The Bayelsa Education Development Trust Fund on Tuesday commenced a 60- day Robotics Challenge among secondary schools across the eight local government areas of the state.

Coding is an essential set of instructions that a robot can read and execute. Robotics combines the use of electronics, mechanics, and coding software to programme robots to do particular jobs.

Speaking at the ceremony, Dr Gentle Emelah, Commissioner for Education, said the state had been investing in technology across levels of education.

According to him, the robotics and coding challenge is part of the plans to deepen technology and innovation among the youth.

Emelah revealed that the state had fully integrated digital learning platforms for all public primary schools in four of the eight local government areas in Bayelsa.

In her remarks, Dr Alice Atuwo, Executive Secretary of the fund, recalled that robotics and coding was introduced in 2022 to 13 selected Model Secondary schools.

Atuwo said that 103 students participated in the holiday training that lasted for 30 days.

She said that the fund had fully equipped the model secondary schools with Information and Communications Technology (ICT) gadgets.

Atuwo, said all the model secondary schools received monthly support of N50,000 to provide internet connection, consumables and minor maintainable to keep the robotics programmes running.

“The robotics and coding programme is a component of the Science, Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) policy that the fund is promoting in Bayelsa to make our students ready for the future.

“For those who may ask the question, why robotics, The answer is why not robotics.

“Robotics brings abstract knowledge to realities and our children can understand how robots can be deployed to accomplish tasks and provide solutions to everyday challenges,” Atuwo said.

She explained that the students would undergo trainings in robotics and coding, build and programme their robots to tackle issues of climate change.

Also speaking, Prof Francis Sikoki, Chairman of the Trust’s Board, said that technology skills in areas like robotics was essential in today’s digital world driven by knowledge and innovation.

He said that the educational development trust was toward ensuring the provision of science labour stories in all secondary schools in the state.

Also, Mrs Stellar Uzochukwu, a representative of Odyssey Educational Foundation, facilitators of the Bayelsa 2024 Robotics Challenge, auded Bayelsa government for supporting the programme.

She said that the programme would enable the youths to leverage on the knowledge acquire in coding and robotics to tackle the challenges posed by climate change in the state.(NAN)

Stakeholders in the education sector have called for a thorough review of existing laws governing the National Examination Council (NECO).

The review according to them would instigate reforms that reflected the technological advancements and evolving needs of the educational landscape.

They made the call in Abuja on Monday, at a one-day retreat by NECO.

The retreat is titled “Legislative Functions: The Imperatives of Achieving NECO’s Mandate and the Challenges of Examination Legislation in Nigeria”.

Speaking at the event, Gov. Mohammed Bago of Niger state emphasised the need to look into the existing laws that guide NECO in the conduct of its various examinations to address issues of artificial intelligence.

“Artificial intelligence has come to stay, so our law must also be able to key into this technological advancement. So this retreat is timely.

“I only call on NECO and stakeholders to expand it beyond this hall.

“So that other stakeholders will have input and also be able to come out with a robust policy and laws in order to be sent to national assembly,” Bago said.

On his part, the Registrar of NECO, Prof. Ibrahim Wushishi, said the challenges in fulfilling NECO’s mandate highlighted the critical need for a robust legislative framework.

Wushishi identified infrastructural constraints, surge in candidate enrolment, inadequate funding, examination malpractice, amongst others as some of the key hurdles faced by the examination body.

He also stressed the need for a review of the existing laws of the Council.

Also speaking, the Minister of State for Education, Dr Yusuf Sununu, called for an urgent need to review and modernise the legislative framework to effectively address some of the challenges to enable NECO effectively achieve its mandate.

Sununu was represented by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Didi Walson-Jack.

“NECO plays an indispensable role in ensuring the sustainable management of our educational landscape.

“In spite of the significance of the examination legislation, we cannot ignore the challenges we face, from outdated laws and validation to emerging issues like examination malpractice and digital transformation.

“There’s an urgent need to review and modernise the legislative framework to effectively address these challenges,” he added.(NAN)

The Management of the university of Abuja (UniAbuja) says academic and administrative activities on campus will go on in spite of  reported strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

The Vice-Chancellor (VC) UniAbuja, Prof. Abdul-Rasheed Na’Allah, said this at a meeting with Provost, Deans, Directors and Heads of academic departments.

A statement from the meeting, signed by Dr Habib Yakoob, the Acting Director, Information and University Relations, was made available to newsmen on Friday in Abuja.

The vice chancellor described the strike as divisive and unnecessary, vowing that the management would never allow the university to be crippled again.

“As far as the management of the university is concerned, this institution is not on strike.

“Some people said they have declared a strike but all of us with the management have decided that our normal activities in the university must go on.

“Our exam is going on, senate meeting will continue, everything we do as a university will continue, our calendar will not be disrupted any longer by the grace of God.

“It is wrong to cripple the university over issues that are merely sentimental and some of which we have dialogued over and resolved, we are prepared not to allow this disruption again,” he said.

He debunked all the reported allegations of the union which they claimed informed its declaration of indefinite strike.

“Take for instance, the advert for the position of the vice-chancellor, we are not the only university that has advertised, we had the support and approval of the government.

“The advert was done by the Minister of Education, all I did as vice- chancellor was to request, to ask for what is next and they decided this is what we must do.

“And if you look at the advertisement from the beginning, this fact is very clear. It is only that they had to send it to us for execution that is all,” he explained.

He also described the union’s allegations of illegal recruitment, promotion, delay in the election of deanship, and microfinance bank establishment as unfounded, adding that the university had followed due process in handling all these matters.

He said the university ensured that relevant institutions concerned with oversights were contacted.

On the issue of the election of deans and establishment of microfinance bank, he disclosed that the elections time table had long been publicised.

He explained that the elections of four deans had been conducted so far.

Na’Allah also said that the university management had invested over N200 million in the proposed Microfinance Bank over the ASUU’s N4 million.

He said the investment had been made before the union wrote directly to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to stop granting the license for our operation.

The vice-chancellor said his administration had been working hard to develop the university and would not fold its arms and allow a group of people to destabilise its calendar.

“For over four years, our goal has been to lift this university much higher than it was, and this we have succeeded in doing by taking our academic and infrastructural developments to a world class level. (NAN)