Over 90% of Teachers in South-West Unqualified– TRCN

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May 4, 2023

The regulatory body for the teaching profession in Nigeria, the Teachers Registration Council, Thursday claimed that over 90 per cent of private school teachers in South-west states (Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ondo and Ekiti) are unqualified.

According to the registrar of the TRCN, Professor Josiah Ajiboye, the teachers are unqualified due to their lack of qualifications to enable them to register with the council.

Speaking in Abuja on Thursday when the council signed a Memorandum of Understanding, with a South African-based educational organisation, Instill Education, to upskill in-service teachers in Nigeria.

Ajiboye, who signed the document in Abuja in the company of his management team, said a pilot phase of implementation of the MoU will soon commence with capacity building for eight weeks.

Ajiboye said the MoU has three major components- pre-service teachers, integrating pre-service with in-service teachers and their capacity-building programmes while expressing confidence that the involvement of Instill Education would bridge the gap between pre-service and in-service teachers.

“With regards to our teachers, if you look at what we have said here today, three major components actually were identified: the pre-service teachers, even integrating pre-service with the in-service.

“We have looked at pre-service teachers, the in-service teachers and their training programmes and we have been able to see that there is a gap,” he said.

The TRCN boss lamented that a large number of teachers employed in private schools in Nigeria today are not qualified, in the first instance, to be called teachers, adding that a survey carried out by the council showed that over 90 per cent of the teachers in private schools in the Southwest are not qualified and not registerable with the TRCN.

“So, these people are not registerable with TRCN because they don’t possess the requisite qualification that will allow us to register them. There’s a big gap there.

“Instill may be looking in the future on how to fill that gap. Like they are doing in South Africa; they may also, but the major component of this MoU is about the in-service teachers. How do we go about capacitating these in-service teachers, and upskilling them?

“And that’s what Instill is coming with; they are upcoming with their expertise and technology to be able to help us to do this kind of capacitation for our teachers.

“We’ve been talking over time, about mandatory continuing professional development for teachers, where teachers are going to take certain capacity development programmes and they will get points and this will count towards the renewal of their licence as well as their promotion,” he added.

On his part, the Dean of Operation at Instill Education, Tom Parry, said the training received through his organisation will always end with a practical applicable component so that teachers have an opportunity to practice and understand.

Parry said the MoU will focus on upskilling in-service teachers, adding that in the future, his organisation hopes to bring together the pre and in-service programmes into a micro-credential division so that teachers can continuously upskill themselves, gain access to relevant quality, affordable practical training that is recognised by the government, practical in their classrooms and help them to deliver better learning outcomes.

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“Beyond the simple training processes that we build into our platform, we also think about the incentive structures.

“So, this is where we’re talking more about this workforce development platform. Teachers, I mean, there are some teachers who will be incentivized simply to do training for the sake of getting better.

“But the reality is, many teachers have childcare or other care responsibilities, they have second jobs, they have other lives, they cannot always dedicate the time needed to do it just for the goodwill of it just for the love of training,” he said.

Parry lamented that 90 per cent of learners in Africa cannot read for meaning by the end of primary school while 30 per cent of primary teachers and 50 per cent of secondary teachers are unqualified.

He added that it is just the nature of the system and not an indictment of it, and without recognising these realities, we cannot start to address them.

Earlier, the TRCN Director, Planning, Research and Statistics Ugo-Ali Lawrence, said the Council first met with representatives of Instill Education on November 14, 2022, where it commenced discussions on the proposed collaboration to train Nigerian teachers.

Lawrence said since 2015, the organisation has delivered over 1.5 million hours of professional development, coaching and mentoring sessions to about 100,000 teachers and school leaders across 5 countries namely, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, Uganda and India.

Jamie Foxx Breaks Silence Three Weeks After Medical Emergency

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Koko Lawrence

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May 4, 2023

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Popular American actor, Jamie Foxx, has broken his silence several weeks after he was hospitalised due to a medical emergency.

The actor shared a post via his social media page on Wednesday to thank fans and well-wishers for their support.

In the post, Foxx wrote, “Appreciate all the love. Feeling blessed.”

While the cause of Foxx’s health issues was not made public, his daughter, Corinne Foxx, confirmed his condition on April 12 and asked for privacy.

“Luckily due to quick action and great care he is already on his way to recovery. We know how beloved he is and appreciate your prayers. The family asks for privacy during this time,” she said in the statement.

Before his medical emergency, Foxx was shooting an action comedy titled, “Back in Action” alongside Cameron Diaz in Atlanta.

Seabed Power Grid To Connect North Sea Wind Turbines

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Angel Gimalo

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May 4, 2023

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A vast power grid on the seabed of the central North Sea is being planned as part of a £20bn project to power oil and gas platforms with green electricity.

Cerulean Winds won the rights to develop projects aimed at reducing the use of gas by offshore installations.

It aims to link more than 400 offshore turbines with the high voltage cables.

The company says the plan will involve 10,000 jobs, many of which could be in the supply chain in Scotland.

It hopes to have the infrastructure in place by 2028.

Dan Jackson, chief executive of the developer, said Scotland was among the most investable countries in the world for floating wind farms.

His company has formed a consortium of partners with experience in the sector, including NOV, Siemens Gamesa, Siemens Energy, DEME and Worley.

Hundreds of turbines are due to be installed in the next ten years in 20 sea areas included in the ScotWind round of developments, some of them fixed to the seabed and some anchored to it with cables.

ScotWind will link to the onshore National Grid. Energy firms have paid £755m to Crown Estates Scotland, which duly passes the funds to the Scottish government, for the rights to develop.

The Cerulean Winds project for an offshore subsea grid is part of another round called Innovation and Targeted Oil and Gas (Intog), which covers an element of innovation in technology but mostly provides renewable power to oil and gas installations to reduce their use of gas to power their operations.

Anambra Library Board, NLA Donate Books, Writing Materials to Inmates in Awka

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Nzubechukwu Anodo

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May 4, 2023

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Anambra State Library Board in collaboration with Nigeria Library Association (NLA), Anambra State Chapter has donated textbooks and writing materials worth over N150,000 to inmates of the Nigerian Correctional Service, Awka Custodial Centre.

NLA also donated toiletries to inmates in commemoration of the 2023 World Book and Copyright Day.

Addressing the inmates, the acting director, Anambra State Library Board, Obioma Obalum said that the gesture was aimed at helping the inmates to build their intellectual capacity.

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She said the World Book and Copyright Day, which is celebrated yearly, was set aside by UNESCO to discuss about authors, books, copyright and reading as well as to encourage the inmates to improve on their reading culture by reading two to three books a day so as to widen their knowledge.

The state chairman of NLA, Ngozi Osuchukwu, who spoke on the theme of this year’s celebration, Indigenous Language, urged the inmates to always promote their mother tongue, especially the Igbo language to save it from extinction.

The assistant comptroller in charge of Awka Custodial Center, Solomon Mbah commended the team for celebrating the day with them noting that reading is very essential to life.

Child Marriages Declining, Practice won’t End for 300 Years – UNICEF

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Cleopatra Okohai

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May 4, 2023

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Girl campaigning against early marriage at the BIAAG campaign la

Child marriages are declining – but at a rate that would not eliminate the practice for another 300 years, while a perfect storm of crises could yet reverse the trend, the United Nations childrens’ agency says.

“We definitely have made progress in the abandonment of the practice of child marriage, particularly in the last 10 years. Unfortunately, this progress was not enough,” Claudia Cappa, lead author of the UNICEF report published Tuesday, told Press.

According to UNICEF estimates, 640 million girls and women today were married when they were under 18. At present, an estimated 12 million girls are becoming child brides each year.

But over the past 25 years the rate at which such marriages take place has been slowing: in 1997, 25 percent of young women aged 20-24 were married before 18. By 2012 that figure had dropped to 23 percent, and by 2022 it was at 19 percent.

Still, that means some nine million girls are expected to be married off in 2030, the report said.

“At current pace, we might have to wait 300 years to eliminate child marriage,” Cappa warned, adding that the majority of these marriages involve girls aged 12 to 17.

And even that fragile progress is under threat – UNICEF also fears that the convergence of the Covid-19 pandemic, global conflicts and the growing impacts of climate change could reverse the hard-won gains.

Covid-19 alone could be responsible for an additional 10 million underage marriages between 2020 and 2030, it said.

“The world is engulfed by crises on top of crises that are crushing the hopes and dreams of vulnerable children, especially girls who should be students, not brides,” said UNICEF boss Catherine Russell in a statement.

Such crises can see families feel forced to marry children off as a means of security.

“Although child marriage is a clear violation of children’s rights, it is often seen by families as a ‘protective’ measure for girls, providing financial, social or even physical protection,” the report notes.

It is also a way to have one less mouth to feed.

Geographically, South Asia is the driving force behind the decline in girls’ marriages.

However, the region still accounts for about 45 percent of the 640 million women today who were married as children. India alone accounts for a third.

UNICEF is particularly concerned about the situation in sub-Saharan Africa, which appears to be bucking the trend.

“Girls there now experience the highest risk of child marriage in the world, with one in three marrying before age 18,” the report said.

It expects the number of child brides there to increase by 10 percent by 2030.

Hollywood Screenwriters Set To Strike First Time In 15 Years

By

Koko Lawrence

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May 4, 2023

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The Writers Guild of America (WGA) is preparing for their first strike in over 15 years, as negotiations with major studios over wages have reached a stalemate.

Over 9,000 Hollywood TV and movie screenwriters, representing over 98% of voting members, are expected to participate in the upcoming strike.

The strike comes after the studios failed to come to an agreement with the writers over compensation for their work that frequently lingers on streaming services for years, as well as the potential effects of artificial intelligence on writing.

The WGA has advised its members to be prepared to picket if a new deal was not negotiated by the deadline.

Late-night programming may end as of midnight (US time), and upcoming programming and films may experience delays.

The impact of the strike could be significant, as the last WGA strike in 2007 cost the US $2 billion.

Despite the studios’ statement that they need to reduce expenses due to mounting debt, residuals payouts to writers reached an all-time high of $494 million in 2021.

However, the writers claim that they are still being paid less than ever, with many struggling to make ends meet in expensive cities like New York and Los Angeles.

“Although we are producing creative output that meets the needs of the streaming era, we are being paid less than ever,” said Alex O’Keefe, a writer for the comedy-drama series The Bear and a member of the union. “And writers like me, especially young, Black, indigenous, and writers of color, have infused the process with an entirely new wave of creativity.”

“However, we are finding it difficult to live in cities where we need to be in writers’ rooms, such as New York City and Los Angeles.” According to Alex O’Keefe, “I wouldn’t categorize all writers as being poor or broke, but I can state that I have $6 in my bank account.”

The strike is a result of an “existential crisis” that writers are experiencing, as they fight for their creative value and wages.

The WGA is determined to fight for the rights of its members, who are the backbone of the entertainment industry, as they embark on this historic strike.

Memories Of Queen Elizabeth II’s Coronation Resurface

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Koko Lawrence

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May 4, 2023

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As Queen Elizabeth II’s son, King Charles, prepares for his own coronation on May 6th, memories of the young queen’s coronation in 1953 resurface.

Twelve individuals who witnessed the historic event, including Pamela Tawse and Brenda Piper, shared their vivid recollections in an interview.

Tawse, who was just 18 and had just finished her night shift as a nurse, joined the massive crowds in central London hoping to catch a glimpse of the young queen.

The memory that stood out for her was the thunderous roar of the crowds as the queen approached.

Tawse had decorated hospital bedpans with red, white, and blue tape, in celebration of the new head of the royal family.

For Piper, who slept on the pavement to secure a good view of the procession, the sense of amazement at the spectacle was overwhelming.

Piper recalls that the coronation marked the beginning of a new era, from coffee bars to spaghetti bolognese, and mini skirts. She sees it as a pivotal moment in British history.

Both women were among the estimated three million people who lined the procession route in London, watched on television for the first time, or followed from the British colonies.

The coronation was a chance for the country to celebrate and show off its opulence and glamour, despite still enduring rationing after World War II.

As King Charles prepares for his coronation, the memories of the young queen’s coronation in 1953 are a reminder of the traditions and pageantry of the British monarchy, and the excitement and optimism that comes with the beginning of a new reign.

FSEC, NISLT Organize 5-Day Staff Science Practical Workshop

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Nzubechukwu Anodo

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May 4, 2023

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Federal Science Equipment Center, Lagos state, under the Federal minister of education has partnered the Nigerian institute of Science Laboratory Technology, NISLT, to organized a 5 day science practical workshop for the staff of the department of technical education.

The event was held at the Nigerian institute of Science Laboratory Technology, ibandan, Oyo state capital was meant to train technicians on repair and maintenance of glass workshop equipment.

The Director General, NISLT , Yemi Gbadegesin, during the event said that the workshop is necessitated to address the State of Science and technology education in Nigeria .

He lamented the declining state of students performance in practicals and other science subjects .

He said the inadequate provision of science equipment and materials, deplorable state of science laboratories, lack of expertise in the use, manipulation and maintenance of available science laboratory equipment and materials, general apathy on the part of both the teachers and students, absence of significant learning of science at the foundation level of educational system are responsible for the declining trend in the performance of science students in practicals.

He further said the declining trend in student’s performance in science subjects both at learning and examinations is increasing every year.

Speaking at the event, Director, Federal Science Equipment Center, FSEC, Ismaila Yekini said that the workshop is organized to bring the trainee knowledge the repair and maintenance, hazard and safety of glass wares to enhance the quality of science and technology education in Nigeria.

He said the training shows the advances in science and technology which contributes to the social and economic development of nations which later translate to improved standard in the glassblowing workshop

Europe’s New Weather Satellite, Meteosat-12 Takes First Photos

By

Angel Gimalo

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May 4, 2023

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The first images from Europe’s new weather satellite, Meteosat-12, have just been released.

The spacecraft, which sits 36,000km above the equator, was launched in December and is currently in a testing phase that will last most of this year.

When Meteosat-12’s data is finally released to meteorological agencies, it’s expected to bring about a step-change in forecasting skill.

Warnings of imminent, hazardous conditions should improve greatly.

This is something called “nowcasting” – the ability to say with greater confidence that violent winds, lightning, hail or heavy downpours are about to strike a particular area.

Part of this advance will come from the increased resolution of Meteosat-12. For previous generation satellites, a feature in a storm had to be at least 1km across to be detected. The new spacecraft will track features as small as 500m in diameter.

Fashola Encourages Students On Creativity, Nation Building

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Nzubechukwu Anodo

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May 4, 2023

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Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola, encourages students of Federal College of Education, Akoka, Lagos State, on creativity and use skills learned from school to transform Nigeria.

He made this statement at the 38th convocation lecture of the college, adding that the graduands are the next set of people that will transform Nigeria to a great nation.

He said that Nigeria has a lot to offer the youths if they take good advantage of available opportunities.

He also said that students should that advantage of the many structures such as roads, refineries and gas pipelines to shape the nation into a better future.

Fashola commended parents, guardians and graduands for the feat efforts in ensuring student remain active in schools.