The Registrar of the National Examinations Council (NECO), Prof Dantani Wushishi has promised to establish examination centres for the police in Lagos State.

He made the promise during a courtesy visit to the Commissioner of Police, Lagos State Command, Mr Olohundare Jimoh at the command Headquarters on Friday in Ikeja. Wushishi said that NECO would consider to establish six centres for police family to access the examination. “NECO conducts five different examinations: National Gifted Examination which is the examination for placement into Federal Government Academy, Suleja; National Common Entrance Examination; the Basis Education Certificate Examination;“Other are Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (internal); and Senior Secondary School Certificate (external) for private candidates, this is an examination that require students who have not been able to make credits requirement for admission into tertiary institutions will sit for the type of examination to make up the require credits for examination.“We conduct this types of examination in the sense that any candidates can apply, we have centres specially designated that candidates can choose as close to the resident of the candidates.“All police families can fix into the category of examinations, ” he said.Wushishi said that the board would send its men to the locations the Lagos State Command wanted its centres to be established.“We will send our men to look out some of the facilities that will require such centres to be available for approval.“By the grace of God, we are going to do that, it is very important because the Nigeria Police is serving the nation and their children must have easy access to examinations to remediate their failed subjects to be able to further their educations.“The request is very important to the police and their children and also for the nation.“It is duty bound on the nation to take access to education very easy and this is one of the ways we can provide access to police children that have passed Senior Secondary School and waiting to mediate their results.“As fast as we received the request from the police, we will send our men to access the area centres that the command want us to approve for examination centres,” he said.According to him, NECO’s challenge is funding in the area of provision of some physical infrastructure such as offices and some other things to make conductive office work easy.He thanked the Police for carrying out security surveillance and physical security during its examinations.“We have examination intelligent committee, this is our covered committee, it has to do with examination infringement investigation, the committee is collaborating with the police to successfully apprehend those partaking in examination malpractice, ” he said.According to him, Lagos is one of the largest states that provides the largest number of candidates.“Lagos provides second largest candidates for Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (SSCE) internal after Kano State.“Last year, Lagos provides over 98,000 candidates for the SSCE second to Kano that provided over 104,000 candidates. CP Jimoh presenting plaque to the NECO registrar“Our collaboration with Nigeria Police has been long for a very long time. The police have been assisting NECO to conduct examination peacefully, mounting surveillance and mounting security .“We have a lot of places we conduct examination in Lagos and the police have been cooperating with us,”he saidHe congratulated the new CP for his new appointment and wished him the best of luck.CP Jimoh said that the collaboration between police and NECO would continue.“Lagos Police and NECO have been collaborating and will continue this partnership.This collaboration has been going on for years, examination security has been one of the responsibilities of the police.“We have been working with the Intelligence Department in NECO to ensure that planning for securing examination conduct in the pre-examination period, examination period, and post-examination period and it has been going on smoothly.“We will double our commitment to NECO and take it to higher level, we are ready to give NECO all the cooperation it deserve, ” he said.According to him, the six locations picked for the establishment of NECO centres are the areas of need, three centre on the Island and three on the Mainland, these locations are close to populated area is where police family are much in number.“We know this will be granted and it will be far reaching in enhancing the police children, wards and families will have access to the centres close to where they are living,” he said.(NAN)

The Borno government in collaboration with its international partners on Friday unveiled a new policy designed to tackle school dropout and enforce the retention, transition and completion of girlchild in school.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the launching and dissemination of the document brought the domestication and validation process of the National Policy on Gender in Education in Borno to finality. Unveiling the policy document and its dissemination on Friday in Maiduguri, Mr Ibrahim Baba, the Project Coordinator, said the process took them years to achieve its domestication. “Luckily with the support of Malala Foundation, we started the validation process about five months ago, after domestication we also validated the gender policy on Education,” Baba, who was represented Mr Bukar Dogo said.The coordinator said the World Bank and other donors agencies were also seeking for the draft of that validation.“So we couldn’t get it until today, we are able to come for dissemination. We thanked Allah that we are able to realised our objectives today.He said the policy would go a long way in addressing the gender barriers in education and other social norms and barriers that inhabits girlchild education.Baba while highlighting the potential of the policy said the state government had done a lot to ensure the smooth implementation of the policy ahead of it launch.“The first thing is the enrolment of girlchild and make sure that we maintain them in school and that is called retention, after retention, are the girls moving to to the next class level, that is a transition, what of if they transit to the next class level, are they going to complete the school that is completion.“So retention, transition and completion has increased as a result of this project (domestication of Gender National Policy on Education) which we are about to launch now in Borno State.“It has realy address some of the social barriers that affect the girlchild’s education in Borno,” he said.Hajiya Hasiya Nyako, the Chairperson, Jami Al Hakeem Foundation, who had been in the forefront during its domestication and validation processes also expressed happiness for witnessing the launching of the policy in Borno.“Actually I feel so good and so excited to witness today because this is long overdue. For me is about two to three years when I was called to attend the first meeting on domestication and implementation of Gender National Policy on Education.“So the journey of two to three years is not an easy thing. I have been thinking on how would it be possible but now is a reality that the state is about to adopt the policy.“The state government has been taking strategies long before now to see that girls are enrolled into school, retained and completed their education,” she said.Nysko, whose NGO have been working with the state government to achieve the realisation of the domestication of the Gender National Policy on Edmonton in Borno said the state was doing a lot ensure every child has right to education.“In fact, the 40 – 60 per cent is the first step taken by the Vice-President Kashim Shettima, then as governor, that all these Mega Schools you see that they make sure the enrolment rate of the girl is higher than that the boy was part of his policy.“That is one, with the coming of this project and this gender thing we can see for ourselves that the state Commissioner for Education was also doing well in continuation with the idea of encouraging girlchild education.According to her, an assessment carried out by her NGO has help them to find out some of the factors limiting the retention of girlchild in school.“There were many factors but accessibility, wash, poverty and vulnerability issues have been identified as the major challenges,” she said.The chairperson said some of the measures taken by the state government to addressing the problems was the provision of incentives to girlchild.Nyako said that such incentives like conditional cash transfer had help to increasing the rate of attendance among the girlchild.The chairperson said that the provision of wash facilities in schools had also significantly improved the girlchild enrolment rate in schools.She said girls who attend the age of puberty were now giving dignity gift twice per term in order to support them, keep themselves clean while in school, adding that the boys were also giving hygiene gift.On the issue of accessibility, Nyako said they found out that most girls track a very long distance and that also exposed them to dangers before they get to school.“You will discover that, after the completion of the Primary School or the Basic, they dropout because they cannot continue.“So on that note, the schools are now built close to their communities or upgrading the existing schools nearby to the next level.“These are the three issues that the state government addressed in its efforts to combat the issues of girlchild dropout in school in the state which has been yielding results.“We are now looking at so many things like incentives for the teachers to improve the learning standards.“A lot of things have been put in place to see that we domesticate this policy.“Now Jami Al Hakeem Foundation has done that for us today for the state to formally accept to domesticate this policy,” she said.Also speaking, Prof. Bulama Kagu, the Chairman Borno State Universal Basic Education Board, who was represented by Hauwa Gwoma, assured Nigerians and the international community of their determination to implement the policy to the later in the state. (NAN)

The Federal Government on Friday moved about 40 households of displaced persons/refugees to a resettlement city in Keffi for decent accommodation and better living.

Speaking at the occasion, Alhaji Tijani Ahmed, the Federal Commissioner, National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFRMI), said that no fewer than 300 individuals would be benefiting from the allocation. Ahmed said that the selection criteria for beneficiaries were based on voluntary participation and profiling, ensuring that those who chose to stay were allocated houses. He also said that plans were in place to reintegrate IDPs and refugees into the immediate community, adding that the organisation had a trade skill centre to ensure their livelihood.He further said that arrangements had been made with security agencies and health care development agencies to provide protection and assistance to the refugees.Ahmed thanked President Bola Tinubu for his efforts in ensuring the welfare and well-being of the less-privileged and displaced persons in the country.The facilities and infrastructure in the centre included a recreational area, mosques and churches to promote religious ethics among the residents.“Green houses are provided for farming and a market is set up to facilitate the sale of excess farm produce,” Ahmed stated.Mr Earnest Cho, a Camerounian refugee, while appreciating the government for the kind gesture, expressed excitement of living in a free accommodation and farming community compared to the expensive city life in Abuja.Cho, who is also the leader of the refugees, said although the centre had solar-power lights, government should also provide them with electricity for better living conditions. (NAN)