According to a new study, Christian schools excelled in performance over public schools during the pandemic.

The survey was released by Herzog Foundation, a Christian organization that seeks to provide Christ-centered K-12 education.

Results found that while 80 percent of Christian school parents expressed satisfaction with their child’s education, 55 percent of parents of public-school kids were satisfied with forty-one dissatisfied with their child’s education in public schools.

The study also found a large discrepancy between Christian and public schools when it came to school closings during the pandemic. For instance, 26 percent of Christian school parents said that their schools never closed, while only 8 percent of public parents said the same thing.

The chairman of the Herzog Foundation, Todd Graves, explained that the survey found that during the pandemic, Christian school parents found it easier to manage their child’s time, communicate with teachers, manage their child’s assignments, and were better able to keep up their child’s morale than the parents of children in public schools.

He said that as a result, while just over half of public school parents reported being satisfied with their child’s education in 2020, 80 percent of Christian school parents were satisfied.

Graves also noted that parents across the country are worried about public schools implementing Critical Race Theory in their curriculums. According to the survey, 70 percent of respondents disagree with schools teaching their children CRT and concepts that say, “white people are inherently privileged and black people and others are oppressed.”

Moreover, 80 percent of parents do not feel that schools should teach that attaining racial justice “requires discriminating against white people.”

Graves said that while America’s parents may disagree on a great deal, they are united in the belief that many of the central tenets of critical race theory should not be in the classroom – whether that classroom is funded privately or publicly.

The survey results come after separate data found that more parents are transitioning their children to homeschooling either because of what’s being taught in public schools or because parents want their kids to have a more faith-based curriculum.

Home Educators Association of Virginia’s director of homeschool support and government affairs, Yvonne Bunn, told journalists that the state has seen over a 48 percent increase in homeschoolers for the last school year going from 44,000 to 65,000 homeschoolers.

Bunn also noted that parents who have been working from home want to continue to do so in order to teach their children.

The Virginia Supreme Court has upheld an order to reinstate a Christian teacher in his attempt to stay employed at his school after he was suspended for speaking out against a proposed LGBT policy.

The state high court upheld the lower court decision that had ordered Loudoun County Public Schools to reinstate Leesburg Elementary School physical education teacher Tanner Cross, who had attended a May school board meeting and spoke out against the proposal, saying it would damage children.

The proposal requires staff to use the name and pronouns that a student prefers, even if it differs from their birth certificate and biological sex.

It also allows students to use restrooms and locker rooms and play on sports teams that match their gender identity.

The Virginia Supreme Court in a 14-page decision, ruled “We believe Cross has a strong claim to the view that his public dissent implicates ‘fundamental societal values’ deeply embedded in our Constitutional Republic.”

The state high court said Cross was opposing a policy that might burden his freedoms of expression and religion by requiring him to speak and interact with students in a way that affirms gender transition, a concept he rejects for secular and spiritual reasons.

The high court ruled that “Under such circumstances, Cross’ interest in making his public comments was compelling”.

Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), which is representing Cross, asserted that the school violated his religious liberty.

Cross was suspended after telling the board meeting in May, “I’m a teacher, but I serve God first. And I will not affirm that a biological boy can be a girl and vice versa because it is against my religion. It’s lying to a child. It’s abuse to a child.”

ADF senior counsel Tyson Langhofer, director of the ADF Center for Academic Freedom while applauding the court’s ruling, said “Teachers shouldn’t be forced to promote ideologies that are harmful to their students and that they believe are false, nor should they be silenced for commenting at a public meeting.”

“The lower court’s decision was a well-reasoned application of the facts to clearly established law, as the Virginia Supreme Court found. … Public employees cannot be forced to contradict their core beliefs just to keep a job.”

In a related development, Two Virginia public school teachers are suing their school district over a new transgender policy that requires employees to use the chosen pronouns and names of students who identify as transgender.

The teachers argue that children should not be encouraged to “undertake social or medical transition” because of their inability to assess long-term consequences of such treatments as puberty blockers, hormone replacement therapy and sex-reassignment surgery.

The complaint says “Administering treatment for gender dysphoria in lieu of diagnosis and treatment of other mental health conditions is harmful to children with such conditions, especially if the child is in the statistical majority of cases where the gender dysphoria will desist.”

The two teachers are Loudoun County High School history teacher Monica Gill and Smart’s Mill Middle School English teacher Kim Wright.

The Ministry of Education in Lagos State has distributed various science practical materials and chemicals across the 322 Public Senior Secondary Schools in the state, for the ongoing West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).

The Commissioner for Education, Folasade Adefisayo, disclosed this in a statement, signed by Assistant Director, Public Affairs in the ministry, Ganiu Lawal.

The Commissioner said that the gesture is part of the state’s investment and continuous process to the progress of academic activities, particularly for the students.

She said the distribution of science materials is in consonance with efforts to promote Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) education in schools.

The commissioner added that the state government had approved payment of N700 million as registration and WASSCE fee for 51,187 students sitting for the examination in tandem with the free education policy of the state government as sustained by the Sanwo-Olu Administration.

Adefisayo said the state has also provided several science practical materials for subjects like Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Agricultural Science for over 46,236 students sitting for this year’s examination.

She said that various chemicals, substances and consumables used for practicals cost the state government over N80 million.

She reaffirmed the government’s commitment to the advancement of STEAM which has resulted in the government constantly making provision of standard science laboratories in schools across the state, not only renovating laboratories in some schools but also building additional ones.

Adefisayo advised the students to do their best in the examination adding that it is a very critical phase that determines the career path they intend to pursue and the government has reduced the burdens on their parents.

The head of the Bakassi Returnees in Cross River, Etim Ene, has appealed to the federal and Cross River Government to assist them return their children to school.

Ene made the appeal in an interview with the journalists in Calabar.

He said, as displaced people, it was hard for them to afford the education of their children both at the primary and secondary school level.

The Director-General of the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Princewill Ayim, said that Cross River State has about 111,204 registered displaced persons and the state does not have the resources to take care of all of them at once.

He said the state is faced with communal clashes over land, refugees’ situation and those affected by flood, as well as other natural disasters, adding that the governor has been putting in a lot of efforts to ameliorate the situation but the number is growing every day, making the situation complex.

Ayim commended organisations like the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency for their support to displaced persons, and appealed to others to do the same.

The Bakassi Peninsula, which was part of Cross River State and Akwa Ibom, was ceded to Cameroon on August 14, 2008, following a ruling by the International Court of Justice.

The federal government, since then, has embarked on several initiatives to effectively assist Nigerians displaced from that region.

The government of Tanzania has pledged to continue improving primary and secondary education curriculum to impart students with entrepreneurship, finance management and life skills to make graduates able to create own employments.

The improvements will enable Tanzanian students to cope with the current technological changes and adopt the ongoing political, economic and social changes.

Deputy Minister for Education, Science and Technology, Omari Kipanga gave the assurance during an interactive session in Parliament.

Special Seats legislator, Ngwasi Kamani (CCM) during questioning, highlighted the need for the government to introduce entrepreneurship studies, finance management and life skills as an alternative way of solving unemployment challenge.

She added that the subjects should compulsory for all the students.

Deputy Minister Kipanga however clarified that currently, students are taught entrepreneurship through other various subjects.

He said primary school pupils get the knowledge through different topics in the subjects of Mathematics, Social Studies and Vocational Studies while secondary school students are imparted with such skills through Civics and General Studies.

He said there are also some elements of entrepreneurship contained in secondary school students through various subjects, such as Book-Keeping, Commerce, Economics, Accountancy, Home Economics, Mathematics and Agriculture, adding that emphasis was put on life skills and vocational trainings.

He said students are also capacitated on the Information and Communication Technology (ICT).

According to Kipanga, the government has been organizing different forums to discuss a number of issues related to improvement of the curriculums.

He said such forums had already been conducted in Dar es Salaam and Dodoma regions, saying that the curriculum review process is expected to be completed this financial year.

Meanwhile, Education, Science and Technology Minister, Prof Joyce Ndalichako said plans were underway to ensure all schools provide life skills training, such as needlework and cookery, adding that the two subjects are now taught in a few secondary schools.

Zamfara state government has imposed a dusk to dawn curfew after about 73 students of a day secondary school were abducted by bandits forcing the state to shut down all schools.

The students, some of whom were writing their mock examinations, were abducted at Kaya Government Day Secondary School in Maradun on Wednesday afternoon.

The school’s vice-principal, Zayyanu Tsaba, was among those kidnapped.

The school authorities said more than 300 students were on the premises at the time of the attack.

Some of them ran when the bandits struck, escaping into nearby farmlands.

The latest incident comes exactly a week after another group of abducted students and staff from the College of Agriculture and Animal Science in Zamfara regained their freed.

The state governor Bello Matawalle has announced the closure of all schools and imposed a curfew from 6pm to 6am in 13 local government areas and 8pm to 6am in Gusau, the state capital.

State police commissioner Ayuba Elkana said officers have been deployed to work with the military to search for and rescue the victims.

The latest wave of abductions in Zamfara follows new stringent policies by governments of adjoining northwest states to cut the supply of essential commodities to bandits operating from forests.

This, along with a rise in attacks from the military, has made the bandits more desperate.

According to Unicef, more than 1,000 children have been abducted by Boko Haram in northeastern Nigeria since 2013, including 276 girls taken from their secondary school in the town of Chibok in 2014.

Unicef stressed that attacks on students and schools are not only reprehensible but a gross violation of the right to education.