Anambra State Governor, Chukwuma Charles Soludo, has emphasized the need for academics to expand their roles beyond traditional teaching. The Governor was addressing a gathering of educators and higher education stakeholders at the Higher Education Stakeholders Forum at Women’s Development Center, Awka, on Wednesday.

During his speech, Governor Soludo challenged the notion of academia as a secluded profession solely focused on teaching. He stated, “As academics, you cannot afford the secluded prestige thing of just teaching. You must have the capacity to multi-task.”

He pointed out the importance of integrating teaching, research, and community service into the academic framework, placing particular emphasis on the latter, which he referred to as “more important.” Highlighting the challenges faced by educational institutions in a developing country context, Governor Soludo expressed his belief that it is still possible for educators to excel across multiple domains.

American technology firm, Google, yesterday, announced a major initiative to support higher education across Africa by offering its premium AI subscription, Google AI Pro, free to university students for 12 months.

The offer is available to eligible students aged 18+ in Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Rwanda, South Africa, and Zimbabwe, providing them with access to Google’s most advanced AI tools to enhance their learning, research, and creative work.

Through Google’s most capable model, Gemini 2.5 Pro, this initiative will equip the next generation of African leaders, innovators, and creators with fundamental AI literacy. By placing powerful generative AI tools directly in the hands of students, Google is helping to prepare them for a workforce where AI proficiency is increasingly essential.

The Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) has expressed concerns over the alarming manpower crisis in the country’s public primary and secondary schools, with a shortage of over 194,876 teachers. It subsequently appealed to both the federal and state governments to take urgent steps by implementing the enhanced salary structure and welfare packages approved by the last administration.

NUT President, Titus Amba, in an interview with The Guardian, urged all tiers of government to ensure that the right number and quality of teachers are employed to promote effective education delivery and improve learning outcomes in the school system.

Amba deplored the low status of teachers and the poor conditions under which they work, despite being the soul of any education system. Apart from low remuneration and the difficulties some teachers face in discharging their duties, Amba lamented that some state governments have refused to implement the N70,000 new minimum wage approved by the federal government.

A non-governmental organisation, the Brain Builders Youth Development Initiative (BBYDI) has unveiled a national project aimed at equipping Nigerians with essential knowledge, safety awareness, and ethical understanding of artificial intelligence (AI), in alignment with the Federal Government’s newly introduced curriculum for basic and senior secondary schools.

The initiative, tagged ‘AI Literacy for Everyday People’, was launched on Wednesday at the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Hall in Osogbo, Osun State. The event brought together media professionals, representatives of the Federal and State Ministries of Education, civil society organisations, educators, and innovation partners.

According to the statement made available to Vanguard,the BBYDI’s Communication Director, Mr. Sanni Alausa Issa, described the project as a “national effort designed to make artificial intelligence understandable, usable, safe, and ethical for all Nigerians, regardless of age, education, or location.”

The opportunities that artificial intelligence (AI) offer African teachers and students are immense; the AI education market in the Middle East and Africa is projected to hit $1.7 billion by 2030. Yet in Sub-Saharan Africa, where student–teacher ratios can reach 50:1 and many children still lack access to quality learning resources, the need for innovative solutions is urgent.

For too long, students in under-resourced schools have had fewer opportunities simply because their teachers lacked access to support, materials, or professional development. AI can change this dynamic fundamentally, making world-class support accessible even in the most remote classrooms.

Across Africa, AI has the potential to drive change in schools, but only if it is shaped to fit the realities of African classrooms, rather than forcing classrooms to adapt to the technology. The real promise lies in AI’s power to personalise learning at scale, helping teachers meet the needs of every student in classes that are often large and diverse.

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) have emphasised the need for unity among university-based unions to enhance educational standards and develop a more effective voice.

Prof. Chris Piwuna and Ibeji Nwokoma, National Presidents of ASUU and NAAT, made the call on Thursday at the opening ceremony of the 60th National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of NAAT held at the Federal University of Lafia (FULafia), Nasarawa State.

The ASUU President stated that Nigerian universities were at a crossroads and could not navigate their current situation without solidarity. The unity among the unions must start from every university in the country and not just at the national level. “ASUU is not more important than any union in the university as they need each other for the system to work smoothly, and they must have mutual respect for each other,” he said.

Edo Government has announced the absorption of 4,000 volunteer teachers under the EdoStar Teaching Programme and recruitment of 500 new teachers to strengthen the state’s education system. Commissioner for Education, Dr Paddy Iyamu, said this on Sunday in Benin during the 2025 World Teachers’ Day celebration, themed “Recasting Teaching as a Collaborative Profession.”

Iyamu said the move reflected Governor Monday Okpebholo’s commitment to rewarding dedication and addressing dearth of teachers in public primary and secondary schools. “Come October 15, we are going to present letters of appointment to about 4,000 EdoStar volunteer teachers who have been teaching for the past three years.

“In addition, the government will recruit another 500 teachers into the system,” he said. The commissioner noted that the gesture would end the era of prolonged probation for volunteer teachers and help bridge the manpower gap in schools across the state.

The leadership of Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) has called on both Federal and State Governments to take bold and urgent action to address the plight of teachers through implementation of an enhanced salary structure and robust welfare packages for primary and secondary school teachers across the country.

President of NUT, Comrade Titus Amba, made the call on Sunday in his address during celebration of World Teachers’ Day held at Eagle Square, Abuja, where he urged all tiers of Government to ensure that the right number and quality of teachers are employed to promote effective education delivery and improve learning outcomes in the nation’s school system.

He noted that the theme of 2025 World Teachers’ Day celebration focuses on “Recasting Teaching as a Collaborative Profession”, saying this highlights the vital role teachers play in education systems and in societies at large.

Each year on October 5, the world marks Teachers’ Day with a theme that reflects pressing issues in the teaching profession and encourages policies aimed at advancing the education sector or addressing its persistent challenges. It is a moment not just for celebration, but for sober reflection on the state of education and the welfare of teachers.

This year’s World Teachers’ Day is anchored on the theme: “Recasting Teaching as a Collaborative Profession.” The theme underscores the transformative power of collaboration in education. It calls for a paradigm shift from the traditional, solitary model of one teacher per classroom to a more dynamic, team-based approach.

Collaboration, as the theme argues, is the engine of educational transformation that fosters peer networks, shared planning time, and collective problem-solving tools that can reinvigorate teaching and learning. This approach sounds promising, and globally, it is gaining momentum, especially in the face of a growing teacher shortage. However, in Nigeria, where teachers often lack even the most basic resources, collaboration feels more like a distant aspiration than an immediate reality.

At the Koumassi market in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire’s bustling commercial hub, Madam Yonkaho Guinssalou adjusts her wares with one hand, a smartphone in the other.

The transformation began with a partnership between Nestlé and UNESCO, aimed at empowering women traders through functional and digital literacy. According to Mrs. Patricia Ekaba, Nestlé’s Corporate Communications and Public Affairs Director for the Central and West Africa Region, the initiative reflects Nestlé’s philosophy of Creating Shared Value by ensuring that business growth also drives community progress.

“We believe the best people to speak about impact are not us, but the beneficiaries themselves,” Ekaba told journalists during a visit to the UNESCO office in Abidjan. “This is part of how we conduct our business globally to create shared value for individuals, families, communities, and the planet.”

Sharafadeen Alli, an All Progressives Congress (APC) Senator that represents the Oyo South Senatorial District, has urged Governments at all levels to prioritise teachers’ welfare, training and working conditions to ensure improved productivity and sustainable educational standards.

The lawmaker while felicitating teachers across Nigeria on the occasion of the 2025 World Teachers’ Day, described them as nation builders and torchbearers of knowledge. Alli commended teachers for their invaluable contributions to national development despite daunting challenges.

In a statement issued by his media office and made available to newsmen on Sunday in Ibadan, he reaffirmed his commitment to supporting legislative efforts and policies that would uplift the teaching profession, adding that investing in teachers was synonymous with investing in the nation’s future.

Scholars across Africa are working tirelessly to close the resource gap that has long left African languages at the margins of artificial intelligence (AI) research, offering tools that enable the training of systems to understand and process local speech and text with significantly greater accuracy.

Dr Almaz Yohannis Mbathi, a lecturer in the University of Nairobi’s department of computer science, is leading efforts to train AI systems to understand and process African languages. She develops models that draw on local datasets and cultural contexts, ensuring that technology reflects Africa’s rich linguistic diversity rather than defaulting to Western-centric systems.

Through initiatives such as Cheetah and SERENGETI, Mbathi is contributing to a growing body of work that supports hundreds of African languages and promotes greater AI inclusivity. Cheetah refers to powerful multilingual models that support machine translation across more than 150 African language pairs, while SERENGETI is a multilingual language model covering over 500 African languages and dialects.