With speculations that Federal Government would soon reopen schools across the country after about six months of closure owing to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, school owners and parents are happy and getting ready to see their children return to school.

Some of the school owners, who spoke to The Guardian said, they are hopeful that government would not change its mind, stressing that many of them had already done the needful in their schools and waiting for the announcement.

The Proprietress of Blessed Apple School, Oshodi, Lagos, Mrs. Chiedu Esther, disclosed that she has procured wash hand bucket with tap, hand sanitizers, soap for hand wash and hopes to enforce compulsory face masks usage for the pupils, staff and visitors.

Aside this, she revealed that she has also constructed more seats for the pupils to maintain social distancing in the class, while negotiating with health professionals to come and enlighten teachers and other staff on how to handle the pupils, including toddlers to be safe from the Coronavirus immediately school reopens.

For the Director, Teresa Basic School, Charity, Oshodi, Mr. Kunle Shomorin, the National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS), Oshodi branch, has provided schools with non-contact hand sanitizers, thermometres, wash hand basins which the pupils can operate without touching the appliances or anybody. He added that most private schools are set for schools to reopen because they have acquired the necessary safety measure appliances.

Wisdom Diugo of Dora King International School, Oshodi, in collaboration with other school owners noted that aside safety measures, he plans to meet the parents of his pupils to tell them the importance of face masks and the need for pupils to get and wear them to school everyday

Lecturers under the aegis of Congress of University Academics have asked the Federal Government to reopen tertiary institutions in the country .

CONUA is a breakaway faction of the Academic Staff Union of Universities .
CONUA made this known in a press statement on Wednesday after its National Executive Council meeting held in Abuja .

The statement , which was signed by CONUA ’ s National Coordinator , Niyi Sunmonu , was titled ‘ Stop intimidation of CONUA members’ .

The lecturers urged FG to reopen universities as soon as possible .
The statement added , “ The meeting called on the government to reopen universities as soon as possible as CONUA members are ready to resume work .

“ It however added that everything necessary in terms of COVID -19 protocols must be put in place before reopening the universities in order to prevent students and staff from contracting the disease .

“ CONUA further stated that the education sector cannot continue to stagnate , as it appears that COVID -19 would continue to be a threat and we must , in the circumstance , learn to strive to lead our normal life

“ Union thus urged the government to make available everything that can help our universities to resume work as is being done elsewhere in the world .”
CONUA also condemned alleged intimidation and harassment of some of its members by “ some university administrations and some other unions within the University ” .

The statement added in part , “ While saluting those university administrations which held meetings to promote academic staff members during the COVID -19 lockdown , the Union condemned in strong terms those administrations who failed to organise such exercises , despite that several academic staff have been waiting for their promotions for a long time , with some spanning five to ten years.

“ The Union received information to the effect that some universities held Senate meetings and Congregation elections but refused to convene any meeting to carry out the promotion of its members , simply because some people threatened that such promotions , if ever announced, will be reversed.

“ CONUA leadership felt outraged by such pronouncements and expressed its resolve to support any efforts by university administrations to facilitate the due promotion of academic staff members .”

The Minister of State for Education , Mr Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba , says no date has been fixed yet for full schools ’ resumption even though the Federal Government had continued to engage stakeholders .

Nwajiuba said this during the briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID – 19 on Monday in Abuja .

The minister , however , expressed optimism that the date for resumption was “ around the corner ” , adding , that “ we are not going to be brandishing dates . ”
He disclosed that he and the Minister of Education , Adamu Adamu , met some stakeholders in tertiary education earlier in the day on the issue .

Nwajiuba said “ about 78 privately-owned universities are insisting that they were ready for resumption ” while the response from government -owned universities was still “ 50 – 50 ” .

He said that after aggregating opinions , he would return to the PTF to review the situation and then go ahead to make a pronouncement .

The minister urged students of tertiary institutions protesting the continued closure of their schools to be a little more patient with the government .

The Senate of the University of Lagos (UNILAG), Akoka, has elected the deputy vice-chancellor in charge of development services, Folasade Ogunsola, as the institution’s acting vice-chancellor.

She is the first female to be so appointed in the history of the 58-year-old ivory institution.

Mrs Ogunsola, a professor of medical microbiology and first child of Nigeria’s first professor of Geography, Akin Mabogunje, was also the first female provost of the university’s college of medicine, Idi-Araba.

She defeated her opponent and a deputy vice-chancellor in charge of management services, Ben Oghojafor, with a wide margin. She scored 135 votes as against Oghojafor’s 31 among the senate members.

A total of 167 professors were accredited for voting while one vote was voided.

The senate meeting held today was in compliance with the instruction given by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Buhari, who acted in his capacity as the institution’s visitor, had also set up a seven-member visitation panel to look into the crisis rocking the university.

In a statement issued on Friday to announce the president’s recommendations, the director of press at the federal ministry of education, Ben Goong, noted that the panel would be inaugurated by the minister, Adamu Adamu, on Wednesday.

Ahead of the panel’s inauguration, the senate was mandated “to immediately convene to nominate an acting vice-chancellor from amongst its members for confirmation by the governing council.”

But a memo by the university’s registrar, Oladejo Azeez, was addressed to the head of the management of the university’s auditorium not to make the venue available for the senate meeting.

A copy of the memo noted that;
“No meeting of senate has been summoned. Members should await proper notice of meeting after the federal government of Nigeria has clarified some issues germane to the meeting.”

“It follows that you are not to make any of your facilities available for any meeting until otherwise advised,” the memo added.

Irked by the development, the senate reportedly sought approval from the national universities commission (NUC) and the federal ministry of education before it commenced the process.

A member of the senate who asked not to be named as he was not authorised to talk to journalists, told our reporter on the phone that; “The meeting started with Professor Ogunsola briefing the Senate that the meeting was convened after due process was followed and that authority was granted by both the NUC and the education ministry.”

The source added that Mrs Ogunsola recused herself from anchoring the meeting and that the leader of the senate’s team to Abuja on Thursday, Chioma Agomo, was validly nominated to chair the meeting.

In her acceptance speech, Mrs Ogunsola, who doubles as the chairperson of Infections Control Africa Network, and member of the Lagos State COVID-19 task force, thanked the professors for entrusting her with what she described as a huge responsibility.

She was quoted as saying; “Electing me the acting vice-chancellor at such time the university is going through so much is a big task. But it is a task for all of us, and I appeal to you to help rewrite the story of this great university for good.”

Professor Folasade Ogunsola on Monday emerged as the Acting Vice -Chancellor of the University of Lagos .

She was elected by members of the Senate at an emergency meeting held on Monday .

While Ogunsola polled 135 of 167 votes, her closest fellow contestant , Prof. Ben Ogbojafor , secured 31 votes.

The Federal Government had , last week , asked UNILAG Senate to reconvene and nominate an acting VC following the crisis between the varsity ’s Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Council , Wale Babalakin, and Vice -Chancellor , Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe .

The FG also asked Babalakin and Ogundipe to recuse themselves from official duties , pending the outcome of the Special Visitation Panel set up by the President , Major General Muhammadu Buhari ( retd .) .

With her emergence, Ogunsola broke UNILAG ’s 58 – year record by becoming the first female to be appointed as an acting VC of the institution since it was founded in 1962 .

She is also the first female provost of the College of Medicine , University of Lagos .
She became the Deputy Vice -Chancellor ( Development Services ) of the institution since 2017 .

Sixty -two -year – old Ogunsola is a Professor of Clinical Microbiology .
According to her citation on Havard ’s website , Ogunsola ’s research interest and work centered around the diagnosis and prevention of infectious diseases and antibiotic resistance .

She has , for two decades, been involved in raising awareness on Infection Control in Nigeria .

She was a founding member of the Nigerian Society for Infection Control in 1998 and has assisted in setting up infection control programmes in institutions around the country .
She is the principal investigator at AIDS Prevention Initiative in Nigeria at UNILAG .

The Minister of State for Education, Hon. Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, on Saturday, assured Nigerian students languishing at their homes that tertiary institutions across the country will reopen very soon

Though he did not give a specific date for the re-opening, he said he would articulate the situation report from the National Universities Commission, NUC, and other regulatory bodies of various tertiary institutions and present to the Presidential Task Force, PTF on COVID-19 for evaluation.

Nwajiuba disclosed this during an NTA programme on ‘Nigeria Policy Brief on Education and COVID-19’, adding that he has received calls from private universities and public universities for reopening of tertiary institutions in the country.

“Tertiary institutions across the country will open very soon. Private universities have written us, requesting that they are allowed to reopen ahead of public institutions. Vice-Chancellors have also requested that we allow them to reopen for their students in exit clauses.

“We have also a lot of calls from bodies who want us to resolve the industrial action embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, before reopening because some public schools which are not ASUU-prone want to take the advantage of the strike to move ahead, but that would destroy our public schools. So, we are working on all these calls.

“NUC would need to do its appraisals and bring it to me. We are waiting for the same from other tertiary institutions bodies so I can situate them and present the PTF on COVID-19. I can’t give the NUC a deadline on this because our job at the ministry is to wait for their inputs. This is not a political decision alone.

The Federal Government has directed the Pro-Chancellor and Chairman, Governing Council of the University of Lagos (UNILAG), Wale Babalakin, to recuse himself from official duties relating to the institution.

Spokesman of the Ministry of Education, Ben Goong, who broke the news in a statement yesterday, said Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe was also directed to recuse himself as Vice-Chancellor, adding that a panel has been set up to probe the crisis rocking UNILAG.
1. The Panel is to submit its report within two weeks.
2. The Pro-Chancellor, Dr Wale Babalakin, SAN and the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, have been suspended from office as they are both to recuse themselves from performing their functions in office during the period of the Visitation.
3. The Senate is to convene urgently and appoint an Acting Vice-Chancellor for the university.

With this decision, the President has sacked the Acting Vice-Chancellor purportedly appointed by the Babalakin-led Council.

RUFUS GIWA POLYTECHNIC, OWO
(FORMERLY ONDO STATE POLYTECHNIC), P.M.B. 1019, OWO, ONDO STATE)

INVITATION FOR SCREENING EXERCISE FOR THE 2020/2021 ADMISSION
FOR FULLTIME NATIONAL DIPLOMA PROGRAMMES

This is to invite all candidates who applied for admission to the Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo
during the 2020 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) conducted by the Joint
Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and those who wrote the examination and now
wish to secure admission into the Polytechnic that they should register on-line for screening
exercise for the 2020/2021 Academic Session. The applicants are also enjoined to note that only candidates who scored 120 marks and above
are qualified to apply for admission. Candidates are enjoined to visit the Portal of the Polytechnic (sf.rugipo.edu.ng) for further
information and register after paying through UNIFIED PAYMENTS PLATFORM with the
use of master card or verve card in any Commercial Bank throughout the country for
Screening fee, Administrative fee and portal fee to access the Website with effect from
Tuesday, 18th August, 2020. Meanwhile, the screening fee is Two Thousand Naira (N2,000.00) only. Applicants for the screening exercise are also requested to upload the following items of
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Each candidate is advised to visit the portal of the Polytechnic on a regular basis for emerging
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Sule Atiku
Registrar

Stakeholders in the educational sector have disagreed on the need to establish more tertiary institutions in the country .
While the National Universities Commission called for more schools to accommodate the rising number of applicants , academic workers said more attention should be paid to the existing ones .

The House Committee on Tertiary Education and Services / TETFUND had , on Thursday , organised a public hearing on a bill seeking to establish the Federal University of Technology Asaba , Delta State , and another on the Federal College of Education Keana , Nasarawa State.

At the hearing were the NUC , Academic Staff Union of Universities , Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities , and the Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union , among others .

The Minority Leader of the House , Ndudi Elumelu, from Delta State , sponsored the bill to propose the university in the state .

The stakeholders were , however , divided on the establishment of new tertiary institutions .

The NUC noted that the 172 universities in Nigeria can only admit not more than 500 , 000 admission-seekers, while the applicants were sometimes in excess of a million .

The Director of Public Affairs, NUC , Ibrahim Yakasai, said , “ We are excited and we support this . In fact , every state of the federation has a federal university – at least one ; a few of them has two – and if this one comes on board , Delta will be having two specialised universities .”

ASUU, however, noted that Delta already had three federal universities – the Federal University of Petroleum Resources , Admiralty University of Nigeria and the Nigerian Maritime University .

The President of ASUU, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi , whose speech was read by the Abuja Zonal Coordinator , Prof . Theophilus Lagi, said , “ We call on the honourable House of Representatives to support the cause of revamping and revitalising existing universities in Nigeria rather than creating new ones that will , in no time , suffer the fate of the older ones .

“ The case of the 12 new universities , including the Federal University of Petroleum Resources ( Effurun, Delta State ) , created by fiat under the Goodluck Jonathan’s administration clearly attests to this point .”

According to him , establishing another federal university in the state would trigger agitation for equity by other states, which can also add to the challenges currently facing the Nigerian university system .

The SSANU , on its part , listed issues with having more tertiary institutions .
The National Financial Secretary of the union , Mohammed Aliyu , who represented the National President , Mr Samson Ugwoke, declined to categorically state if the body was for or against the proposed university .

President , COEASU , Nuhu Ogirima , welcomed the establishment of new institutions for the sake of access to education across the country . He said with the recent establishment of six new Federal Colleges of Education across the country , and with the mandate to produce trained teachers for the basic education sub – sector – primary and junior secondary school levels – the number of education colleges will rise to 27 .