04042019 - Nigeria 7 other nstions home to world's hungriest - UN

C
M
Y
K
42 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, APRIL 4, 2019
CONVOCATION: From left, Vice-Chancellor, University of Lagos (UNILAG),
Prof Oluwatoyin Ogundipe,Vice-President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, Chairman
of the Occasion, Chief Arthur Mbanefo and Pro-Chancellor of UNILAG, Dr. Wale
Babalakin (SAN), during UNILAG’s 50th Convocation Lecture in Lagos.
New curriculum needed for
STEAM learning — OSINBAJO
By Dayo Adesulu
THE Vice President,
Professor Yemi
Osinbajo has called for
the development of a new
educational curriculum that
emphasizes Science,
Technology, Engineering, Arts
and Mathematics.
Speaking during UNILAG's
50 th Convocation Lecture in
Lagos, Osinbajo said: ‘’It was
clear to us that we needed to
devise an economic plan that
prioritize developing a new
educational curriculum that
emphasizes Science,
Technology, Engineering,
Arts and Maths.’’
He said: ‘’Our technology
agenda is premised on our
new educational curriculum
which emphasizes STEAM —
Science, Technology,
Engineering, Arts and
Mathematics. We are currently
developing that curriculum
with the support of global
players like MIT, Cisco, IBM
and Oracle, a nationwide
curriculum that incorporates
21st century STEAM thinking:
coding, design skills, digital
arts, robotics, machine
learning, and so on. The
curriculum will cover primary
to secondary education with
the skills to thrive in
technology.’’
The President, he disclosed,
has directed that the Ministry
of Education establish a
technology and creativity
advisory group, to work on and
formulate policies, adding that
he had held about three
meetings so far.
The Professor of Law also
posited that providing and
equipping the enabling
environment for Learning is
pivotal. He said: ‘’Conducive
learning environments are
crucial to motivate students
and enhance learning.
Classrooms, schools and other
learning areas must be
remodelled to reflect our
national aspiration of growing
a knowledge economy. ‘’The
individualistic sitting models
will need to give way to more
collaborative models that
inspire thought, creativity and
teamwork.
‘’There must be investment
in the hardware, content and
technology that will transform
our classrooms to laboratories
and workshops to give
expression to STEAM.’’
To actualize the national
objective of lifting Nigerian
students’ skills quotient, he
said, quality teaching is key,
Our technology
agenda is
premised on our
new educational
curriculum
which
emphasizes
STEAM —
Science,
Technology,
Engineering,
Arts and
Mathematics.
We are currently
developing
that curriculum
with the support
of global players
adding, ‘’ Teachers need to be
retrained and equipped with
the skills and confidence to
support digital literacy,
functional skills training and
STEAM learning.’’
According to him, the future
for job creation and efficient
and profitable businesses lies
in innovation and technology.
Speaking on what the
administration of
Mohammadu Buhari has done
in that regard, Osinbajo said:
‘’We have partnered with local
and international tech
companies and innovators, in
the building of tech hubs, and
promoting innovation. Our
aim is to completely
democratize access to
innovation and cyber
commerce and create jobs.
‘’We have established hubs
in collaboration with the World
Bank and Lagos Business
School, LBS on the climate
change innovation hub . ‘’In
Yola, the North East
Humanitarian Hub. We are
also in collaboration with Civic
Hub promoted technology and
innovation in universities with
the students innovation
challenge in the six
geopolitical zones, and
technology hubs in three.
‘’Just this morning (Monday)
I inspected the status of work
going on on the Unilag hub.
‘’BOI in response to the
direction set by the
government has launched a
ten billion Naira tech fund.’’
He continues, ‘’I have
personally visited several
technology hubs across the
country and several new
technology businesses. Let me
give you a few examples.
Paystack is a safe payment
system, which offers seamless
money transactions between
businesses and their
customers. It was established
in 2016 by two young
Nigerian alumni of Babcock
University; Sola Akinlade and
Ezra Olubi.
‘’Within the first three
months of 2018 they have
processed over N3billion and
generate about 40billion
annually for Nigerian
businesses. ‘’The company is
today powering over 9000
How education alleviates Down's
Syndrome in children — SCOLLARD
By Ogbenefego
Obaebor
IN marking the World
Down's Syndrome
Day, Anthos House,
Greensprings School
authorities, teachers and
parents celebrated with the
children living with down
syndrome.
It was a common sight during
the celebration held at Anthos
House, Lekki, as participants
wore colourful sucks to explain
better the down syndrome.
Speaking during the
occasion, The Director,
Greensprings School, Mrs Lai
Koiki said it would be difficult
to minimise people with down
syndrome in the society, adding
that down syndrome is got to
do with the genes. She said,'It
is a chromosome disorder and
really it’s something that
nobody is responsible for.'
She urged the society living
with people with down
syndrome to show love by
identifying with them and never
lock them up. On her part, the
Head of School, Anthos House,
Lekki, Dr. Kimberley Scollard
said to ensure that this kind of
people are not neglected in the
society, people need education
to understand that the down
syndrome society is a
foundation all over the world.
Explaining the significant of
sucks wearing to mark the World
Down Syndrome Day, Dr
Scollard said sucks wearing are
being use globally to convey the
message. She said: ‘’You can
wear identical sucks, you could
wear different sucks, you can
wear them inside you can wear
them backward, you can wear
them on your hands but at the
end of the day, they are sucks.
The same goes to children. We
have a lot of children who are
the same, look the same, act the
same, children come in
different shape and sizes,
children comes with ability and
businesses that did not exist
two years ago, creating over
25000 jobs. Paystack has over
50 employees all under 35
years old.
‘’There is also Andela , a
multinational company
specializing in training
softwar
developers, co-founded by
Nigerian born, Iyin Aboyeji.
The company estimates that in
the next 10 years, there will
be 1.3million software
development jobs and only
40,000 computer science
graduates to fill them. The
company’s vision is to change
the future of Nigeria and the
African continent by
developing talent and
potential in Nigeria. The
company today has 1000
employees world wide.’’
Osinbajo, who described the
number of out-of-school
children in our country as
massive, also decried its
massive deficiency in girl
child education.
He said: ‘’Many of the
problems especially of primary
and secondary level vary in
size from State to State.
‘’Education at those levels are
State matters. While the
proportion of children out of
school in the total population
of the State is just 1.83% in
Lagos, that of Gombe in the
North East is 24.12%. ‘’In
Anambra State, the proportion
of children of school age out
of school is 6.22% while it is
55.59% in Bauchi State. These
disparities also reflect to some
extent the attention that the
states pay to these issues.’’
disability but at the end of the
day they are all children.
In celebrating the World
Down Syndrome Day, Mrs
Dupe Ojo mother of
Omobolanle Eri-ife Oluwa Ojo
born with down syndrome said:
‘’Omobolanle was born on the
25th of June 2004 on a Friday
at about 11.55 PM. Weight 2.2
kg but dropped to 1.6 within
3days of her birth.
She was born like every child
but she didn’t grow like every
child. I knew something was
wrong with her within 3days of
giving birth to her but what it was,
I didn’t know. But at 8months I
was so sure all was not well with
her.
She never sucked the natural
milk, didn’t sit until she was
8months with lots of support
because she was literally
boneless. I mean you can fold
her into two. She started crawling
at almost two and didn’t walk
Continues on page 43