The Senate in Nigeria has expressed commitment towards addressing infrastructure decay in tertiary institutions across the country.

Chairman, Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and Tetfund, Senator Ahmed Kaita, gave the assurance on Monday in Abuja at the opening of a public hearing on four bills in the education sector.

The public hearing was organised by the Committee towards enriching the bills through inputs from stakeholders in the sector.

The bills include -A bill for an Act to abolish and prohibit discrimination between first decree and Higher National Diplomas (HND) holders for the purpose of employment in Nigeria.

A Bill for an Act to establish Federal University of Agriculture, Kabba, Kogi.

A Bill for an Act to establish the Steel University Ajaokuta and Other Matters Connected.

A Bill for an Act to establish the Federal University of Education, Ankpa, to take over assets and liabilities including staff of Kogi State College of Education, Ankpa.

Kaita said the public hearing was designed to aggregate stakeholders’ opinion for legislations on the bills.

He said that the committee did not receive any opposing memorandum on the bill for an act to abolish and prohibit discrimination between first decree and HND holders.

He assured that the senate would do its best to ensure passage of the bill.

Sponsor of the bill for an act to establish federal university of agriculture, Kabba, Kogi, Sen. Smart Adeyemi (APC- Kogi) said the public hearing was to articulate the need to upgrade the Kabba College of Agriculture to a full-fledged University.

He said the college was established in 1964 to meet the man-power needs of the agricultural sector of the Northern Nigeria.

Adeyemi said there was need to diversify the economy by paying attention to the development of the agricultural sector.

Millions of children are returning to schools in Mozambique, after a year in which the schools were closed because of the Covid-19 fiasco.

More than eight million children will be attending school, from first to 12th grade, and about two million of them will be entering school for the first time.

In the past primary school classes frequently contained 60 or more pupils but with the new reality, pupils will find that the learning experience has changed radically since classes can no longer contain large numbers of pupils.

However, spokesperson for the Education Ministry, Gina Mabunda, said the number of pupils in any classroom must not exceed 25 adding that schools could now be obliged to hold classes on Saturdays.

Some subjects have been dropped from the primary school curriculum this year, including physical education, music and English language.

Also, secondary education curriculum has seen some subjects dropped from the vocational subjects such as business studies, agriculture and livestock, tourism, and information and communication technologies.

The school day has been shortened by half an hour, from a maximum of five hours teaching time a day to four and a half.

Guibunda admitted that an unspecified number of schools will not be able to resume classes on Monday, because they still do not have adequate washing and sanitation facilities as is required and schools without an appropriate water supply cannot re-open.

Guibunda stressed that measures are being taken to ensure that all schools can overcome such problems adding that 30 per cent of the budget of each school is earmarked for improving water and sanitation conditions.

The 2021 school year has been divided into three terms, each of 12 weeks.

The first term began this Monday and runs until 11 June and then schools will proceed on a weeklong break after which the second term will begin and run from 21 June to 3 September.

The final term starts on 13 September and ends on 19 November.

Following teachers’ disgruntlement with the government over its failure to address their welfare concerns, some schools in rural areas of Zimbabwe have failed to effectively reopen this month.

The rural teachers’ union in collaboration with Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (ARTUZ), issued a statement Monday, stating that a high number of rural schools had failed to smoothly reopen as teachers threatened to confront the government over poor salaries.

This has left most students who spent the better part of 2020 without attending class due to Covid-19, stranded.

In its statement ARTUZ said it was angered by the government’s failure to resolve the teacher incapacitation crisis.

The teachers and other civil servants are demanding the government should also facilitate the schools to enable them adhere to the June 2020 government produced Standard Operating Procedures in the face of Covid-19.

ARTUZ added it was concerned the government has repeatedly ignored petitions from the educators.