School
Afe Babalola: Many Nigerian graduates cannot defend certificates
File Photo Aare Afe Babalola (SAN), the founder of Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti, has said that the quality of education in Nigeria had degenerated to the extent that many graduates cannot defend their certificates. Babalola, who expressed displeasure at the growing declining standards of education, particularly university education, called for urgent action to correct the trend before it was too late. He said this during a reception for 37-year-old Prof Damilola Sunday Olawuyi, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Academic, Research, Innovation and Strategic Partnerships of the institution who recently became a SAN. The ABUAD founder, who spoke on how his law chambers produced 24 SANs including Olawuyi of his university, said, “I love bright, hardworking and industrious people, like Prof Olaw...
APC promises conducive environment for Kankara abducted boys
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has rendered an unreserved apology to the students abducted from Government Science Secondary School, Kankara, Katsina State, promising that President Muhammadu Buhari and the ruling party will do all it takes to ensure that they continue to study in a safe environment. The ruling party in a statement signed by the National Chairman, Mai Mala Buni, noted that it received with joy and glad heart the release and return of the students who were abducted by terrorists. The party further noted that the news was not just elating, but it was gladdening and relieving. “We want to congratulate the parents of the children and also apologize on behalf of our party that one of our biggest promises was security and although we are doing our utmost best, such incidenc...
UN chief elated over release of Kankara schoolboys
The United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, has expressed delight over the release of students of Government Science Secondary School, Kankara, Katsina State. Guterres, in a statement issued in New York, United States, by his Deputy Spokesperson, Farhan Haq, welcomed the release of the abducted children. “The Secretary-General welcomes the release on 17 December of some of the children who were abducted from a secondary school in Katsina State, Nigeria, on 11 December. He commends the swift action taken by the Nigerian authorities to rescue the children and calls for the immediate and unconditional release of those who remain abducted. He stresses the importance that the released children and their families are provided with the necessary health and psychosocial support,” Haq s...
Governor Masari: Kidnapped Katsina schoolboys moved to Zamfara
Katsina State governor, Aminu Bello Masari, says the schoolboys kidnapped last week have been moved by their captors to a forest in neighbouring Zamfara State. Gunmen invaded the Government Science Secondary School, Kankara, on Friday, December 11, 2020, with over 300 students unaccounted a week later. In an interview with BBC Hausa on Wednesday, December 16, 2020, Masari said most of the abducted students are believed to be in the forest in Zamfara. “Right now the security forces have surrounded all these places where the children are thought to be,” he said. Masari had said earlier this week that the government has already commenced negotiations with the kidnappers. He reiterated on Wednesday that this was to ensure the students are returned unhurt. He also disclosed that 400 students ar...
CAN: Nigeria almost becoming a failed nation
File Photo The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has condemned the abduction of 333 students of Government Secondary School, Kankara, Katsina State. CAN also said that the worsening security situation across the country shows that Nigeria is “almost becoming a failed nation.” The group’s statement by Adebayo Oladeji, Special Assistant (Media and Communications) to the CAN President, described the incident as another tragic chapter in the history of the country. Newsmen reported how 333 schoolboys of the school were abducted on Friday by the gunmen. A terrorist group, Boko Haram, has claimed responsibility for the raid. The federal government said security operatives have already located where the abducted students were taken to and they “would soon be rescued”. CAN expressed its sadne...
Families of kidnapped Katsina schoolboys fear time running out
Families of more than 300 kidnapped Nigerian schoolboys worried they may be brainwashed or held for years as security forces combed a vast forest on Wednesday for armed captors possibly from the jihadist Boko Haram movement. According to an unverified audio clip, the Islamist group – whose name means “Western education is forbidden” – was responsible for last week’s raid on an all-boys school in the town of Kankara in northwestern Katsina state. Parents fear time may be running out: Boko Haram has a history of turning captives into jihadist fighters. “They will radicalise our children if the government does not act fast to help us rescue them,” said trader Shuaibu Kankara, crying as he spoke from home. His 13-year-old son Annas was among those abducted from the Government Science school on...
Zamfara shuts down 10 schools to prevent abduction of students like in Katsina
The Zamfara government has ordered that 10 schools across the state be shut down over fears students could be abducted by bandits. The decision comes on the heels of last week’s attack on Government Science Secondary School, Kankara in Katsina State that has left at least 333 students unaccounted for and believed to be in custody of the kidnappers. Zamfara’s Commissioner for Education, Ibrahim Abdullahi, announced at a media briefing on Tuesday, December 15, 2020 that the affected schools are those that share borders with Katsina, Kaduna, and Sokoto, all similarly troubled by the activities of bandits. “We will not want what happened in Katsina to happen in Zamfara State,” he said. The affected schools are GSS, Tsafe; GSS, Magaji; GASS, Zurmi; GGSS, Moriki; GDSS, Nasarawa Mailayi; GDSS, Gu...
Senate summons minister, service chiefs over Kankara kidnapping
The Senate, on Tuesday, invited the Minister of Defence, Maj. Gen. Bashir Magashi (rtd.), service chiefs and heads of other security agencies to brief it on measure being taken to rescue the abducted students of Government Science School, Kankara Katsina State. This followed a motion by Senator Bello Mandiya (APC, Katsina South), who noted that the abduction is coming on the heels of yet to be resolved abduction of 270 girls at Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State in 2014, and abduction of about 100 school girls at Government Girls Science and Technical School, Dapchi, Yobe State in 2018. He expressed concern that like the other incidents of school children abduction that took place in Chibok and Dapchi, if no immediate action was taken to rescue Kankara School boys, their fate...
President Buhari condemns bandits’ attack on Katsina school, orders reinforcement of security
President Muhammadu Buhari has condemned the attack carried out by bandits’ at the Government Science Secondary School, Kankara, Katsina State, charging the security agencies to go after the attackers to ensure that no student gets missing or harmed. The president made the remarks in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, in Abuja on Saturday. He urged the school authorities to carry out an audit of the population of the students following shootings in and around the school that sent hundreds of them fleeing and scrambling over perimeter walls. He also advised parents who rushed to evacuate their children and wards from the school to notify the school and police authorities in order to have a full account of the school population. “I strongly...
Four finalists compete for Time’s Person of the Year for 2020
Time Magazine names its Person of the Year for 2020 on Thursday, choosing the winner from nominees that include healthcare workers battling the COVID-19 pandemic, the racial justice movement and two U.S. presidential election winners. The news magazine will reveal at 10 p.m. Eastern its selection for the title that signifies “who affected the news or our lives the most, for better or worse,” Time said on its website. Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg last year became the youngest individual winner of the accolade. The 16-year-old Swede inspired young people to take action in 2019 against climate change, grabbing headlines when she regularly skipped school to demonstrate outside Swedish parliament in a push for her government to curb carbon emissions. The Person of the Year is usually...
UNICEF embarks on coronavirus sensitisation tour of Abia
The United Nations Children Education Fund (UNICEF) has appealed to the Abia state government, parents and school authorities in the state to ensure that their children and wards adhere strictly to all COVID-19 protocols in order to avoid the ugly experience of getting another round of Covid-19. According to the world body, the effect of COVID-19 second phase in Europe and Asia has been devastating, pointing out that though Africa has been lucky to have recorded fewer casualties, government, parents and teachers cannot continue to depend on luck to survive the pandemic. The Desk Officer of UNCEF, Mr Okezie Nkpa who made the appeal when UNICEF, the National Orientation Agency (NOA) and some media personnel staged a sensitization tour of some schools in Abia South, Abia Central and Abia Nort...
South Korea coronavirus outbreak adds new stress to gruelling, eight-hour exam
From avoiding family members to skipping extra study at “cram schools”, the coronavirus has forced nearly half a million South Korean test-takers and proctors to rethink their strategies ahead of a hyper-competitive university entrance exam this week. The gruelling, almost eight-hour test on Thursday is seen as a life-defining event for high school seniors. A degree from a prestigious university is seen as a minimum requirement for securing one of the coveted but limited corporate jobs in Asia’s fourth-largest economy. This year teachers, proctors and students drastically changed their study and teaching practices to try to ensure those taking the test don’t ruin their chances by getting sick. “We take caution not just in classes but also during lunch, sitting facing the walls, eating alon...
