Education

By Hidayah Bashir Dayyib

There’s a famous saying that “learning never ends”. We’re always learning either actively or passively. Learning starts right from birth, at school/college, and even after graduation.

Learning new skills and honing the acquired ones is of utmost importance for one to succeed or stand out in whatever profession, job, or workplace. And thanks to today’s digital world for providing numerous ways of learning than ever before. For example, you can take online courses, watch YouTube videos, attend webinars, and many more.

As we all embark on the learning journey, we focus only on the “learning” and perhaps never think of learning how to “learn”.

There are scientifically proven techniques based on neuroscience and cognitive psychology to help you “learn more effectively” and “learn like a pro”.

Despite our different levels of understanding, these techniques are helpful and productive when applied. These are some of them:

1. Retrieval practice: This is the best and most effective learning technique. It is a way of testing yourself to recall/retrieve from your memory the key ideas and important points,  remembering as much as possible from what you learn (it may be a lecture, a video, reading a book, or solving a problem).

The best way to understand your learning process is through retrieval practice (what scientists call “metacognition”)

This technique will help you learn faster and better and give you a deep understanding of what you’re learning.

2. Pomodoro Technique: It was invented by an Italian Francisco Cirillo and is super simple. The first step is clearing away distractions and setting a timer to 25 minutes. Work as intently as possible during these 25 minutes, and then take a break for 5 minutes. “Taking a brief, five-minute break after approximately 25 minutes of studying can help your brain process new learning, so what you’ve just been learning isn’t overwritten”.

It is required to relax and not switch tasks during the break.

The Pomodoro is flexible. You can experiment with the timing that works best and go with it. This technique is a powerful tool that helps you sharpen your focus and learn faster and deeper.

3. The hard start technique: This technique is used when solving a tricky problem. It is a way of starting a test or assignment with the hardest part. When you get stuck, leave it and solve the simpler problems coming back later to it. You’ll find yourself making progress because your brain has been trying to find a solution to it while you’re away. In addition, the “Hard Start” technique can help you get credit for more challenging problems on tests.

4. Spacing out your learning into smaller periods over several days. Experiments have shown that spacing your learning over several days helps you learn better with less effort. Moreover, pacing out your learning over several days will make your brain strengthen the stored information.

When you use spaced learning, the infirmaries can make their way into your long-term memory.

Fun fact: Regular exercise boost learning

5. Association and metaphor

Metaphor is relating what you’re learning with what you already know. This helps the new knowledge stick better to the brain. A difficult idea can be simple when related to the right metaphor.

Associating what you’re learning with what you already know will help me remember better.

6. Memorisation: memorising information makes you understand it better, and memorising what you understand more easily. There’s a link between memory and understanding.

Best ways to memorise include:

A. Retrieval practice: instead of the traditional way of memorisation by looking or reading the information, try retrieving it from your memory and testing yourself to recall the information. A powerful way of retrieval is using flash cards.

B. Form an acronym or sentence from keywords: This is a powerful and efficient way of memorisation. Play around with the order of words to come up with a remarkable combination. 

C.  Use the Memory Palace technique: it is a technique used by memory champions to memorise incredible information. It involves using an image-based memory technique.

In the memory palace, you create an image of every word or phrase you want to remember and then place these images in a building you’re familiar with. This is a fantastic technique for memorising large amounts of information or data. When mastered, you’ll be amazed and appreciate it.

D. Form memorable mental images is similar to the association technique above. For example, when you try to remember a trip or a moment, it is usually through the images of the events that happened. Our brains function through images. It is recommended while learning a new language.

Which of these techniques do you use to learn? Please share with me the ones you’re fascinated about and would try. Then, as you are submerged in learning, remember to use these techniques to facilitate your learning.

Happy learning.

Hidayah Bashir Dayyib wrote from Kano via hudaelbasheer15@gmail.com.

By Sagiru Mati, PhD 

I’m an academic and, therefore, a member of the adamant trade union known as the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), which has been on strike since 14th February. However, I’m not writing to judge who is right or wrong, as both the Federal Government (FG) and ASUU have their share of the blame. Caveat: this write-up does not represent the position of ASUU; all opinions are mine.

To understand the genesis and dynamics of the contention, it is crucial to see the issues through the lens of the theories proposed by Emile Durkheim’s consensus theory, Karl Marx’s socialism and Adam Smith’s concepts of rivalry and excludability, which form the basis of modern capitalism. I will briefly explain these concepts in light of the ASUU-FG imbroglio.

Durkheim asserts that humans, as political animals, are innately egoistic, and only the “collective consciousness” – in the form of social facts such as values, norms and beliefs – controls the egoism and ensures the stability of the society. He developed the consensus theory, which studies society holistically rather than individualistically. Durkheim believed that social reality should be found in the collective consciousness, not individual consciousness. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

The societal equilibrium is attained through consensus by the parts based on social facts: language, norms, customs, values and so on. The society itself metamorphoses from a simple society that correlates with mechanical solidarity, where individuals are brothers’ keepers, to a complex society that corresponds with organic solidarity, where individualism prevails.

Nigeria is currently in a transition from a simple to a complex society. Hence, unlike a few years ago, it is now easy to distinguish the children of the poor from those of the rich, even if they come from the same family or neighbourhood. Gone are those days when one man in a family provided for his family’s needs and that of his close relatives. The main argument of the consensus theory is that societies don’t always have to resort to raising their contradictions to crisis and then resolving them through conflict.

Socialism advocates the total ownership and control of economic entities by the authority rather than private individuals, with the main motive of maximising citizens’ welfare. Karl Marx, as its proponent, grouped the individuals into Proletariat and Bourgeoisie. The former is the working class, while the latter controls the means of production. The ASUU’s members and students are the epitome of the Proletariat and subscribe to socialism as they fight to improve their service conditions and university funding and reject the idea of transferring the burden of tuition fees on students.

Capitalism is the direct opposite of socialism and promotes private ownership of the means of production, with the sole aim of maximising profits. Adam Smith, as a proponent, explained what goods and services private individuals and authorities should own based on two concepts: rivalry in consumption and excludability.

Rivalry in consumption implies prevention or reduction in the ability of simultaneous consumption of goods and services. Excludability refers to the extent to which non-payers can be restricted from consuming goods or services. If goods or services are rivalrous and excludable, like university education, they should be owned by private individuals. On the other hand, the state should own the national defence, which is, to a great extent, non-rivalrous and non-excludable. The FG, which subscribes to capitalism, has been privatising and commercialising public economic entities since the introduction of the Structural Adjustment Program (SAP) in 1986.

The capitalistic FG utilises three tools to manipulate the Proletariat: starve them, don’t educate them and divide them. The FG has been starving ASUU’s members as it has been withholding their salaries since March in the name of the no-work-no-pay policy. Barriers to education have been created by not funding universities adequately. Hence admission seekers may meet all requirements but may not get admitted due to the admission limit imposed by the FG. The FG is trying to divide ASUU by considering registering a splinter union known as the Congress of University Academics.

The FG has recorded little success regarding the first and second tools. However, ASUU has fallen into the FG’S trap, as evident by the recent ASUU Chairman’s no-pay-no-work utterances, which hint at venting their frustrations on students and calling some universities quacks, thereby emboldening the line between the State and Federal universities. Obviously, the FG has divided the Proletariat into State Universities and Federal Universities, and into ASUU and students, even though most students have supported ASUU.

Given the foregoing, we can discern that the ASUU-FG face-off is nothing but the clash between socialism and capitalism in a society transitioning from Durkheimic mechanical solidarity to an organic one. Therefore, ASUU needs to change its modus operandi so that its efforts to liberate the Proletariat shouldn’t be hurtful to themselves. The ASUU Chairman needs to be cautious of his utterances. He should understand that both states-owned universities and students share the same economic class with ASUU: Proletariat.

A recent proposal by the National Parent-Teacher Association of Nigeria (NAPTAN) to offer ten thousand Naira (10,000.00), and subsequent rejection of the offer by ASUU, indicates that the two bodies are not working together. ASUU alone cannot win this “battle”; it will be a good idea if it involves the NAPTAN. The duo may develop better wisdom and influence to make things happen, as two good heads are better than one.

The FG should fund universities adequately as Nigeria is too unripe for privatisation or commercialisation of university education, which deserves public finance as it is a merit good. The FG should pay the ASUU’s withheld salaries on the condition that the universities run three semesters a year until they compensate students for the striking period.

Sagiru Mati, BSc (BUK, Nigeria), MSc, PhD (NEU, North Cyprus), wrote from the Department of Economics, Yusuf Maitama Sule University Kano, Nigeria. He can be reached via sagirumati@yahoo.com.

By Uzair Adam Imam 

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) said the Education Minister, Adamu Adamu, suddenly turned against the union the moment he was appointed a minister.

The union said the education minister supported ASUU’s agitations, including their industrial actions, before he was appointed to this position.

Prof Lawan Abubakar, ASUU Zonal Coordinator, Bauchi Zone, disclosed this on Friday at the University of Jos, Plateau State.

Abubakar decried the way Adamu has been misleading other ministers and the public about the union’s action.

He also called on Nigerians to hold Adamu and the Federal Government responsible for the incessant strike.

The Chairman quoted Adamu to have said in 2013, “This nation owes a debt of gratitude to ASUU, and the strike should not be called off until the government accepts to do and does what is required.

“So, instead of hectoring ASUU to call off the strike, the nation should be praying for more of its kind in other sectors of the economy.”

The professor went on to say Adamu had also said that whatever he wrote on ASUU, he had totally believed in it, even now that he is a minister.

He said, “You may recall that when asked to make his comments on ASUU’s submission to President Buhari on Tuesday, the 9th of January, 2020, Adamu Adamu said he totally agreed with what ASUU presented, upon which note President Buhari handed him ASUU’s document and directed him to come up with a proposal for an amicable solution.

“For the same Adamu Adamu to now lead his colleagues, the other ministers, to misrepresent facts and mislead the good people of Nigeria against ASUU is rather unfortunate. 

“It is the highest level of unpatriotic disservice a minister would do to his nation, particularly in a sector like education which is the backbone of the development of any country.

“If this is the way to end the ASUU strike, ASUU-Bauchi Zone is taking exception to it and assuring Adamu Adamu that he is wrong; he has rather succeeded in undermining the future of Nigerian youths and Nigeria. If it would take him six (6) months to only come up with this deceit as a solution to the strike, we then have the right to ask whether he really was serious with education or stage-managing it.

“It has now come to bear that the minister had all along been deceiving everybody since 2017, as far as ASUU’s agitations in the tenure of this government are concerned.

“We want the general public to know that the Federal Government through Adamu Adamu did NOT approach ASUU with any reasonable and acceptable solutions to the issues in the contention that led to the current strike,” he stated.

By Sumayyah Auwal Ishaq

The management of the Kaduna State University ( KASU) on Friday condemned a statement attributed to the National President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, who has described state-owned universities as quacks.

The university’s Public Relations Officer, Mr Adamu Nuhu Bargo, in a statement on Friday, said, “ASUU, represented by the unguarded vituperations of its chosen President, is not actually struggling for a better educational system in Nigeria but for personal and irresponsible aggrandisement”. 

Mr Bargo further said that “for the benefit of hindsight, KASU is a new generation University and the second most-sought State-Owned University as well as the fastest growing in Nigeria”.

“The general public may wish to note as follows:

1. KASU is recognised by NUC as a standard University.

2. KASU has some of the best brains that are competing favourably with their counterparts around the globe. The world’s No 4 best polymer chemist is in KASU.

3. Lecturers in KASU have attracted grants both locally and internationally and are highly rated.

4. KASU graduates are rated among the best in the world and enjoy scholarships from different parts of the country and the globe.

5. KASU has members in ASUU, and it is unfortunate if the ASUU President is saying that they are quacks while enjoying monthly check-off fees from their salaries. Does this not give a good reason for every reasonable academic staff in the University to pull off from the Union for this labelling and stereotyping?”

By Sabi’u Muhammad

One of the imams of the National Mosque, Abuja, Professor Ibrahim Maqari, has criticised and rubbished the conduct and nature of work of Nigerian university lecturers, members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

Commenting on the issue of the ongoing ASUU strike, the controversial cleric queried the work of the university lecturers arguing that it does not yield any fruitful results.

In a 2-minute video clip in Hausa that went viral on social media, Maqari boasts, “No one would claim I don’t know university system. If anyone says so, it’s up to him.

“However, I had some knowledge of this position. This position presents several opportunities for disagreements and miscommunication. This work, as we’re calling it, is. In the name of work, what are we doing in the universities? The studies are where? There is no action taken.

“They steal and lie about everything. Each of them plagiarises the work of others. It’s all falsehoods, I assure you (wallahi).”

The retired academic stresses that most of his colleagues only feign carrying out research, but they don’t actually do it. He also laments that they only make an effort to have their papers published just to be promoted.

“It might be claimed, for example, that you are supervising or conducting research. That is false! except for a tiny minority, nothing is being done. They may be acting” (the research). But 80% of them aren’t doing it, which proves that they aren’t doing anything.

“When you see someone performing research, he’s pursuing promotion; therefore, he’d gather the works of his students or joint papers and enhance them to publish as his work merely to be promoted.

“His pen stopped after he was promoted! Did you get the point? How many people, after receiving a professorship, write 100 pages? Visit the universities to confirm! It would surprise you. I’m positive they’re 2/10. After that, 8/10 of researchers leave the field because their primary goal was to advance their careers.

“Like lecturing, it’s tough to find somebody who can complete 10 credit units weekly for a 6-hour course. It’s not much more than that, but I’ve forgotten. We’re down to 4 or 2 credit units, just like you. I took only 4 credit units over around three years.

“Before class, there is no preparation work to be done. It is entirely false. It’s been a 20-year-old handout. There is no investigation. The handout has been ingrained in each student’s memory.

“He has been teaching the same thing for nearly three years, and he is still teaching it now,” he said.

By Muhammad Aminu

The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) has unveiled ten textbooks authored by Nigerian scholars.

The books, which were TETFund-sponsored, were aimed at reducing over dominance of foreign publications in the nation’s higher education institutions.

Speaking at the event in Abuja, Minister of Education Adamu Adamu said the dependence on foreign academic publications portends great danger to the nation’s education sector, adding that boosting indigenous authorship would address the problem.

The minister, who was represented by the State minister of education, Goodluck Nana Opiah, said: “The paucity of indigenously authored and produced tertiary level textbooks and related academic publications in the nation’s tertiary education institutions is a known fact over time. Nigeria’s tertiary education institutions became dependent on books published outside the country with the attendant consequences of the pressure on the demand for foreign exchange.

“It is equally worrisome that the quality of most academic publications in our country leaves much to be desired. It is therefore expected that nurturing the culture of quality authorship and the production of indigenous books will not only ensure the availability of relevant books in the diverse subject areas that take cognisance of our local environment and sensitivities but will also safeguard national pride and reduce the demand for foreign exchange,” he said.

He commended TETFund for establishing the Higher Education Book Development project to tackle the scarcity of tertiary level textbooks which has before now reached a crisis proportion.

Adamu hailed the Fund for putting in place the Technical Advisory Group (TAG), whose mandate includes collaboratively working with the agency to ensure Nigerian authors churn out quality books.

“TETFund Book Development Fund intervenes in the three key areas of publication of academic books and the conversion of high-quality theses into books, support for Professional Association Journals, and the establishment and sustainability of Academic Publishing Centres (APCs).

“It is worthy of note that so far, seventy-seven manuscripts have passed through rigorous review processes by distinguished scholars and are ready for publication as books. I want to assure this gathering that an additional thirty books will be presented before the end of this year under the TETFund sponsorship programme.

“It will be of interest to note that over 60 per cent of these books are to be published by the Academic Publishing Centres (APCs) established by TETFund,” the minister said.

Executive Secretary of TETFund, Arc. Sonny Echono, who expressed delight over the quality of the ten books, said additional 30 books sponsored by the Fund would be unveiled before the end of the year.

He noted that the agency would sponsor the production of 50 textbooks in 2023.

“We have over 66 manuscripts; what we are unveiling today were published by only one publisher (one printing press) ….., by the time we unveil the remaining 30 in December, you are going to see all the authors cut across the three layers of our tertiary education institutions,” Echono said.

The TETFund boss also revealed that the Fund had provided support to ensure all the Academic Publishing Centres in the country become fully operational.

“There are seven of them across the country. When we came in March, only the University of Lagos academic publishing centre was fully functional and running, a few of them had little issues, some equipment, and other contractual issues, we have resolved all of them now.

“Four have been completed since the last few months, and the remaining we hope to finish by the end of September. The issue of operationalising them, making them self-sustaining is the debate we are having currently because we want them to run as a business enterprise and trying to create balance by focusing on academic publishing and being able to sustain themselves,” he said.

On his part, Chairman of TETFund TAG, Professor Charles Aworh, said 20 TETFund-sponsored textbooks were published in 2014 on different fields with wide acceptance from within and outside the country, adding that three of the ten new books unveiled today were from PhD theses.

He, however, called for more empowerment of the nation’s publishing centres.

“We are on course to publish 40 books before the end of the year, but the only challenge is the capacity of our universities to publish. Authors are ready to publish, manuscripts are ready,” Aworh said.

The high point of the event, which also attracted authors, academic staff unions and heads of education agencies, among others, was the public presentation of the TETFund-sponsored books, which include;1.Principles of Veterinary Surgery: A Concise Text for Veterinary Students 2. Fundamental of Chemistry 3. Fundamental of Public Finance 4.Java for Beginners and Web Design and 5. Programming for Beginners.

Others are 6. The Comparative Method and Civil-Military Relations 7. Fluid Mechanics and Hydraulics for Engineers 8. A Guide to Teacher Competence Evaluation 9. Financial Deepening and Economic Growth in Nigeria and 10. Motivational Factors and Teachers Efficiency in Secondary Schools.

By ImamMalik Abdullahi Kaga

The rate at which vernacular speaking is becoming rampant in schools (public and private) is so alarming. From elementary to secondary school, our children develop the ability to speak English or Arabic. But, without learning and practising it constantly, you can never be fluent in a language.

English is the official language in Nigeria, yet many people find it challenging to communicate with it. To convey your thoughts or ideas effectively and get well understood by others in many parts of the world, you must have the ability to communicate with the promising language – English because it’s a global language.

It’s regrettable and disappointing that a graduate with a bachelor’s degree or postgrad degree cannot speak or write in the official language appropriately. This, no doubt, results from one’s failure to learn it right from primary and secondary years (childhood). We cannot deny that most of us – northerners – have this weakness. But what could’ve led to this terrible mistake? First, the communication medium in our school days is often our mother tongue (Hausa).

Sadly, most schools don’t emphasise the need to use English to communicate among pupils or students. Some in question subscribe to the idea that (the English) language doesn’t determine one’s intelligence. Arguably, it is not, but we should consider the awful effect of not being able to use it correctly.

To be candid, you hardly find pupils or students communicating in English and Arabic (for bilingual schools) during school hours. For example, some teachers contribute to the escalation of this menace.

Some teach using vernacular, while others aren’t willing to prevent pupils or students from speaking it (vernacular). However, some unwisely claim that the students need a clear explanation of the treated topic. Hence, they use the local dialects to explain. This, however, doesn’t justify explaining lessons in local dialects because educationists have many teaching strategies.

Accordingly, teachers have this “disgusting” habit of speaking to students in the local dialects during class hours or break time. The students respond equally in the local dialects. During break hours, students communicate in the local languages without fear of being caught and penalised for that because the schools they attend don’t impose or simply disregard the rule.

If the abovementioned issue prevails, the coming generations will most likely succumb to the temptations to communicate in their mother tongue. Therefore, school proprietors and their managements should wake up from their deep slumber and confront this issue head-on, which helps deteriorate our education standard.

I believe teachers and prefects are the most powerful “tools” that could influence the students to comply with this because they play vital roles in shaping and correcting the students/pupils if they tend to stray.

ImamMalik Abdullahi Kaga wrote from Borno State University via abdullahiimammalik@gmail.com.

By Sulaiman Maijama’a

If not because of the dogged determination and great perseverance of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in defence of education in Nigeria over the years, public universities in the country would have since been in a dilapidated condition with poor infrastructure, poor remuneration of staff.

Moreover, the universities would have been stocked with unqualified teachers, just like what is happening to our public primary and secondary schools or perhaps worse than that. Those who misconceive ASUU, for its struggles, as being selfish know nothing about what education takes to be efficient.

It is common knowledge that people who had the luxury of attending private primary and secondary schools in Nigeria earn more prestige than those who attended public ones. This is so because the quality of education in public schools at the basic level has since been diminished. But the reverse is the case at the university level; products of public universities in Nigeria can show a trick or two to their counterparts who are produced by private institutions. This is to the credit of the ASUU.

The Union, despite the meagre resources it receives and the poor funding the universities suffer, is able to produce professionals who are rising and shining in respective disciplines globally. Notwithstanding this feat, the union has been pushed over the years to go into industrial action at the detriment of students and the action by the ASUU is always greeted with criticisms from the public domain.

As a university student, the fact that our academic pursuit is being elongated owing to strikes is paining, and so, I agree wholeheartedly that strikes embarked upon by the ASUU almost annually are not the best solution and not the best way to put pressure on the government to meet its demands but, to crucify the union for its doggedness is not fair at all. If we ever dug deep to understand how much education costs in the countries across the globe and compared it to the demands of the striking ASUU members that are yet to be met for over a decade, for which they have always protested, we would discover that education in Nigeria is as worthless as a waste dump.

According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) recommendation, for any nation that wants to adequately meet the demands of education, 15 to 20 per cent of its annual budget should be earmarked for the sector. Unfortunately, Nigeria’s budget for education has always fallen below the recommended benchmark.

Despite the daunting tasks and the challenges that are posing threat to the sector and the need for additional funding, President Buhari’s 2021 budget share for education is the lowest in ten (10) years. Out of N13.08 trillion budgeted for the year, only N742.5 billion, which is equivalent to 5.6 per cent, was allocated to education, which is the lowest allocation since 2011. This is about half of what President Jonathan earmarked for education in the 2015 budget.

In 2011, President Goodluck Jonathan allocated 9.3 per cent of the total budget to education. It was further increased to 9.86 per cent in the 2012 budget; elevated to 10.1 per cent of the total 2013 budget. It was 10.5 per cent in the 2014 budget, and the same President Jonathan earmarked 10.7 per cent of the 2015 budget, which happened to be the highest in the last decade.

However, when President Muhammadu Buhari came on board, in his first budget in 2016, the education share was cut short drastically to 7.9 per cent of the total budget, and in 2017, it was reduced to 7.4 per cent of the total budget; in 2018 it was 7.04 per cent, while 7.05 per cent of the 2019 budget was allocated to the sector and in 2020 it was 6.7 per cent, and 5.6 and 7.9 in 2021 and 2022 respectively.

While former President Jonathan had every year increased the budget share for education throughout his stay as president from 9.3 per cent in 2011 to the highest 10.7 in 2015, President Buhari has been drastically reducing the budget from 7.9 in 2016 to the lowest 5.6 in the 2021 budget.

In any case, the Buhari/APC-led administration’s lackadaisical approach toward education is indisputably disastrous to the lofty dreams of young Nigerians to attain global recognition academically. How could a serious government that values education give only 5 per cent of its annual budget to the most sensitive sector like education? This is beside the series of outstanding memoranda of understanding the government signed with the ASUU in 2009, 2013 and 2017, as well as the Memorandum of Action (MoA) of 2019 and 2020, but yet to be implemented. How on earth could you expect the ASUU not to be aggrieved?

And now, the Minister of Education is further fuelling the disagreement by telling the ASUU members that their six months denied salaries during which they were on strike would not be paid, making reference to the “no work, no pay policy”. I don’t know the provision of law on this, but my concern is, how can you come to meet with a union of intellectuals like ASUU and dare to tell them that this is the final government’s offer and that there is no need for negotiation; it is either they accept or reject it? This is highly ridiculous.

In my view, education is a treasure. Whatever huge amount of money is invested in it, it will definitely pay off eventually. A member of the Senate Chamber, whether or not they raise a motion, whether or not they contribute to a debate, earn a whopping thirty 30 million or thereabout monthly. This is minus all other illegal earnings which are obtained through leakages and corruption. In comparison to academics, a professor who spends his life sacrificing his time and pleasure doing research to contribute to knowledge does not earn a mere five hundred thousand a month, with all the inflation.

I don’t want to dwell much on making comparisons with the fortune allocated to the National Assembly. But, if such an amount of Naira notes which is beyond imagination, would be given to the National Assembly, why can’t the Federal Government meet all the demands of the ASUU to proffer a lasting solution to this lingering strike that is jeopardizing the future of the Nigerian youth, wreaking havoc on the economy and threatening the fabric of our social structure?

It is evident during the EndSARS protest in 2020, when students were on strike, that the strike was a contributing factor that fueled the agitation, which later turned tragic. Had it been the youth who were mostly the ones at the forefront of the demonstration who were on campuses, busy coping with their academic activities, the move would not have been accepted to such an extent, and therefore, the government would have easily controlled it.

As the saying goes, “an idle mind is a devil’s workshop”. Now, the 2023 forthcoming elections are fast approaching, and the youth are bored doing nothing and, therefore, can indulge in anything that comes their way. Who knows what could possibly be the next trend if the youth remain idle?

The Federal Government must understand and appreciate the value and power of education, respect all agreements reached with the ASUU and invest more resources in the sector in order to save the future of young Nigerians. This is because, without education, man is like an animal.

The ASUU, on the other hand, needs to understand that strike is nothing but a calamity to education. They should adopt amicable and diplomatic ways of engaging the government. “When two elephants fight, grasses suffer the most”.

Maijama’a is a student at the Faculty of Communication, Bayero University, kano. He can be reached via sulaimanmaija@gmail.com.

By Uzair Adam Imam

Hundreds of job seekers from different parts of Nigeria trooped into Kano State Thursday to jostle for the West African Examinations Council (WEAC) jobs.

The examination body was hiring assistant registrar, accountant, quantity surveyor, registered builder and network administrator, among other posts.

The job seekers sat for a computer-based aptitude test organized by the examination body at a CBT centre along Gwarzo Raod in Kano.

Unemployment is one of the lingering issues currently flogging the Nigerian graduates, making it a serious challenge, especially to the government.

A recent Bloomberg report shows that unemployment in Nigeria has surged to the second-highest on the global list, jumping to 33.3%.

Unemployment alarming

Musa Musa Dangwangwani, surprised by the number of applicants who trooped into the state to sit for the CBT, said the unemployment rate in the country is alarming.

Dangwangwani, an applicant from Katsina State, said, “Despite the high unemployment rate, job opportunities are very scarce. I’m therefore pleading with the government to provide job opportunities in the country.

Another applicant from Kogi State told our reporter that the issue of unemployment in Nigeria is seriously killing graduates, urging the government to do the needful to mitigate the problem.

‘The future is bleak’

“We have a lot of graduates out there that already lost hope. If you speak to them about any job opportunity, they will tell you they don’t want to apply for any because they are rigged out.

“One has to have a godfather before he secures a job now. But I have been trying my best. Wherever I heard of any opportunity, I apply, believing that one day I will succeed,” Dangwangwani said.

A female applicant from Kaduna State, who did not want her name in print, said the gathering was suggestive of the country’s high unemployment rate.

She said, “The way people gathered here tells me about the high rate of unemployment in the country. The government needs to do something to end this issue.

“Government should revive the number of factories shut down over the years. I think that will really help.

I lost my job due to insecurity – Applicant

An applicant from Bauchi State told The Daily Reality how he lost his job to the security challenge in Nigeria.

He said that was the reason he was now seeking another job.

He said, “I had my business. I’m a network engineer. My job was to provide internet service to the people mining in the bushes, but because of the current insecurity in the country, we can’t risk our lives; thus, I am jobless now.”

The Daily Reality recalls that professionals have argued that there is a need for urgent intervention to save the country from an impending danger posed by the exponential increase in unemployment.

By Kabir Musa Ringim

As a graduate of Computer Engineering and holder of MSc Information Technology, I’m skeptical to write about this topic which is a little bit controversial because of the divergent views of the two school of thoughts about the topic, but that will be explained later in the article.

As the world is currently in the information age – also known as the computer age that began in the mid-20th century, characterized by a shift from a traditional industry established by the Industrial Revolution to an economy primarily based upon Information Technology, the biggest challenge now is the way in which robots (bots) have started taking over many jobs previously meant for humans.

While the innovation of technology has greatly improved our day-to-day activities, it has also proven that we no longer need actual human beings to help with many of the jobs of today in the near future, thanks to robotics.

A robot is a machine programmable by a computer capable of carrying out complex actions automatically. According to the Britannica dictionary, a robot is any automatically operated machine that replaces human effort, though it may not resemble human beings in appearance or perform functions in a humanlike manner. By extension, robotics is the engineering discipline dealing with the design, construction, and operation of robots.

As its definition indicates, robots are here to replace humans in workplaces, markets, the army, etc. Though robots are still under development, the history of robots has its origins in the ancient world, during the Industrial Revolution, humans developed the structural engineering capability to control electricity so that machines could be powered with small motors.

Already, machines and robots have started replacing humans in many workplaces like banks, industries, markets, and media houses in Nigeria. Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) gave banks the privilege to employ few tellers, while the internet allow them to have few customer care representatives. Nowadays, you don’t need a hardworking secretary to type your work when you can easily dictate to a computer what you wanted to write and get it printed.

Office workers in public and private institutions have already started feeling the heat. A job that 20 persons can handle in a week can be done by a robot in a day. Governments now give less priority to office workers and more priority to health and education sectors when it comes to employment and recruitment. But it is just a matter of time before this status quo changes because both the education and health sectors will soon start experiencing the tsunami of job loss.

In the near future, school doesn’t have to recruit many teachers when a single tutor from anywhere in the world can teach thousands of students online and have their exams and tests marked by a computer program or bot.

Health institutions will soon require the services of a few health workers, medical doctors, and consultants, since a patient can get a prescription for himself by talking to a robot or chatting with a consultant that renders online services, also surgeries can be performed by robots.

Security outfits will face massive job loss with the development of robot police and soldiers. A robot will be stronger, more loyal, more reliable, and more accurate than humans, in addition to it being a machine, as such, emotionless and immortal. One robot can fight thousands of humans on a war front. Already drones are now more preferred than having an air force officer flying a warplane to enemies’ camps.

Media houses like TV and Radio stations don’t need to employ OAPs, presenters, newscasters, and language translators in a few decades to come, because machines and computer programs can handle their jobs. News editors and program managers will simply work on program contents and news and upload them into a special computer program for presentation, translation, and subsequent use.

Same case with employing sales girls and boys at retail stores, shops, and supermarkets. Who will bother to go shopping physically when people can easily order what they want to buy online and get it delivered to their doorstep? Cleaners, houseboys, office messengers, cooks, labourers will all cease to exist because of robots.

Other jobs that bots will take away from humans include, but are not limited to, telemarketing, automated shipping services, sewer management, tax preparers, photograph processing, data entry work, librarians and library technicians, etc.

But with all that I mentioned above, I’m not in any way trying to spell doom for the next generation of youth that will graduate from schools and start looking for jobs, in a few decades to come. As I have stated from the beginning, there’s a divergent view on the topic. Some people view bots as a weapon to wipe out humans from industries, military, offices, workplaces, etc, while others view it as a great development that will better the lives of humans which is needed to be embraced by all.

For me, humans by nature, since time immemorial, have had survival instincts and no technological development was able to render people jobless. If a job is no longer in existence, humans will always find themselves a better alternative. When industrial machines came into being in the 19th century and replace millions of menial labourers, humans find a way to survive them, the same way robots will be integrated into our daily lives. By the way, it is the very humans that made the machines and the robots not the other way round.

Kabir Musa is the HOD Computer Engineering, Binyaminu Usman Polytechnic, Hadejia, Jigawa State.