Pelumi Akinboye Says

Education is Power,Information is the Strength.

Pelumi Akinboye Says

Education is Power,Information is the Strength.

Pelumi AKinboye Says

Education is Power,Information is the Strength.

Pelumi Akinboye Says

Education is Power,Information is the Strength.

Pelumi Akinboye Says

Education is Power,Information is the Strength.

Monday 4 November 2013

JAMB 2014/2015 UTME Scratch Cards Now On Sale: Registration guidelines

Schoolnews9ja gathered that scratch cards for 2014/2015 UTME registration is now on sale for candidates who are seeking admission into the various degree awarding higher institutions in the country come 2014/2015.

Where to purchase JAMB forms
Traditionally, JAMB forms are sold by selected/ approved commercial banks nation-wide and in JAMB state offices across the country. However for now, our reporter gathered that only Zenith Bank and UBA Bank has been approved as at the time of this report.

Cost of the registration form/Scratch card
The Jamb form will be sold at the rate of Four thousand naira only (N4,000.00) excluding Bank Commissions. However, it will not be more than N4,500 - including bank charge.

Endeavor to carry out your registration in JAMB accredited cyber cafe only at the cost of NOT MORE THAN N700. Report any charges above that to JAMB.

Federal College of Animal Health Ibadan Releases 2013/2014 Admission List

The long awaited 2013/2014 admission list of the Federal College of Animal Health and Production Technology, Ibadan is finally out on Wednesday.
All concerned students should proceed to check their names in school admin block, inside school main campus.

And proceed to pay a sum of N10,000 as acceptance fee.

All other information will be provided in the admin.

Best of luck!
From: ADVANTAGE...ANIMAL HEALTH ND2.

Anambra Distributes Buses To Schools

Anambra State Governor, Peter Obi has said quality education is one legacy he would be leaving behind as governor of the state.

Speaking in Awka, the state capital after presenting more buses to schools in the state, the Governor made it clear that no society can move forward without quality education and to buttress his point, the governor has so far released 230 buses to schools in the past few months.

In his speech, the Governor said “this is just one of the promises. Those who are not receiving here today, be rest assured that you will get it.”

The Governor asked traditional leaders and union leaders in the state to maintain effective supervision of school projects in their areas. He also revealed that the State Government has set aside salaries for 5,000 teachers to be employed into various schools across the state until December 2015.

The State Commissioner for Education, Uju Okeke said the buses will tackle the challenges of transportation and afford easy mobility for the students.

Although his tenure comes to an end soon, the Governor has promised the continuity of the projects he has embarked on.

14 Students Bag 1st Class Degree At Bell University

The Bell University of Technology, Ota in Ogun State on Saturday said 14 students had bagged first class degrees at its 2012/13 convocation.

The Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Adebayo Adeyemi, made this known at the 5th convocation and the conferment of honorary doctorate degrees, and presentation of prizes in Ota.

It was gathered that 208 graduating students participated in the ceremony.

They comprised 14 students bagging first class honours, 64 being in second upper division, 83 second class lower division, 43 in third class, and four receiving ordinary pass.

Adeyemi urged all the graduating students to have belief in their abilities that they could make it in life in spite of the existing situation in the country.

He emphasised the need for them to be patriotic in their bid to move the nation forward.
“I also wish to inform you all that the postgraduate degree programmes (PGD) and postgraduate diploma programmes had been approved by National Universities Commission.

“ The approval of these courses will give room for the institution to carry out numerous researches that will lead to development of both human capital and the nation,” he said.

Adeyemi said that the approved PGD courses included M.Sc in biochemistry, industrial chemistry, computer science, information science.
He said the diploma courses were to be offered in microbiology and applied physics.

He said that eight students had since registered for their masters’ degree programmes in the institution.
Adeyemi announced that a philanthropist, Prof. Emmanuel Edizien had donated a 500-seater theatre to the institution, saying the hall would be properly put to use. (NAN)

What a Shame, As The First President With a Ph.D, Jonathan Has Let Us Down –ASUU Chairman

Chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, Olusegun Ajiboye, University of Ibadan branch, tells OLUFEMI ATOYEBI that the strike will continue unless the Federal Government honours the 2009 agreement it entered with the union

Apart from union activism, what other work do you do?

I am a lecturer at the Department of Teacher Education in the University of Ibadan and an Associate Professor in the institution.

How will you describe the attitude of President Goodluck Jonathan to education in Nigeria?

Everybody thought that President Goodluck Jonathan’s academic qualification would be an advantage for Nigeria. This is the first time we are having a president who holds a PhD and we were all hoping for the best. Being a Doctor of Philosophy puts you at the peak of academic achievement because other addition will come through promotion.

But we are not only disappointed but also let down. Even the military regimes that we all condemned supported education more than what we now have under Jonathan.

What are the issues that led to this strike and confrontation with the government?

If we go by the agreement that the Federal Government had with ASUU in 2009 and the MoU signed by the FG on January 24, 2012, you will discover that the critical issue is the funding of federal universities in Nigeria. There is a need for substantial amount of money to be injected into the universities to achieve total revitalisation and the two parties agreed on this. It was agreed in 2009 that a sum of N1.5trn would be required to fund the 24 federal universities then. It was also agreed that we will look at the number of students in state universities to determine how much would be needed to intervene.

With the 2012 MoU, the FG agreed that it would inject N1.3trn over three years into the universities. The modality for the payment of the money was that N100bn would be spent in 2012 which would rise to N400bn annually for the next three years.

When ASUU was making claims about the issue of funding universities, the government did not trust us, so it set up a committee to verify the claims. The National Economic Empowerment Development Strategy Assessment Committee report justified our claims and when it was being presented to the Federal Executive Council, Jonathan said all the state governors must also see the report. The NEEDS Assessment Technical Committee set up on the report said N800bn is required over two years to fund the schools. By now, the FG should have put in N500bn as intervention fund for federal universities if the MoU of 2012 was respected.

Critical to the issue in contention also is the Earn Allowances. This was part of the 2009 agreement but in 2012, the FG said the implementation committee should calculate how much is required to pay the allowance of all staff of federal universities. The committee was chaired by Wale Babalakin. The committee said N92bn is required to pay the money over two and a half years period. The government is deceiving Nigerians by saying that it has released the money already. Out of the money, N55bn will go to academic staff; the rest would go to non-academic Staff.

With your members’ salaries suspended, who is funding ASUU and how are your members surviving?
We are familiar with this terrain because this is not the first time that government will use hunger as a weapon in the struggle. Our members are determined and convinced that this is a just struggle. God is on our side and we don’t want any money from anybody. We are resolute in our demands and we will pursue this to a better conclusion. If the government wants us to call it off, it should honour our agreement. Our salaries are stopped but our lives have not stopped.

The government has the machinery to investigate movement of suspicious funds. We invite security agencies to go through ASUU account and see if we are receiving money from anyone. Members contribute money every month, so we do not need funding from anyone.

The Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, warned that the economy could collapse if the FG accedes to your demands. How true is this?

His position shows the extent of ignorance of some people. How can the demand for quality education collapse an economy? If you have to rebuild a nation, educational system must come first.

If the government could bail out failed banks with about N3trn and the failed airlines with over N500bn and the economy did not collapse, then there is nothing too much to do for education. We are talking of Vision 2020 but how do we achieve it with an educational system in need of a bail out? The government should be sincere and declare a state of emergency in the educational sector.

The students seem to be against your action with the call by some of them under the aegis of the National Association of Nigerian Students calling on lecturers to return to the classroom. Do you carry them along in this struggle?

We want to thank our genuine students for the support they have given so far. There is a difference between genuine and fake students body. We do not begrudge anyone. ASUU believes that this struggle is about the future of Nigerian universities. The bulk of our demands will benefit better learning environment for the students. ASUU is not fighting for its pocket. Our members work in the schools and have children studying there. We don’t have the money to send our children abroad but we must ensure that what we have here is good enough to shape the future of our country.

ASUU said the lives of their leaders are under threat. Who are the people threatening their lives?

Our members have been stopped by the police whenever they plan to have peaceful protest while other groups are allowed to do the same. Why is the government infringing on the rights of our members?

How far can you go in this struggle since the FG has refused to accede to your demands?

This strike is not about how far can we push it, it is about how well it will end. We want it to end well soon. We want our students to see evidence of our struggle. We want new hostels to emerge; we want them to see new classrooms; we also want them to see changes in the whole system. That is when we can look back and say that it has ended well. Parents are now beginning to see the reasons for our struggle. Our graduates are regarded as half-baked but we want this to stop.

Some said ASUU members are comfortable to stay away from classrooms because they have other means of livelihood like working in private universities while keeping their jobs in public universities as well. How true is this?

The university system gives opportunity to lecturers to work as adjunct staff in private universities. It is a practice all over the world. We are not encouraging our people to combine too many of these because they don’t even have enough time to do their normal work. What we encourage them to do is that they should face their work so the accusation is not just.

Do you have children in Nigerian university?

My two children attend UI. I don’t even have money to send children abroad to study or to a private school in Nigeria. As a matter of fact, any student that passes Universityies Matriculation Examination will go to public school and not private university. We are not condemning any university but what we are saying is that the quality we parade in public university must be sustained. Public primary and secondary institutions have been killed but we don’t want the public university to die.

How do you approach the issue of discipline among your members because there are cases of intimate assault involving lecturers in some universities?

We cherish discipline in our universities. We have Ethics and Grievances Committee which deals with such cases. We do not condone impunity. We stand for honesty and integrity.

How will you assess the quality of Nigerian lecturers?

We are best with great teachers that have made their marks in big universities abroad. We are a group of intellectuals. The minimum qualification for teaching in a Nigerian university is a Master’s degree certificate, which makes a lecturer an opinion leader.

Why then do we have graduates who cannot write letters?

That is the basis of our struggle. It all boils down to quality academic environment and funding. Nigeria is at the lowest rung of the ladder in terms of university funding in Africa. Ghana puts 30 per cent of its budget in education.

What is the situation of things now?

As at today, government has made some offers but we will present it to our people. The strike is still on but we must reiterate the fact that if the government refuses to honour our agreement in full, we will not go back to the classrooms.

Anambra University Renamed After Ojukwu

Anambra State University in Uli has been renamed after the Late Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu in celebration of his 80th posthumous birthday.

The Anambra State Governor, Peter Obi, announced the renaming in a live broadcast on the television station of the Anambra Broadcasting Service.

He reiterated the commitment of his administration to restoring standards which demand a simultaneous transformation of all sectors and the recognition of role models.

He urged the people of Anambra State to continue to seek ways of making the state a great one.

Late Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu was a Nigerian military officer and politician. He served as the Military Governor of the Eastern Region of Nigeria in 1966.

He was the leader of the unsuccessful breakaway Republic of Biafra from 1967 to 1970 and a Nigerian politician from 1983 until he died on November 26, 2011, aged 78.

Uganda Varsity Requests For Nigerian Lecturers

A University in Uganda, the Islamic University Mbale, Uganda has requested to the Nigerian authorities for fifty-seven lecturers in various fields.

The request is sequel to a bilateral agreement signed between Nigeria and the Republic of Uganda last month.

In the agreement Nigeria renewed its pact to assist the East African country with skilled personnel
Director-General of the Directorate of Technical Aid Corps (TAC) Dr. Pius Osunyikanmi in an interview said the written request was submitted through the Nigerian Embassy in Kampalla.
Osunyikanmi said that the request of the Islamic University which was made through its Vice-Rector, Dr. Mouhamad Mpezamihigo is in the area of Engineering, Law, Medicine and Education.
According to him his office “had also received a deluge of requests from various sectors in Uganda with many calling for the deployment of classroom teachers to curb the shortfall in the number of teaching personnel in the East African country.

The university, Osunyikanmi has not less than 200 Nigerian students in its enrollment presently.

He pointed out that beneficiaries of the scheme who would be recruited across the country and be deployed next January are mainly first degree holders with 3 years experience.

Osunyikanmi however said TAC is finding it difficult enlisting Doctorate Degree holders in the scheme as the amount they are to receive is below the industry standard in Nigeria.
He noted that a lot of requests from majority of African countries are for PhD holders.

Osunyikanmi pointed out that TAC would make a request to President Goodluck Jonathan to approve increase in the stipend for Senior Lecturers to meet the demand of the countries.

The DG said that “the request from our brothers for our assistance is massive. In fact, less than a month after we renewed the pact with Uganda, we have got about 150 requests.


“This scheme is mutually beneficial to us in Nigeria and those countries we are deploying to. With it, we feel proud of playing our role which is also exposing our youths to outside practices.