The Federal Capital Territory Administration Education Secretariat has vowed it would not tolerate the application of foreign curriculum by groups or individuals in schools within the FCT.
The Secretary for Education, Sani Dahir El-katuzu, said this at the 2021 media luncheon of the secretariat in Abuja.
El-katuzu said the FCT Education Secretariat would not tolerate the imposition of a foreign curriculum.
“If somebody goes out to bring a curriculum from outside the country, he is importing the aspirations, plans and character of the intended students of another nation,” he explained. “Nigerians can’t be foreigners, and we can’t train our students to be citizens of other nations. That is why we will do everything we can to enforce the national curriculum in our schools. If somebody does not like that, he can go elsewhere and correct the school.”
He added that although the secretariat recognised some schools got the approval to apply foreign curriculum, such must run together with Nigerian curriculum.
“It would not be an exclusively foreign curriculum operating in schools. We will not tolerate that,” El-katuzu pointed out.
On the issue of cultism and bullying in FCT schools, he said there was an arrangement to tackle cultism and urged schools to deal decisively with bullying.
He listed eight strategic plans for schools across the territory in 2022, adding that in the year ahead, security will be strengthened with the introduction of technologies, particularly for schools in vulnerable locations.
El-Katuzu also disclosed that this new year’s academic activities would commence at FCT University of Science and Technology (FUSTA), while the FCT College of Education, Zuba, will be transformed to FCT University of Education, Zuba.
The Ogun State Government has threatened to sanction private schools owners in the state that enrol students expelled from public schools.
The government also vowed to name and shame any guilty pupils at the school, zonal and state levels if found wanting.
The State Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Prof. Abayomi Arigbagbu, stated this on Tuesday, at a press briefing held in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital to unveil the strategies mapped out to tackle juvenile delinquencies in schools in the state.
Arigbagbu stated this due to the series of crimes recently committed by pupils in public schools which led to the abrupt closure of some schools last year.
The Commissioner stated that the reason for the press briefing was to roll out the government’s strategies to tackle juvenile crimes and recent social vices in public schools in the state.
Arigbabu said the government would not only announce erring students publicly as a deterrent to others but will also reward and award best-behaved pupils who have distinguished themselves in academics and character.
Arigbagbu said that as a responsible government, it could not sit down and allow continuous misbehaviour in the state’s public schools.
The Commissioner ascribed these misbehaviours to bad parenting, social media, peer group, wrong role models, economic situations.
He also attributed lack of unqualified and unwilling teachers not using the right approach, shortage of teachers, sexual promiscuity, moral laxity, the craze for easy wealth, procrastination, low self-esteem, congestion of classes, security, dual registration and ineffective communication between teachers and learners to the challenges.
He said, “We are taking very serious steps against crimes and criminality in both public and private schools and private school owners should co-operate with us in this fight. We are the ones that give licences to all the private schools and if any of them flout our directives, we can easily have their licences withdrawn.
“Students expelled should not be admitted into any public or private school in Ogun State, that is something that will be very difficult and that is why we put in place what we call the Learner Identification number.
“The E-platform we are using now will make it difficult for dual registration.
“Once you are in a school and you misbehave and you are sent away, it will be very difficult to get into another school in Ogun but, some of them will want to get into private schools in the state, hence the sanction.
“All of us have to be on the same page because if we expel a student from a school it would have been the last resort and we don’t want a situation where the expulsion won’t be effective.”
Arigbabu said the ministry would be holding a series of meetings with security agencies, principals and Heads of Schools, Parents and Teachers Associations and others, to form effective alliances against vices and juvenile misconduct in schools.
The Informant247, a Kwara based online platform has inaugurated a foundation for the training of undergraduates with interest in journalism.
The Publisher and Chief Executive Officer of the medium, Shola Taofeek revealed this during a get-together to mark its fifth year anniversary.
According to Taofeek, the project named The Informant247 Foundation, will enable beneficiaries to develop their skills and improve their performance in the fields of communication and media industry.
He said the foundation would collaborate with experts and institutions to remove the obstacles faced by trainees.
Taofeeq who announced plans by the medium to go national said the training would be supervised by prominent media professionals and experts across Nigeria and beyond.
“We will combine the practical and theoretical aspects of the courses with 80% emphasis on practice.
“Also, distinguished experts, media professionals and news anchors in addition to doctors and professors have been engaged to offer specialised high-level courses in various aspects of the communication field to the trainees.
“Several training courses in various media fields have been organised in the past in which many trainees, IT and SIWES students from across tertiary institutions in Nigeria benefitted from.
“Many of them are now owners of media platforms and we want to take this step further with our foundation,” he added.
He said in 2022, following review of its activities and the need to cover new grounds from different perspectives, arrangements had been concluded to redefine and extend its reach.
“To this end, we are going nationwide. This means we will give priority, in the coming years, to stories across the country,” he submitted.
Dignitaries at the event include chairman of Kwara NUJ, Ahmed Lateef, member of State Assembly, Razaq Owolabi, Director Community Impact of Abubakar Bukola Saraki Foundation, Ibrahim Otukoko, former aide to Kwara Speaker, Sheriff Ibrahim and Principal, Queen Elizabeth Secondary Senior, Ilorin, Sidikat Lawal among others.
The University of Texas at Austin, United States of America, in collaboration with Carnegie Corporation of New York will be holding an international conference at the Babcock University, Ogun State.
The conference, titled, ‘Partnering for Greatness: Rethinking university education in Africa,’ and scheduled to between January 6 and 7, 2021 is the regional convergence on the impact of private universities on public universities in Africa.
The convener, a Professor of History and the Humanities at the University of Texas at Austin, Toyin Falola, revealed that the two institutions were working on the project to study the impact of private universities on public universities in Africa.
“The project seeks to understand the impacts of private universities on public universities in Uganda, Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, and Ghana through commissioned research and two regional stakeholders convening in Nigeria and Kenya.
Between now and August 2022, I will be hosting over a hundred University administrators and scholars in major conferences. I will also be coordinating country researchers to conduct studies on five African countries — South Africa, Ghana, Libya, Nigeria, and Uganda, he added.
Some erudites scholars expected at the conference are Vice-Chancellor, University of Lagos, Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi of Olabisi Onabanjo University, Dr Dele Ashiru of University of Lagos, Prof. Ayo Olukotun of Olabisi Onabanjo University, a renowned journalist, Olayinka Oyegbile, Provost, Federal College of Education, Technical, Lagos, Dr Wahab Azeez, Prof. Olajumoke Yacob-Haliso of Babcock University, Prof. Femi Mimiko of Obafemi Awolowo University, Vice-Chancellor, University of Abuja, Prof. Abdul Rasheed N’Allah, Chancellor, Lead City University, Prof. Jide Owoeye, Prof. Peter Wekesa(Kenya), Prof. John Mary Kanyamurwa (Uganda), and Dr George Bob, (Ghana).
A new study has revealed that a once-a-day antiretroviral medicine that is low-cost and easy for children to take is more effective at suppressing HIV than standard treatments.
The global study led by researchers at University College London and published in The New England Journal of Medicine found that dolutegravir-based regimens, which are already widely used to treat adults, reduced the chances of treatment failure among young people aged three to 18 by around 40 per cent compared to standard treatments.
As reported by EurekAlert, the findings were based on a randomised controlled trial called ODYSSEY involving more than 700 children from 29 clinical centres in Africa, Europe, and Asia, who were randomly given either dolutegravir or standard anti-HIV drugs, and who were followed up for at least two years.
The findings from the trial, which was sponsored by the Penta Foundation and funded by ViiV Healthcare, informed new guidance by the World Health Organisation, recommending the use of dolutegravir-based treatment for children.
In the study, researchers found that 14% of children receiving dolutegravir experienced treatment failure over two years compared to 22% of children receiving standard treatment. Treatment failure was deemed to occur if the virus became measurable in the blood – i.e., it was not fully suppressed – or if the child had symptoms of HIV-related ill health. Such a failure may be a result of the drug not being taken as well as the drug not working, the EurekAlert report stated further.
Evidence from adults shows dolutegravir has a high genetic barrier to resistance, meaning viruses are less likely to become resistant to it over time. This was replicated in the ODYSSEY trial, with much less resistance occurring among children and adolescents on dolutegravir-based treatment.
Past studies have suggested dolutegravir may be associated with weight gain among adults but the researchers said the new findings were reassuring for children, with those given dolutegravir gaining 1kg more and growing 1cm higher over two years – both indicating better growth rather than abnormal weight gain. Children in the dolutegravir arm had better lipid profiles, meaning a lower risk of cardiovascular disease in the long term.
In the main trial, the children all weighed over 14kg and most were aged six and over. The therapy’s effectiveness was also looked at among young children and babies weighing under 14kg, enrolled as a separate group in the trial; results are yet to be published.
The trial participants were enrolled in Uganda, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Thailand, the UK, Spain, Portugal, and Germany. Most of the participants were based in sub-Saharan Africa, where most children living with HIV are.
Earlier findings from the ODYSSEY trial showed that children weighing 20kg or more could safely take adult-strength tablets of dolutegravir, informing WHO dosing guidance and contributing to new licences for the drug in the United States and Europe during 2020.
Dr. Cissy Kityo, from the Joint Clinical Research Centre in Uganda, the country enrolling most children into ODYSSEY, said: “Simplifying the dosing is crucial. Older children being able to take the same tablets as adults immediately open access to dolutegravir for the majority of children living with HIV. It greatly simplifies procurement for national health systems in low and middle-income countries and lowers costs.”
Dolutegravir is an integrase inhibitor – that is, it suppresses HIV by inhibiting integrase, an enzyme that the virus needs to replicate.
Professor Diana Gibb, the principal investigator of the ODYSSEY trial and one of the senior authors of the paper, said: “Our findings provide strong evidence for the global roll-out of dolutegravir for children with HIV.
“Medical treatments for children often lag woefully behind those of adults because of the separate formulations and studies that are needed. With the evidence from ODYSSEY which used simplified dosing, this treatment gap has been reduced and we hope that countries can quickly scale up children’s access to treatment globally.”
Lead author, Dr. Anna Turkova said: “About 1.8 million children live with HIV but they have had limited treatment options, with medicines that taste unpalatable, that need to be taken twice a day, or that come in large pills that are difficult to swallow.
“Dolutegravir is given in small tablets usually once a day and the baby pills can be dispersed in water, meaning it’s a lot easier for young children to take. This is important in encouraging uptake of the treatment and adherence to it over many years. Sadly, only about half of children living with HIV are currently receiving treatment, and those who are not treated face high risks of impaired immunity and worsening health.”
Palace of Versailles, former French royal residence and centre of government is now a national landmark.
It is located in the city of Versailles, Yvelines département, Île-de-France région, northern France, 10 miles (16 km) west-southwest of Paris.
As the centre of the French court, Versailles was one of the grandest theatres of European absolutism.
The palace
The original residence was primarily a hunting lodge and private retreat for Louis XIII (reigned 1610–43) and his family.
In 1624 the king entrusted Jacques Lemercier with the construction of a château on the site.
History
Until Louis XIV’s time, the town of Versailles comprised but a few houses to the south of the present Place d’Armes.
However, land was given to the lords of the court, and new buildings sprang up, chiefly in the north quarter.
The Palace of Versailles was declared the official royal residence in 1682 and the official residence of the court of France on May 6, 1682, but it was abandoned after the death of Louis XIV in 1715. In 1722, however, it was returned to its status as royal residence.
Further additions were made during the reigns of Louis XV (1715–74) and Louis XVI (1774–92). Following the French Revolution, the complex was nearly destroyed.
With the exception of improvements to the Trianons, Napoleon largely neglected Versailles, and Louis XVIII and Charles X merely kept it up. Louis-Philippe, however, made great alterations, partly with help from patrons in the United States.
Perhaps his most-significant contribution to the palace was the creation of the Museum of French History, which was consecrated “to all the glories of France” in an inauguration on June 10, 1837, that marked the first celebration at Versailles since the Revolution.
While many of the 6,000 paintings and 3,000 sculptures held by the museum are not available for public viewing, a portion of those holdings are on display throughout the palace.
In 1870 and 1871 Versailles was occupied as the headquarters of the German army besieging Paris, and William I of Prussia was crowned German emperor in the Hall of Mirrors on January 18, 1871.
William I Of Prussia
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After the peace with Germany and while the Commune was triumphant in Paris, Versailles was the seat of the French National Assembly.
It housed the two chambers of the parliament until 1879, and during that period Versailles was the official capital of France.
After World War I the treaty between the Allies and Germany was signed in the Hall of Mirrors on June 28, 1919.
The Treaty of Trianon, ending the war between the Allies and Hungary, was concluded on June 4, 1920, in the Cotelle Gallery in the Grand Trianon.
After World War II the palace was occasionally used for plenary congresses of the French parliament or as housing for visiting heads of state, but its primary utility lay in tourism.
Treaty Of Versailles
Dignitaries gathered in the Galerie des Glaces (Hall of Mirrors) at the Palace of Versailles for the signing of the peace treaty ending World War I, 1919.
UNESCO designated the palace and its gardens a World Heritage site in 1979.
Following a devastating winter storm in 1989, which destroyed more than 1,000 trees on the palace grounds, the French government initiated a wide-ranging project of repair and renovation.
A severe windstorm in 1999 caused the loss of some 10,000 trees, including several planted by Marie-Antoinette and Napoleon. The château was also damaged.
In 2003 an ambitious restoration and renovation program was launched as the “Grand Versailles” project.
With a 17-year schedule and a budget that topped €500 million, the plan was billed as the most-significant expansion of the palace facilities since the reign of Louis-Philippe.
Today
Its walls are preserved today as the exterior facade overlooking the Marble Court.
Zhangjiajie National Park is located in the central-eastern area of China in the Wulingyuan Scenic Area which features multiple protected areas. The national park encompasses an area of 18.59 square miles (48.15 sq km).
The larger Wulingyuan Scenic Area covers 153.5 square miles (397.5 sq km). The collective Wulingyuan area is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Zhangjiajie National Forest Park is probably the most coveted part of the area.
The park is comprised of dense forests, deep ravines, deep canyons, unusual peaks, caves, and pillar-like rock formations blanketed throughout the park.
These pillar rock formations are what the park is renowned for around the world.
The pillar rock formations are not typical limestone-eroded pillars. The pillar rock formations are comprised of quartz-sandstone and formed from physical erosion caused by the abundant rains.
The landscapes created by the mountains, pillar rock formations, dense forests, and clouds are the epitome of Chinese landscapes that inspire so many different types of artwork.
The Bailong Elevator and Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon Glass Bridge are two record-holding features that help visitors experience the splendor of the national park.
Israeli food-tech startup Remilk, a developer of animal-free milk and dairy, raised $120 million in a funding round led by Hanaco Ventures, a New York- and Tel Aviv-based venture capital fund.
Additional investors included US food tech VC firm Rage Capital, CPT Capital, a backer of Impossible Foods, plant-based egg company Just, and Israeli plant-based yogurt startup Yofix, and NY investment firm Precision Capital.
Israeli food giant Tnuva and German dairy company Hochland, both existing investors in Remilk, also participated.
Hanaco Ventures has also backed Israeli tree intel company SeeTree, plant-based meat company Redefine Meat, shared transportation company Via, and Lightricks, a Jerusalem-based software startup that makes photo and video editing apps.
The Remilk investment revealed Tuesday was the single largest in a cow-free dairy company to date, and values the startup at an astonishing $500 million, according to sources familiar with the deal. Financial daily The Marker reported a valuation of $325 million.
Remilk, founded in 2019, produces milk proteins via a fermentation process that renders them “chemically identical” to those present in cow-produced milk and dairy products.
The two entrepreneurs mapped out the chemical composition of milk, assessed the fat, lactose and sugar in the liquid, and determined that the key ingredient to making milk is the proteins.
Remilk recreates the milk proteins by taking the genes that encode them and inserting them into a single-cell microbe, which they manipulated genetically to express the protein “in an efficient and scalable way,” said Wolf. The product is then dried into a powder.
Google has acquired another Israeli company, threat detection firm Siemplify, for a reported $500 million, nine years after its $1 billion purchase of navigation app Waze.
The purchase will mark Google’s fourth acquisition of an Israeli company and its first in the cybersecurity industry outside the US.
Siemplify will become part of Google Cloud’s security team “to help companies better manage their threat response,” wrote Google Cloud Security VP and GM Sunil Potti, in a post on Tuesday.
Siemplify’s cloud services will serve as the foundation for Google’s cloud activities and cybersecurity operations with “the team’s talent leading the way,” he said.
Last summer, Google committed to investing $10 billion in cybersecurity over the next five years to “strengthen cybersecurity, including expanding zero-trust programs, helping secure the software supply chain, and enhancing open-source security” and to train 100,000 Americans in fields like IT support and data analytics.
This image made from video broadcasted by North Korea's KRT, shows a military parade with what appears to be possible new intercontinental ballistic missile at the Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang, Saturday, Oct. 10, 2020. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un warned Saturday that his country would “fully mobilize” its nuclear force if threatened as he took center stage at a massive military parade to mark the 75th anniversary of the country’s ruling party. (KRT via AP)
The latest launch came after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un vowed to further boost the country’s military capability at a high-profile ruling party conference last week.
North Korea has fired what appeared to be a ballistic missile into the sea, in the first such launch by Pyongyang this year.
The South Korean military said on Wednesday the North fired what is “presumed to be a ballistic missile” towards the sea east of the peninsula at around 2310 GMT (8:10 am) on Tuesday.
After an emergency meeting, South Korea’s national security council “expressed concerns over the launch”, according to a statement by the president’s office.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida described it as a “possible ballistic missile launch”.
“There have been no reports of damage to Japanese aircraft and vessels so far,” Japan’s top government spokesman Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters.
“We are continuing analysis, but if it took a normal orbit, it is expected to have travelled about 500 kilometres and fallen outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone.”
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