Failing Education System in Nigeria

NECO confirmed 90% failure in the NECO Exams...With the latest headlines on national television and in national dailies, I believe its time that our government take this matter extremely SERIOUS.

What is the problem? Why do we record low scores in national examinations every year?Where are these 10% that have passed NECO? Are they in private secondary schools? If there are outstanding students in the public secondary schools, what are they doing right?

We cannot afford to ignore the EDUCATION sector in Nigeria. We need to take urgent steps to reform our policies, introduce new teaching methodologies, engage teachers in training programmes and  revise that obsolete curricula.

Most CSR's are focused on providing infrastructures such as donating blocks of classrooms, signposts, re-painting the building, providing some instructional materials. Typically, the public secondary school in Nigeria is poorly funded and are in total state of collapse. Students have no books, furniture, water, sick bay how much more a decent library. While some research supports conducive learning environment as a tool to increased class participation and improved academic performance, we(not government because we are the government) need to do more than provide furniture or infrastructure to the kids.

It appears that lack of  conducive learning environment is not the only negatively contributing factor to poor academic performance. Child labour and misplaced priorities have been identified as personal and internal  factors for poor performance. Most Lagos traffic hawkers are children, young adult that should spend after school hours studying or doing home work making a living for the family. High level of poverty, high cost of living,  have made life unbearable for the average Nigerian, thus, every family member is out on the streets for their daily bread. Even for those that are working to support their families spend their time reading, playing videos games or other forms of entertainment.

We might want to consider teacher's commitment and dedication and attitude to work. Often teachers send   notes to the class and ask students to just read for exams.They spend their time in the staff room ignoring their core responsibility. We need TEACHER FIRE to train these kids.

Proper time management, adequate instructional materials, conducive learning environment, dedicated teachers and revised curricula are likely perfect combinations which might turn over  poor  performance in national examinations.

A new dawn in Senegal

Thousands of people are celebrating in the streets of Dakar after preliminary results showed Senegalese opposition candidate Macky Sall has won over Abdoulaye Wade, the incumbent president who sought a third term in office.

Sall supporters gathered in the streets of the capital on Monday, chanting, dancing and sounding car horns.

Outside Sall's party headquarters people danced to music blaring from powerful speakers, and revellers shouted: "Macky president", "This time we have it", "We have won".

Wade conceded election defeat and congratulated Sall, as preliminary results gave an overwhelming lead to his runoff rival.

"My dear compatriots, at the end of the second round of the vote... the current results indicate that Macky Sall has won," Wade said in a statement.

Amadou Sall, a spokesman for Wade, told the Reuters news agency: "It is the whole country that has just won ... This is a big moment for democracy and President Abdoulaye Wade has respected the voice of the people."

"We have confirmation now from the presidential office that Abdoulaye Wade has telephoned Macky Sall to concede defeat," said Al Jazeera's Andrew Simmons, confirming a state television report that Wade had made a congratulatory phone call to Sall at 21:30GMT (9:30pm local time) on Sunday.
The phone call alleviated fears that Wade, 85, would attempt to stay in office by challenging the runoff results.

It was seen as bolstering the West African state's democratic credentials in a region fraught with political chaos.

Official results of the vote are not expected until Tuesday or Wednesday.

"The real winner remains the Senegalese people," said Sall, a former prime minister who served for years under Wade.

"We have shown to the world that our democracy is mature. I will be the president of all the Senegalese."

Aly Fary Ndieye, a Senegalese political analyst told Al Jazeera "[voters] have chosen someone who has a very clear record... and good candidate.

"We have never seen a president elected with this kind of landslide victory [in Senegal]. It gives a lot of political capital [to Sall]. The question now is how will Macky Sall turn this win into political power.

"The biggest challenge now is how to effectively implement policies to benefit Senegalese people," he said.

Peaceful poll
Wade, who first took office in 2000, has seen his popularity suffer amid soaring costs of living and unemployment in this country on Africa's western coast.
Opposition activists had said Wade's quest for a third term was unconstitutional and some voters viewed him as yet another example of a long-serving African leader seeking to hang on to power.
His decision to seek re-election had infuriated many voters, and intense protests left at least six people dead.

Analysts had warned of further unrest if Wade won.

Polling stations closed after a largely peaceful electoral exercise on Sunday that attracted more than five million voters, with local reports suggesting a high turnout.

As votes were tallied, state media released initial results which showed former prime minister Sall far ahead of Wade by a ratio of at least 2:1 in the overwhelming majority of polling stations.

The outgoing president was even roundly beaten in his home constituency in the suburb of Point-E.
Sall had reportedly also won the vote in the biggest suburbs Pikine and Guediawaye among other areas of the city.

"Winning the suburbs is first and foremost the most important indicators in assessing how a candidate has fared," Al Jazeera's Azad Essa said.

"They are the most populous parts of the country and therefore hold much sway on the direction of the vote."

Sall supporters celebrate after Senegal win - Africa - Al Jazeera English

Sall supporters celebrate after Senegal win - Africa - Al Jazeera English

Naija Junction

Naija Junction is a set of  projections showing Nigeria's past, present and future in this Nigeria in 2025 Scenarios.

There are four interesting projections of our dear country by 2025....

• Parambulator
• Shine your Eye
• Jaja Jaga Republic
• We Don Win

These scenarios present  a vision for the future, propose a set of robust strategies that could be employed to jumpstart the nation's transformation  and inprove its global competitiveness. Nigeria 2025 Scenarios challenges Nigerians  to act in order for the country to get to the WE DON WIN Scenarios by 2025.

The following blogs are videos from Naija Junction, Nigeria in 2025.

Please view the 'Introduction' before 'Parambulator'.

This is an effort by LEAP Africa in partnership with African Leadership Institute and originally launched in 2008.

Do you want to view Jaja Republic and We Don Win scenarios? 

Watch these space or you can view on youtube.

Nigeria 2025 Scenarios - Parambulator

 This video was produced by LEAP( Leadership, Effectiveness, Accountability and Professionalism) Africa.  Its a series of scenarious projecting Nigeria by 2025.  'Parambulator' is the scenes that follow right  after the introduction.  Please view from bottom-up.

Nigeria 2025 Scenarios - Introduction Video. Dreaming for a beter Nigeria

Someone just made the Guiness Book of Record!

An European designer makes headlines with this bridal train. I must say, it looks really impressive!
---------


There's only one way to go with that train: up. (AP)If your dress train is two miles long, then a hot air balloon is a practical method of transportation. As the latest record-we-didn't-know-you could-break, a Romanian design house debuted the longest bridal train known to man.

PHOTOS: World record bridal train displayed in Romania

The Andree Salon, a Bucharest fashion label, hired 10 seamstresses to toil away on the Guinness World Record-breaking dress for 100 days. The imported material alone, including French lace and Italian taffeta, cost around $7,300. That's not including labor and the dramatic floating runway show.

On Tuesday, a model wearing the dress was hoisted into the air outside Bucharest's Palace of the Parliament, for all the world to see- in particular- The Netherlands. The Dutch country previously held the longest train record (it wasn't even a mile, ha!). The most high-maintenance wedding dress on earth. (Vadim Ghirda/AP)

Check out the video here

VIDEO: Man breaks most mind-bending record

"If the Netherlands does not allow us into Europe, we'll take them out of the world records book," Alin Caraman, an organizer of the train's big debut, told the Associated Press.
And they did, with the near-maniacal passion of a bridezilla and a 1.85-mile train, roughly the width of Manhattan. If a real bride were to walk down the aisle in that dress, she'd need a venue the size of four football fields and an entire NFL team of bridesmaids to hold the train. Don't get any funny ideas, Kardashians.


Courtesy: Yahoo!