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Executive Secretary, National Commission for Colleges of Education, Prof. Mohammed JunaidZamfara State Government is to establish a law compelling all its contractors to give two per cent of their contract sum in order to boost the education sector.
Governor Abdulaziz Yari said this on Wednesday while receiving individual reports on education from all the emirate councils in the state, the News Agency of Nigeria reports.
He explained that already, he had sent a bill to the state house of assembly requesting the legislators to review the law on the deductions from one per cent to two per cent as mandatory tax deductions from state government contracts, which would be added to education development in the state.
The governor, who set up the emirates’ education committees three weeks ago, noted that the state government could not handle educational development in the state alone.
Yari said with contributions received from contracts and other sources, it would allow the state government service other sectors such as healthcare, road construction, improvement of social welfare and provision of good drinking water.
He said from the reports submitted, the state government was now saddled with the responsibility of educating a total of 548,000 primary school aged children.
“So, we will have to review this year’s budgetary allocation to the education sector to about N5 billion, including collections from the Universal Basic Education Commission, in order to meet the target,” he said.
Yari said that various projects were currently ongoing under the Ministry of Education as well as that of science and technology, such as the building of staff quarters, expansion of schools and provision of furniture and learning materials.
The governor, who also set up a nine-man committee headed by Prof. Abdullahi Shinkafi, urged the committee to compile a summary of all the emirates’ submissions within three days in order to allow the state government start execution.
He also warned contractors handling projects under the sector to speed up and finish the projects or face the consequences.
He gave the contractors the next 30 days within which to finish their projects or have the projects transferred to more competent contractors.
Yari said that the state government had paid up all its contractual obligations, adding that funds meant for the payment of on-going projects had been in the state government coffers for the last seven months.
He said “anyone who completes his work, will be paid immediately.”
NAN reports that the concern of the governor on the development of the education sector had led to the setting up of a high-powered committee in 2011 to assess the problems of primary education.
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Minister of State for Education, Mr. Nyesom Wike, has warned publishers against conniving with schools to sabotage Federal Government’s efforts at improving the quality of education.
He gave the warning in Abuja on Friday in a meeting with publishers awarded the contract to produce free instructional materials for the Universal Basic Education programme.
“I summon this meeting just to let you know how serious we are and that it is no longer going to be business as usual. Every effort being made by Federal Government to improve quality of education at the basic level is being sabotaged by various people,” he said.
The minister explained that the meeting became necessary as the government had awarded contract for the purchase of materials for core subjects for public primary and junior secondary schools.
Wike pointed out that government was aware that publishers colluded with State Universal Basic Education Boards to sabotage government efforts through corrupt practices. He added that most times, the usual number of books that were supposed to be supplied were not supplied, saying, “Instead, cash is being exchanged,” he said.
He warned the publishers to refrain from such act, as the government had set up monitoring teams that would supervise the supply of the books in the states.
“This will also check what the Universal Basic Education Commission is doing; we want to actually know if the commission is part of the sabotage.”
The World Innovation Summit for Education has announced six groundbreaking projects from around the world as winners of the 2012 WISE Awards, under the theme “Transforming education.”
The six winning transformative educational project presenters will go home with $15,000 each at a presentation award ceremony to be held later this year in the United Arab Emirates.
The WISE Awards was inaugurated in 2009 to identify, showcase and promote innovative educational projects from around the world.
To date, 1,600 applications have been received from 128 countries, resulting in 122 finalists and 24 winning projects.
The 24 successful projects have come from a variety of countries around the world, including Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ghana, India, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Paraguay, South Africa, Turkey, the UK and the USA.
These “real world” initiatives are progressively building a pool of sound practice, which is having a local or global impact on education.
Now in its fourth year, the WISE Awards identify, showcase and promote innovative educational projects from all sectors and regions of the world in order to inspire change in education.
The chairman, WISE, and chairman of the WISE Awards Jury, Dr. (Sheikh) Abdulla bin Ali Al-Thani, in a statement explained that the 2012 winning projects, which were selected for their concrete and positive impact upon society would receive global visibility and a prize of $15,000 each.
The winning initiatives, he stated, came from Bangladesh, Cambodia, Chile, Denmark, India and the United States of America after they scaled the pre-selection process, whereby works of 24 participants from 14 countries were judged.
According to him, winning projects have been selected for their tangible and positive impact on the society and their innovative approach to solving important global educational problems.
“Since 2009, the WISE Awards have recognised successful, transformative projects in education in order to generate a pool of sound practices and to inspire their adoption and adaptation elsewhere.
“When determining the best projects, we look at what is being achieved as well as how it is done. The winning initiatives were selected not only because they are successful, but also because of their innovative approach. These are not ordinary education efforts,” he said.
He added that the diverse projects offer unique solutions to today’s most important challenges, from poverty to climate change.
The solutions proffered by the winners, he said, include unconventional business models to provide low-income families with affordable education, as well as original ways of bringing high-quality education to remote and destitute parts of the world.
One of the six winning projects is a solar-powered floating school designed for unreached pupils in Bangladesh during monsoon. The device, Nigerian educationists said, would be useful for people in riverine and flood-prone areas.
The project was presented for the awards by a Bangladesh -based non-profit organisation, Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha.
According to a statement introducing the project, “the solar-powered floating schools are to ensure children’s education even during the height of the monsoon. The boats collect students from riverside villages, dock at a final destination and provide on-board, small-group instruction.
Finalists and winners of the WISE Awards will, according to the organisers, participate in the annual WISE Summit taking place between November 13 and 15 at the Qatar National Convention Centre in Doha, Qatar, under the theme “Collaborating for change.”
