Executive Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who was represented by the Commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education, Jamiu Alli-Balogun, expressed profound gratitude to Nigerian Breweries-Felix Ohiwerei Education Trust Fund for their steady path and commitment to the education sector through the Maltina Teacher of the Year Competition.