Education

UK supports Nigeria girls’ education with N45 billion ― UNICEF

Published

10 months ago

August 4, 2022

UK supports Nigeria girls’ education with N45 billion ― UNICEF

The United Kingdom Government has donated $109,196,039.80, which is about N45 billion with the current exchange rate, to support the education of girls and improvement in the livelihood of their parents in Nigeria.

The programme is implemented under the Girls Education Project (GEP3), which commenced in 2012 in the six northern states of Bauchi, Katsina, Niger, Sokoto, Zamfara and Kano (2018). The Project will end in September 2022.

The project, despite the challenges of insecurity, has led to the enrollment of more than 1.3 million girls in primary schools in the two northern states of Sokoto and Zamfara, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has said.

Education Manager, UNICEF Field Office, Miriam Moreso, who made this known at a media dialogue on girls’ education in Sokoto, said this was made possible through the implementation of the Girls Education Project (GEP3) funded by the United Kingdom Agency, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Fund Office (FCDO), formerly known as DFID.

Moreso noted that the 1.3 million enrolled in primary and Integrated Quranic Schools (IQS, exceeded the target of 1 million in the six states since 2012.

According to her, this was achieved through the community enrollment drives by School-Based Management Committees (SBMCs), and Mothers Associations (MAs), with support from states and local government areas.

Girl Child Education in Nigeria

She lamented that education is seriously underfunded in Nigeria noting that in 2018, only 7 per cent of the national budget was allocated to education, far below the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) recommended 15 to 26 per cent. In 2020 it was 6.7 per cent.

“Nigeria continue to have more out-of-school children than any other country globally. 1 in 3 children are out of school,” she said while adding that though the rates are declining but not at pace with the population.

Globally, she said 129 million girls are out of school, representing 32 million in primary and secondary 97 million, adding that completion rates for girls are lower in low-income countries like Nigeria where less than two-thirds of girls complete primary education and one-third complete lower secondary school.

Speaking on the transition from primary to Secondary education, More so further disclosed that about 1.9million is lost between primary 1 and 6 while 1.4 million is lost between primary 6 and Junior Secondary School (JSS1).

UNICEF Sokoto Chief of Field Office, Maryam Darwesh Said, on her part disclosed that to support efficient and effective governance in Primary Schools and Integrated Quranic schools, 13,094 management committee members (of which 5,353 are women) underwent relevant capacity development pieces of training in Sokoto and Zamfara.

She added that considering the benefits gained from phase 3 of GEP, the sustainability strategy document was developed by both Sokoto and Zamfara states in June 2021 and is now updated in July 2022.

Darwesh said called on the states, to ensure full implementation of the sustainability plan, urging them to take the opportunity of the soon-to-start 2023 budgeting process to capture the required state funding contributions for UNICEF-supported interventions and to provide strategic state resources for the sustainability to all gains obtained so far in the education sector from GEP3 and by and large from the partnership with UNICEF.

Head Teacher of Ali Fodio Primary School, Bodinga, Sokoto State, Malam Abdullahi Abubakar, commended UNICEF for the implementation of the GEP3 programme in his school, which he said has led to massive enrollment of girls and retention.

He told a team of journalists and UNICEF officials on a field trip to evaluate the impact of the project in his school that right now some classes have more girls than boys. Abubakar disclosed further that the school has a total population of 4257 with 1962 that are female.

He called on the State and Federal governments to ensure the sustainability of the project, saying the cash transfer aspect of the programme has really helped to retain the pupils as well as improve the economic well-being of the families of the pupils benefitting from the scheme.

Education

Withheld salary arrears: Buhari transferring crisis in Nigerian varsities to incoming administration — NLC

Published

4 days ago

May 26, 2023

Advocate News Nigeria

Buhari

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has said President Muhammadu Buhari will be transferring the crisis in the university system to the incoming administration by refusing to pay the withheld salaries of university unions.

The Congress directed the four university-based unions which included the; the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities; the Non-Academic Staff Union of Allied and Education Institutions and the National Association of Academic Technologists to meet and revert to the NLC on the withheld salary backlogs.

President of the NLC, Joe Ajaero said this during a visit to the headquarters of SSANU on Wednesday in Abuja.

This is as the SSANU President, Mohammed Ibrahim appealed to President Buhari to pay the withheld salaries of its members before handing over on May 29.

The university unions went on strike last year which lasted between four to nine months.

In return, the Federal Government invoked the No work No pay policy for the duration the strike lasted.

Ajaero said: “The federal government is making a mistake by not paying those arrears of salaries. That is part of the crisis they (Buhari’s administration) are transferring to the incoming government and they must face it. There is no way you will say no work no pay when you are the cause of the No work. You can’t benefit from your inadequacy.

“If we accept that that will be the end of industrial relations and we should also be conscious of precedence in law; that precedence cannot stand.

“I want to plead with you that the unions in the education sector should meet and send us a memo in NLC. We are going to call national action for the payment of arrears of withheld salaries.

“We have waited enough for the Nigerian state to retrace its steps. It is bad enough to owe people for three to five months as a punitive measure for an agreement the government failed to obey and still boasting.

“If the unions could get across to us, all the sectors- electricity, oil and gas; we will start a solidarity action until the federal government takes responsibility for its inaction. This is not a threat because we are not known for issuing threats.

“The federal government must respect the sanctity of its agreement and we must insist on it. The unions should not waste time on this. We need to do it as soon as possible.

“We are on a course to return the NLC as a fighting organisation; to be proactive. If we allow eight months (of withheld salary arrears) to pass then that’s the end of this movement.

Ibrahim lamented the failure of the federal government to release the N100 billion for teaching and non-teaching staff of universities.

“Even the N100bn meant to pay for the salaries of all university staff – academic and non-academic. Till date, we have not seen anything. And this government is exiting soon.

“We went on strike for four months in 2022 and our salaries were stopped in the process. We followed due process, we sought the audience of the minister of Labour and Employment for the renegotiation of our agreement.

“Even if it is the last thing this government does before exiting office, let them release the salaries of teaching and non-teaching staff of universities. Because we have suffered and lost our members because they couldn’t access their money.

“Mr president we plead with you as a father not to leave behind the backlog of unpaid salaries of teaching and non-teaching staff.”

Education

Engr. Prince Arthur Eze, OFR, Appointed Pro-Chancellor of Newly Approved PEACELAND UNIVERSITY Enugu

Published

6 days ago

May 23, 2023

Advocate News Nigeria

Engr. Prince Arthur Eze

History was made when the Promoters and the Planning and Implementation Committee of Peaceland University, Enugu, appointed a world acclaimed philanthropist, great uncommon humanitarian and Liberator of the destitute, Engr. Prince Arthur Eze OFR (Ozoigbo Ndu), as the pioneer Pro-Chancellor of Peaceland University, Enugu. The appointment and ceremony took place at the Abuja residence of the Business Mogul.

The Peaceland University, Enugu is coming after the establishment of Peaceland College of Education and Peaceland College of Health Sciences and Technology, all in Enugu. The former which is the mother of the Peaceland project was founded and funded by a Swiss mother, lover of education, Frau Pia Meier Knuesel – Mama Pia – who stopped at nothing in donating all her life earnings, including the sale of her only private house in Switzerland; bequeathed all the proceeds to Fredypia Development and Education Foundation, Nigeria, which worked in collaboration with “Alfred und Pia Knuessel Stiftung”, Switzerland, for the construction and establishment of a College of Education, known today as Peaceland College of Education, Enugu. In the course of her preparations leading to her visit to Nigeria in 2007, there were lots of discouraging and dissenting voices from Mama Pia’s people aimed at stopping her from travelling to Nigeria because of her age (87 years) but especially because of security concerns in Nigeria and lack of immediate access to health care. But Mama Pia was not be stopped. She went on to commit in writing to Swiss authorities that she should be buried in Nigeria in the event of death.

Peaceland University Enugu

Peaceland College of Education, Enugu came into legal existence in 2014 through the instrumentality of the National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE), Abuja, to offer wide range of programmes leading to the award of Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE). The College, in her quest to make quality education available up to degree level to the teeming population of Nigerian youths, sought an affiliation agreement with the Abia State University, Uturu. The affiliation was formally ratified by the National Universities Commission (NUC) to offer degree certificates in Education.

Similarly, through the proceeds from the College of Education (founded and funded by Mama Pia,) Peaceland birthed the Health Education by establishing Peaceland College of Health Sciences and Technology sector: thanks to the College administration, to offer, among others, the following programmes: Community Health Extension Workers; Pharmacy Technicians; Medical Lab Technicians; Environmental Health Workers; Public Health; Epidemiology and Disease Control; and Information and Health Management. All these programmes were licensed in 2022 by the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), Kaduna. Worthy of note is that our Colleges of Education and Health Sciences and Technology fulfilled Mama Pia’s double desire for education and healthcare for others, herself an educator and a healthcare worker.

Frau Pia Meier Knuesel – Mama Pia

In 2019, the Promoters together with the Planning and Implementation Committee of Peaceland University, Enugu, approached the National Universities Commission (NUC) for a possible establishment of a University. The choice of our would-be Pioneer Pro-Chancellor was a fruit of prayer and hard search. For several years, we searched for a man or a woman whose spirit shares with Mama Pia’s spirit that cuts across human race, colour, etc., and whose giving goes beyond the shores of a nation.

Engr. Prince Arthur Eze – a Pillar and Promoter of academic emancipation through quality education, a Philanthropist of the highest order, a consummated Oil Magnate, humanitarian par excellence, global business guru of inter-continental connectivity, became the best choice for this prestigious position. He is indubitably and unarguably one of Nigeria’s foremost philanthropists who has provided, solidly supported and single-handedly undertaken ventures that touch human lives and put smiles on faces of both the high and the low. His magnanimity and generosity cut across ethnic and religious lines, classes, climes and creeds. There is hardly any area this great man has not beamed his light of benevolence. They include institutions of learning of all levels, rural development and infrastructure, human capital development, women and youth empowerment, church buildings, projects and programmes executions, etc.

In his usual magnanimity, this simple and humble man of charity, an Apostle and Prince of immense grace, lover of development and progress, practical Christian and Peace builder, acknowledged his appointment as the Pro-Chancellor of Peaceland University, Enugu and announced his support of the University, with a great sum of Five hundred million (N500,000,000.00) naira.

The Promoters and the Planning and Implementation Committee are ever grateful to the pioneer Pro-Chancellor of Peaceland University, Enugu for the hospitality at his house and for accepting to become the pioneer Pro-Chancellor of Peaceland University, Enugu, and for expressing his solid financial support for our dear nascent University. Our humble prayer is that the Good Lord will continue to guide, protect,

strengthen and bless him as we work with him together to realize and actualize the desires and dreams of our founding Mother.

PEACELAND UNIVERSITY ENUGU

Education

FEC approves 37 new private universities

Published

2 weeks ago

May 16, 2023

Advocate News Nigeria

Despite complaints of proliferation of universities in Nigeria, the Federal Executive Council meeting presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has approved the licensing of 37 new universities in the country.

Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, announced the approval after the extra-ordinary Council meeting on Monday.

He noted that the development brings to 72 the total number of universities licensed by the Buhari administration since 2015.

He failed to name the universities, but revealed that one of them is an online university, the first of its kind in Nigeria, and owned by a woman from Bauchi State, with expectation that it will cater for the likes of northern Muslim women who feel reluctant or are restrained from attending physical campus education.

Fielding questions on the expediency of additional universities given funding challenges of the existing ones, Adamu explained that these ones are all private, with enough funds to run them and they should not be denied the opportunity to exist.

The Minister further explained that Nigeria actually needs more universities as the available ones are not adequate to take up all those yearning for higher education.