JAMB meets CBT centre owners over 2017 exams

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board says arrangements have been concluded to have an interaction with owners of Computer Based Test centres in the country ahead of the 2017 UTME.

The board’s Head, Media and Information, Dr Fabian Benjamin, made the disclosure in a statement made available to the News Agency of Nigeria on Monday in Lagos.

According to the statement, the meeting which comes up on Tuesday at the University of Lagos is to fine tune all areas of challenges geared towards conducting a hitch-free examination in 2017.

It said that the meeting would determine the number of centres to be used for the 2017 all CBT Unified Tertiary Matriculation Board exercise.

“These are centres that must have a minimum of 250 and above terminals (computers).

“We will not hesitate to disqualify any centre that falls short of the requirements,’’ the statement said.

“We will equally not compromise on the selection of these centres as they will fully be responsible for our registration and examinations and other related responsibilities that they will be saddled with from time to time as we introduce new measures.’’

The statement said that the board would commence the sale of application forms soon and urged prospective candidates not to patronise any self-acclaimed agent as the board had not and would not appoint any.

It urged candidates to always visit the board’s website for information.

--Roluyo Hammed contributed reporting.

Education must prepare students to think critically –Babcock VC

The Vice-Chancellor, Babcock University, Ilishan-Remo, Ogun State, Professor Ademola Tayo, has said that rather than provide easy solutions in the classrooms, education must prepare students for the challenges in the career world.

Tayo said this on Thursday during the 2016/2017 matriculation ceremony of the university. A total number of 2,023 were undergraduate students while 400 were for postgraduate studies.

According to the don, education should take a pragmatic approach, allowing students to design solutions which fit their peculiar circumstances.

He said, “We are mindful of the fact that the purpose of education in today’s society should be to prepare students for the challenges of life in the career world.  Since there exist today many different paths to success, different students need different outcomes from their experiences in the educational system. Rather than inculcating a set of competencies or ideas, education must prepare students to think critically and select opportunities that they need in order to succeed in their chosen paths.”

According to Tayo, the university has been ranked in the country among the best three of universities offering Law, adding that the school emerged the best in country at the Bar examination results in 2015. He added that two BU students emerged in first class category in the Nigeria Law School this year.

The VC advised the matriculating students to be open-minded and hardworking in order to achieve greatness.

He said “In a world with unpredictable and diverse social, economic, political, cultural and religious changes, you need the right capacities to respond to these diversity, and save mankind from undeserved pains and destructions. As you begin your journey, there is no greatness without elements of discipline, hard work, determination and the recognition of God.’’

--Roluyo Hammed and Rabiu Wasiu contributed reporting.

Best school ever rewards pupils with massive wads of cash

That’s a lot of money (Picture: Huanqiu)

A school has handed its students nearly £1 million in cash.

The money was reportedly given to 239 teenagers who had managed to pass a demanding entry exam to Shuren Middle School, in Zhejiang province, China.

Photos on Chinese social media showed the students, who are aged around 15, posing with bundles of money that amounted to eight million yuan (£930,000), according to China’s Huanqiu publication.

The kids seemed happy (Picture: Huanqiu)

There were three separate scholarships awarded depending on scores of 100,000 yuan (£11,579), 50,000 yuan (£5,789) and 40,000 yuan (£4,631).

After paying off the yearly 30,000 yuan (£3,482) tuition fee at the private Shuren Middle School, the students could keep rest of the money.

But not everyone was pleased with the cash giveaway on November 20.

‘Students’ focus will be shifted to money, these students might end up being corrupted officials,’ a user on Chinese site QQ.com said.

Another added: ‘They now study to earn money. It is hard for them to concentrate on academic study in the future,’

But the school’s principal, Lin, defended the rewards and said he hoped they would encourage top performing students to apply to the school.

He believed in them so much he even apparently sold his own property in Shanghai to pay for them.



--Roluyo Hammed Rabiu Wasiu contributed reporting.

Strike: FG reaches agreement with ASUU

ASUU President, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, on Wednesday acknowledged that the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities made progress during theirs talks.

He gave the assurance while addressing state house correspondents after the Federal Executive Council meeting presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the state House.

Ngige said that ASUU had eight demands of which seven had been trashed out, adding that the government conceded to them the right to exclude endowment funds accruing to universities from the Treasury Single Account.

The minister said the TSA was not for punishment but to enable every government institution to, at a first glance, know its financial disposition and for accountability.

He said, “The government agreed to ASUU demand but limited it to only endowment fund, and that is fund sourced by ASUU.

“But that does not also mean that at the end of the day the university council will not have rights to audit such an account.

“That is really the area that is a little bit contentious.

“The other aspect of it is the earned allowances; the earned allowance is the only one that is not sorted out now because everyone knows and agrees that we are in a recession.

“And if we are in a recession and you are asking us to pay you N284 billion, nobody will pay it because the money is not there.

“So they agreed and National Assembly also agreed and something was worked out.

“And government offered them some amount pending when we finish the auditing of the first tranche of money that has been given to them in the same area of earned allowances.

“That tranche of money they collected is being audited but the auditing process is very slow because some people for strange reasons are not allowing auditing to take place.

“A time frame of six months has been fixed within which the auditing will be done.”

According to Ngige, within the six months government has offered what it will pay monthly while ASUU has made a counter proposal.

He said that both parties had gone back to their principals to look at the proposals and return.

He said the Executive and the National Assembly would look at the finances of government and propose an appropriation for subsequent years.

He said, “For 2016, there is nothing in the budget for it; it will be done and appropriated and paid when due.

“I don’t think the matter is a helpless case, we are moving forward and next week they will come back with their counter proposal.”

According to the minister, his education counterpart gave an update on the ASUU demand to FEC.

(NAN)

--Roluyo Hammed and Rabiu Wasiu contributed reporting.

Again, Senate, ASUU meeting ends in stalemate

The second meeting between the Senate and the Academic Staff Union of Universities ended in a stalemate on Monday night.

The meeting was adjourned indefinitely.

The Chairman, Senate Committee on Tertiary Education and TETFund, Senator Jibrin Barau, who spoke to journalists after the meeting, said the meeting, which lasted for about eight hours, was able to resolve all the issues raised by the lecturers except one bothering on payment of arrears.

He said, “… We have deliberated and, thanks to God, we have resolved all the issues; we have agreed on all issues except one. We have adjourned to make consultations.

“Every section (stakeholder) in this meeting will go back to their base or constituency and report what transpired (at the meeting) and at a later date reconvene to trash out the remaining issue. We have resolved all the issues but it remains one.”

When asked what the last issue was, he replied, “It is about he earned allowances that need to be paid to the university lecturers. The government, due to paucity of fund, proposed a certain amount of money but ASUU thought otherwise; that the money was quite inadequate. The union said it was going back to its members, make consultations and get back to us. We do hope they will come back with good news.”

When asked when the next meeting with ASUU would hold, he said, “It will be after due consultations. We will report back to you. We will tell you (about) when next we will meet.”

--Roluyo Hammed and Rabiu Wasiu contributed reporting.