FG tasks NOUN on seven point agenda

Kunle Awosiyan, Lagos
Dr. Aja Nwachukwu,
Education Minister

The Federal Government has charged the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) to come up with practicable programmes and courses that will enable it to realize its seven-point agenda for national development.

The Minister of State for Education, Dr. Jerry Agada said this during the Executive Board meeting of the African Council for Distance Education (ACDE) at NOUN headquarters, Lagos at the weekend.

He said, “My ministry is interested in and wishes to charge you to come up with regulatory and performance indicators that will assure quality and remove bias in the minds of the people with regards to the products of Open University. That is why you must as a body provides the continent and Nigeria in particular with practicable and pragmatic theories of engagement and assessment.”

He said that the present administration had recognized education as the foundation bedrock for national, community and personal development and had demonstrated its readiness in the various initiatives encapsulated in the national policy on education.

He stated, “We are convinced that only distance learning can be used to take education to the doorstep of all who yearn for quality education and seek knowledge with minimal encumbrances to their social and political life. We see Open and Distance Learning as parts of government’s continuous engagement to enable our people acquire knowledge and skills in the context of their socio-economic needs.”

According to him, Open and Distance Learning is becoming an essential component of life long learning available to people all over the world and has therefore forced society to rethink the whole concept of schools and universities.

Speaking about the conference, Agada said that the Federal Government had bought two vehicles with the inscription “ACDE conference” boldly printed on it and had also approved some funds for a successful hosting. Agada also disclosed that President Umaru Yar’Adua had accepted to inaugurate the conference, which comes up in July, 2008 in Lagos .

14-year-old wins reading competition

Sulaimon Olanrewaju, Lagos

Miss Chisom Okpala, a 14-year old student of Dority International Secondary School Aba, Abia State, has emerged the overall winner of the National Reading Competition held at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel in Abuja recently.

Chisom, who beat 32 other students drawn from SS 1 to SS 3, to win the overall grand prize, smiled home with N200,000 personal cash, one personal laptop computer as well as two sets of computer for her school and books worth N750.000.

To qualify for the grand finale of the competition, which is being sponsored by the Nigerian Breweries Plc-Felix Ohiwerei Trust Fund, she had come first from the South East zone beating 24 other students from the zone who competed with her.

She also won for herself personal cash of N50,000 and books worth N200,000 at that stage of the competition. Her sterling performance at the national finals confirmed that she merited her performance at the zonal level.

While presenting the overall winner award to Chisom, Kalu Okorie and Kelechi Ezekwere, who were first and second runners-up respectively, Dr. Jerry Agada, the Hon. Minister for State for Education, commended the organisers for the initiative.

Agada also praised the students for demonstrating exceptional brilliance and courage, noting that the project would go a long way in reshaping the attitude of students to reading.

Earlier in his remarks, Mr. Ageni Yusuf, the Corporate Affairs Adviser of Nigerian Breweries, who represented Mr. Michiel Herkemij, our MD, had put the objectives of the programme in perceptive, stating that education is a weapon of liberation.

Ageni pledged Nigerian Breweries’ determination to sustain the project as well as make it more attractive and richer in both scope and content. The third edition of the competition started on 28th January, with over 4000 schools taking part across the federation. Thirty- three finalists had emerged, following the completion of the zonal stage of the competition that took place on March 17, in the six designated zonal centres, including Abuja.
The 33 students were made up of the best five from each zone that were selected after a keen contest among an average of about 30 students in each of the six zones, in addition to the best three provided by the FCT.

The competition had moved to the zonal stage following the conclusion of the state level, where about 2,000 senior secondary schools competed for zonal slots at the state stage of the competition, which took place on February 18.

Unlike the previous editions, more states took part in this year’s competition, due to the massive publicity and the attractive prizes on offer for finalists and eventual winners. According to the organizers of the competition, Edo led the other states in terms of number of schools that participated. The state had a total of 225 schools drawn from the different education zones in the state. Edo was followed closely by Osun state that had a total of 183 schools, while Lagos came third with a total of 126 schools.