The analysis of candidates’ performance showed that out of the 8,139 candidates that sat the examination, 3,424 candidates representing 42.07 per cent obtained credit and above in a minimum of five subjects (with or without English Language and/or Mathematics).
Education
Strike looms in universities as unions give 7-day ultimatum over unpaid salaries
Strike looms in universities as unions give 7-day ultimatum over unpaid salaries
The Joint Action Committee (JAC) of the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU) and the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) has issued a one-week ultimatum for the federal government to pay the unions’ members’ withheld salaries or risk an industrial action.
This is as the Congress of University Academics (CONUA) also has asked the government to pay its members the remaining part of their withheld salaries.
In a statement jointly signed by SSANU President, Mohammed Ibrahim, and NASU Secretary, Peters Adeyemi, the workers asked the government to pay the withheld salaries like their academic counterparts who were paid four months out of the arrears of several months.
JAC said it had written protest letters to the Chief of Staff to President Bola Tinubu, Femi Gbajabiamila, over the exclusion of the non-academic staff when the government decided to pay part of the withheld salaries but that the letters were not responded to two weeks after it was submitted.
“We, therefore, use this opportunity once again to call on the federal government to do the needful within the next seven days as the Joint Action Committee of NASU and SSANU should not be held responsible should the wheel of administration and corporate governance be grounded to a halt in the university sector, as we have exercised enough patience,” part of the statement reads.
The statement added: “If nothing is done by the federal government to positively address this situation and respond to our previous letters to them, the members of the two unions may be forced to meet soon to take all lawful and stringent decisions on the matter.”
JAC said it had done everything possible within its power to prevail on its members to maintain industrial peace and tranquility.
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“While we appreciate the federal government for paying our academic counterpart, we also deem it necessary that our members are also paid,” the statement said, adding that the unions can no longer guarantee industrial harmony on the campuses should the government fail to pay them.
In 2022, two months after ASUU commenced a nationwide strike, both SSANU and NASU also embarked on nationwide industrial action that further crippled activities across the campuses.
The action was to protest the government’s failure to fulfill its promises to the workers and what they described as gross underfunding of the universities.
At the time, the former administration of President Muhammadu Buhari invoked a ‘No Work, No Pay’ policy and withheld the workers’ salaries.
The National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) also took part in the strike at the time.
SSANU queried the rationale behind the government’s insistence on the “no work, no pay policy,” saying that due process was followed before embarking on the strike that lasted for four months. Till the end of his tenure, Buhari never authorised the payment of the workers.
However, in October 2023, Tinubu announced that his government would pay four months of the withheld salaries to members of ASUU, immediately raising concerns as to the fate of the members of the other unions.
The National Vice President of SSANU, Abdussobur Salaam, said at the time that the directive appeared to be selective in favour of a single union out of others whose members’ salaries were withheld.
He said the president’s directive if not reviewed to include SSANU and other unions could be a recipe for disaster as he threatened another round of strikes if SSANU members’ withheld salaries were not paid alongside that of ASUU.
Meanwhile, CONUA has asked the federal government to pay its members the remaining part of their withheld salaries.
The academic union, a breakaway from the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) asked the government to stop lumping up its members’ issues with those of ASUU members, saying its members had consistently denied being on strike while the ASUU strike lasted in 2022.
The latest position is contained in a statement issued by CONUA and signed by its National President, ‘Niyi Sunmonu, who commended President Tinubu for paying four months from the almost eight months’ withheld salaries of universities’ academic staff.
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The statement titled: ‘State of the Nation, Payment of Four Months out of Seven and a Half Months’ Withheld Salaries, Stagnation of Remuneration of Academics, and Call for Negotiations,” CONUA urged the President to speed up his efforts and interventions aimed at repositioning the country for good and to address the pains of the poor due to economic hardship.
The statement reads in part: “Our union, CONUA, has consistently maintained that it never declared and was not part of any strike action.
“Since CONUA neither called for nor joined any strike, withholding the three and a half months salaries of members of the union contravenes Section 43 (1b) of the Trade Disputes Act CAP. T8, which states that “where any employer locks out his workers, the workers shall be entitled to wages and any other applicable remunerations for the period of the lock-out and the period of the lock-out shall not prejudicially affect any rights of the workers being rights dependent on the continuity of the period of employment”. This provision is consistent with global best practices. In conclusion on this, CONUA demands that the process of paying these outstanding months be kick-started immediately to ensure lasting peace in our ivory towers.”
In 2022, the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari invoked a ‘No Work, No Pay’ policy and withheld the workers’ salaries during the eight-month strike.
The workers’ unions that had their members’ salaries withheld at the time include ASUU and CONUA.
Others are: NASU, SSANU) and the National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT).
However, in October, Tinubu announced that his government would pay four of the withheld salaries to members of ASUU, immediately raising concerns as to the fate of the members of the other unions.
Last week, the federal government began paying the academics – ASUU and CONUA – leaving out the non-academic staff.
Strike looms in universities as unions give 7-day ultimatum over unpaid salaries
Education
WASSCE: Lagos govt to pay N1.5bn for 58,000 students
WASSCE: Lagos govt to pay N1.5bn for 58,000 students
The Commissioner for the Lagos State Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education, Tolani Alli-Balogun, has said the state government will be paying N1.5bn to register 58,000 students for the 2024 West African Senior School Certificate Examination for this year.
The commissioner said this on Thursday while reporting the activities of the ministry in commemoration of the first year of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu in office for the second term of his administration.
Sanwo-Olu took the oath of office for his second term as governor on May 29, 2023, promising in his inaugural speech not to let down Lagosians.
The commissioner, who spoke at the state secretariat, said, “The administration of Babajide Sanwo-Olu has never defaulted on the payment of WASCCE fees of all public school SS3 students in the four years of Governor Sanwo-Olus’s first term in office. The state government paid over N4.2bn between 2020 and 2023 to keep our promise of full payment of the West African Senior School Certificate Examination fees.
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“In the current school year (2024), the governor has approved the sum of N1,571,076,000 as registration fees and other cost for 58,188 SS3 students writing the West African Senior School Certificate Examination.”
Last year, the West African Examination Council, which conducts WASSCE, noted that it had concluded plans to begin computer-based examinations in 2024.
It released the results of the first-ever CBT exam, 2024–First Series, in March this year.
Education
Father arrested for helping son to sit UTME
Father arrested for helping son to sit UTME
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has announced the arrest of a man and his son in the ongoing Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME).
The man was accused of impersonating the son and helping him to sit the UTME.
JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, disclosed this while on inspection tour of the UTME centres in Kaduna on Wednesday.
He said the 2024 examinations were largely well conducted, except for few cases of impersonation, which became possible because some persons had multiple National Identity Numbers (NINs).
Oloyede warned against cheating in the exams, stressing that JAMB had improved its technology check on those engaging in all forms of examination malpractices.
The JAMB Registrar said, “For those who engage in cheating, they should know that it does not pay. The technology is helping us to check that.
“Across the country, most of the problem we have is impersonation. For instance now, we say we have NIN, we now have cases of people with two NINs.
Therefore, that has defeated the purpose of identity verification. We are going to take that up with NIMC, that there are people who have two NINs.
“We have a case of a father impersonating his son, sitting the examination for the son and I wonder. Are you not destroying your son’s future?
“Of course, two of them are now in custody. I can’t understand what the father will now tell his son when they are both locked up in the same cell. This happened definitely not in Kaduna, but I don’t want to disclose the state.”
Education
Senate backs education minister on 18-year entry age into varsities
Senate backs education minister on 18-year entry age into varsities
Members of Nigeria’s Senate endorsed the federal government’s decision to raise the minimum admission age to 18 years old.
Recall that the Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, said on Monday that the entry age for higher institutions was 18 years old and cautioned parents not to force their children who are not yet of age to enroll.
The support was made public on Tuesday in Abuja when the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TETFund, Sen Muntari Dandutse, led other members of the committee as well as his House of Representatives counterpart to witness the ongoing UTME.
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Speaking with journalists after the exercise , the Senator representing Kogi West Senatorial District and member of committee, Sen Sunday Karimi, said the Senate has nothing against the proposal by the Minister of Education.
He noted that by restricting admission to students at least 12 years old before secondary school, the government aims to ensure that students possess the cognitive and emotional readiness necessary to navigate the challenges of secondary education effectively.
“By the time a student who entered into secondary school at the age of 12 years completes his secondary school programme, he is already at the age of 18 as stipulated,” he added.
Karimi also stated the law was already on the ground, adding that if that was needed for any amendment to make it stronger, the Senate will be ready to do that.
He commended JAMB for providing an enabling atmosphere for candidates to have a seamless exercise.
Senate backs education minister on 18-year entry age into varsities
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