‘Why Fed Poly Nasarawa expelled 66 students’

The management of Federal Polytechnic, Nasarawa, in Nasarawa state, has  said it has expelled 66 students due to their alleged involvement in examination malpractice and misconduct.

The institution’s rector Dr Abdullahi Hassan, stated this in a statement issued Wednesday in Nasarawa.

Hassan said the measure was meant to instill discipline and ensure quality and standard of academic activities in the school.

He explained that the students, who were both regular and part-time, were expelled on the recommendation and approval of the academic board of the institution.

“The decision to expel the students was reached and taken after thorough investigation at the special meeting of the board held on September 25, 2019, at the polytechnic.

“The expelled students are, therefore, required to handover all polytechnic property in their possession, including identity card to their heads of department and units with immediate effect.”

The rector assured that his administration would not rest on its oars until examination malpractice and other sharp practices were eradicated from school.

He said that any institution that compromised its ethical values cannot produce good product needed for national development.

The rector stressed that unethical behaviour could not be condoned because there was a clearly defined code of conduct in the institution.

‘FG to get out-of-school children back to school in 5 years’

By Uji Abdullahi Iliyasu

The Federal Ministry of Education says it will get the 10.5 million out-of-school children back to school in the next five years.

Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Mr Sonny Echono,  made this known at a 2-day retreat for stakeholders in the education sector in Abuja Thursday themed, “Education for Change: A Ministerial Strategic Plan (MSP) blueprint.“

Echono said that some socio-cultural and economic factors were responsible for the increase in the out-of-school children which needed urgent attentions.

The permanent secretary, while speaking on the progress recorded so far on MSP, said there was need to synergise the concurrent and exclusive list of education.

He noted that the sector was faced with a lot of challenges which necessitated the introduction of the strategic plan.

 He said the plan is anchored on 10 pillars to include: out-of-school children, youth and adult literacy, Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), basic and secondary education and teacher education capacity building and professional development.

 Others are curriculum and policy matters, tertiary education, education data and planning, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and library services.

 He also said that the issue of girl-child education, due to poverty, should be looked into and addressed.

 If you educate a girl child, you are sure of educating the citizenry, he said.

“We should begin to attack the problem of girl- child education. This is because if you have a female child that is educated in a family, they will influence the other children and their behaviour in later life.

 “The minister has said that in five years, the issue of out-of-school children in our country should get behind us.

 “It is a collective responsibility and we must begin to reconsider policies that will address this.”

 Echono lamented the spate at which politics and governance had affected the country’s educational system, saying that it was not enough to focus on building of schools but how the schools are being run, maintained and as well as the provision of teaching and learning material for qualitative education.

The permanent secretary, therefore, called the stakeholders to modernise the country’s educational system by ensuring that teachers were computer literate to delivery adequately in line with 21st century.

The minster of education, Malam Adamu Adamu said the ministry had commenced dialogue with states to find lasting solution to the various challenges confronting the ministry.

One of such challenges, Adamu said, was the implementation of Education for Change, which needed urgent attention to enable millions of children who are out-of-school return to classes to complete their education.

 Adamu noted that some primary school teachers were political appointees who got into the profession through godfatherism, adding that they were not trained and as such not qualified to be called teachers.

“The most important MSP we have taken into consideration is the out-of-school children programme, the adult literacy, the development of capacity of teachers and development of quality of their services.

“The human capital development index listed Nigeria 152 out of 157.There is no way we are going out of this except by making education great and give it the needed funds.”

 He expressed the determination of the ministry toward development of the capacity of teachers, to complement efforts aimed at returning out-of- school children return to school.

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