The Education Department has released $600 million to states to bolster services for students experiencing homelessness.

States and districts are set to use the funding to identify children experiencing homelessness or housing instability and boost wraparound services – like housing assistance, clothing, food and mental health support – that they already provide with funding through the McKinney-Vento Act, which is the federal education law that provides aid to states to help them support students experiencing homelessness.

More than 1.5 million children enrolled in public schools experienced homelessness at some point during the 2017-18 school year according to the Children’s Defense Fund.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s once-a-year count published in March showed that more than 106,000 children were homeless, including almost 11,000 who were living outside.

The count took place in January 2020, meaning it does not reflect the pandemic which experts say exacerbated homelessness among students, especially for colored and Indigenous children who already experience housing instability at the highest rates.

The funding is part of the $130 billion included in the most recent relief package for K-12 education.

The majority of the $600 million will flow directly to school districts through a formula that takes into account a district’s population of children and youth experiencing homelessness and the proportion of students who come from low-income families.

The Federal Government has approved the establishment of zonal offices for the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) in the six geo-political zones of the country.

This is contained in the approval letter by the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu.

The letter was signed by Director of Polytechnic and Allied Institutions, Federal Ministry of Education, Adeleye Adeoye, indicated that the North East Zonal Office would be located at Federal Polytechnic Bauchi and North West Zonal Office to be located at Hassan Usman Katsina Polytechnic, Katsina.

It added that the Zonal Office for South South would be located at Auchi Polytechnic, Edo, while that of South West would be sited at Yaba College of Education Akoka, Lagos State.

South East Zonal Office would be located at Institute of Management and Technology Enugu, while that of North Central would be located at Federal Polytechnic Nasarawa.

The Executive Secretary of the board, Idris Bugaje, had promised to establish zonal offices to carry out advocacy on skills and interface with industries and other agencies in the zones on skill development.

This, according to him, will significantly help in equipping Nigerian youths with relevant skills.

At a global education summit in London hosted by British prime minister Boris Johnson and Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta, governments, businesses and philanthropists are being asked to invest in the future of children by raising more than $5bn (£3.5bn).

This comes at a time when charities have criticised the British government’s decision to make significant aid cuts around the world.

At this summit in London billions of dollars will be raised to help transform education in dozens of countries.

In wealthier countries with broadband and computers available, some virtual learning has continued.

But for many young students in rural Nigeria or Zambia for example, school closures have been far more harmful – especially for girls who are less likely to ever return to the classroom.

Even before the pandemic more than a 130 million girls across the world were out of school.

World leaders will be asked to commit a fifth of their national budgets to education.

President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the sum of N8.5 billion for the conduct of ground-breaking research in medicine and other areas in 2021, under the National Research Fund, NRF, scheme funded by the Tertiary Education Trust, TETFUND.

The executive secretary of TETFUND, Suleiman Bogoro, disclosed this at a 3-day workshop for directors of research and development of public universities in Nigeria held at the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, training institute, Maitama, Abuja.

Bogoro said the fund intends to put money in the Nigerian Medical Research Institute, NMIR to resuscitate their vaccine production.

He added that he has scheduled a meeting with the Director General of NMIR, Prof Babatunde Salako, to be joined by professors of medicine from some universities across the country for the purpose of achieving specific research objectives.

Bogoro however decried the failure of research institutes to have the appetite to establish a good relationship with universities for the purpose of promoting research and development, stating that universities are also guilty of disregarding them.

He stressed the need for collaboration between the universities and research institutes to know what the institutes are doing and offer assistance where necessary.