Essex County Council is to continue to provide free school meals during the summer holidays.

The authority has been given £3.6m Covid Local Support Grant from central government to carry out the scheme.

The council will use £2.6m to continue the holiday free school meal vouchers scheme it has run successfully since Christmas 2020.

Vouchers will be sent directly to parents of eligible children and young people by their school, college or early years setting before the holidays start.

They are worth £15 a week per child for four weeks and can be used to buy food in most supermarkets.

The rest of the grant will be split as follows:

• £200,000 to the Essential Living Fund, which provides emergency grants for food, heating, energy and water bills and essential household goods.
• £300,000 for targeted family support and childcare delivered through locally trusted organisations.
• £160,283 to expand Essex ActivAte, the holiday food and activities programme.
• £185,000 to support homeless people and rough sleepers who need help to get food and essential items such as toiletries.
• £150,000 for grants to local initiatives nominated by Essex County Councillors that provide food or help with household essentials to vulnerable people in the councillor’s division.

Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Community, Equality, Partnerships and Performance, Councillor Louise McKinlay, said: “… through holiday free school meals, the children’s food and activity clubs, help for homeless people, emergency grants and targeted support, we want to ensure children and young people can enjoy nutritious food and fun activities, alongside helping families feeling the financial strain to pay their bills and look forward with hope.”

Education unions and organisations in the United Kingdom warn that Government must halt its plans to overhaul teacher training as it could cause “irreparable damage” to the supply of high-quality teachers to schools.

A joint letter to schools minister Nick Gibb accuses the Government of attempting to “railroad through a huge change” to teacher training with “minimal opportunity for scrutiny and meaningful feedback”.

The Government launched a consultation, which closes in the summer break, on recommendations from a review of the initial teacher training (ITT) market.

All ITT providers would need to be re-accredited in order to continue recruiting trainees from August 2022 under the Department for Education (DfE) proposals, which has prompted concerns that many well-respected universities could withdraw from teacher training as a consequence.

The letter, from six education organisations representing teachers and school leaders, calls on the DfE to urgently halt the consultation, which closes on August 22.

The letter adds: “We think that schools and pupils would be best served by you taking this consultation off the table at this time so that there is an opportunity for proper discussion.”

The review proposes that ITT providers should apply for re-accreditation by the end of March 2022, with successful providers being announced before the end of the 2021/22 academic year.

The DfE hopes the recommendations will strengthen quality standards for ITT courses, including a new accreditation process, new intensive school placements and high-quality mentoring for trainees.

The Ministry of Education in Rwanda has announced that public transport and school buses have been arranged to facilitate candidates sitting their national exams to and from examination centers during lockdown.

O-Level examinations will start on July 20 and end July 27, while A-Level and TVET theory examinations will start on July 20 and end on July 27 with A-Level Science practical examinations commencing on July 28 to end on July 30.

A total of 452,053 candidates from across the country are expected to sit their national examinations.

The transport arrangement follows the latest lockdown imposed on Kigali city, Burera, Gicumbi, Kamonyi, Musanze, Nyagatare, Rubavu, Rwamagana and Rutsiro districts from July 17 to 26.

Rwanda National Police through the ministry of education will grant movement clearance for the transporters.

This is according to a statement signed by the Minister for Education, Valentine Uwamariya.

The ministry stated that movement permit should be requested via mc@mineduc.gov.rw by July 18.

The ministry advised parents who wish to use their own transport means to take their children to examination centres, to do so within recommended hours and with police clearance.

The announcement reads: “The hours to transport students to the examination centers start from 5:30 am to 9:30 am while transporting them back home starts from 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm.”

The candidates have been requested to reach examination centers not later than 9:00 am on Monday so as to receive the agenda and examination guidelines.

Day candidates have been advised to wear school uniform while on their way to and from examination, in addition to carrying their student identification cards.

National examinations inspectors and other staff have also been asked to carry service cards that will be provided by National Examinations and Schools Inspection Authority (NESA) in collaboration with the districts.

The Federal Ministry of Education says cooperative societies are key to reversing the increasing rate of illiteracy in the country, especially among adult learners.

Director, Basic and Secondary Education, Binta Abdulkadir, made the observation at the inaugural meeting to include adult skill learners for Financial Empowerment through the Non-governmental Association for Literacy Support Services (NOGA LSS) in Abuja.

Abdulkadir commended NOGALSS for its zeal to assist Nigeria to achieve its target literacy level by empowering adult learners through cooperative.

She said the role of literacy in a nation’s development cannot be overemphasised, particularly for a developing nation like Nigeria.

She stated that literacy is a basic human right and an important key for human development, especially the basic literacy and numeracy skills adding that the definition of literacy has broadened to include a wide range of several other skills.

She further said this is as against the traditional bench mark of reading and writing in English language to incorporate skills like proficiency in computer applications, ability to read and write in any language, to mention a few.

Abdulkadir said that one known fact for illiteracy was poverty occasioned by inability to access funds for economic activities.

She said through this cooperative, adult learners would have access to funds for their financial self-reliance and economic advancement

Executive Secretary National Commission for Mass Literacy Adult and Non-Formal Education (NMEC), Abba Haladu, said that the move to empower adult education learners was apt.

Haladu represented by Assistant Director, NMEC, Nnenna Ejieji, said this was because of the challenges like illiteracy, poverty, unemployment and lack of funds for graduates of skill acquisition centres the country is currently contending with.

He said that the empowerment would reduce poverty, create employment among other benefits, adding that the commission would continue to partner with NOGALSS.

Meanwhile, the National President NOGALSS, Noah Emmanuel, said that the cooperative and NMEC forged a common front for financial empowerment of all adult skill learners in the Federal Capital Territory.

Emmanuel said that the partnership was with the knowledge that it was not enough to make people literate but there was need to see to their financial self-reliance by solving unemployment.

He said that the cooperative applied for three billion naira from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) but was looking at increasing the amount to seven billion due to its membership strength.

NOGALSS’ consultant to CBN on financial aspect, Usman Umar, said CBN already had a door called development finance, there was anchor, there was commercial agriculture and there was targeted facility and post COVID-19 loans.

On his part, Executive Secretary of the National Cooperative Financing Agency of Nigeria (CFAN), Emmanuel Atama, encouraged civil servants to join cooperatives and mobilise themselves to access loans for housing purposes and to meet other needs.

Atama said that this was important because cooperatives help civil servants to save money which would be of great benefit to them when they retire as the money usually came handy before their gratuity.