Tag: Nigeria scholarships

Yobe, Sudanese Government Partner For Establishment Of Medical School

yobe, Sudanese University, medical schoolThe Yobe state Governor, Ibrahim Gaidam has sought for collaboration and effective partnership with Sudanese Al- Ahfad University, Khartoum, for the commencement of the School Of Medicine of the Yobe State University.

The Governor made the call when he received visiting professors and council members of Al-Ahfad University, who called on him at the Government House Damaturu, the state capital.

Governor Gaidam said the need for the partnership which could be achieved through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), was born out of the fact that the College of Medicine is set to kick-off at the Yobe state University, in 2017.

“To this end, I wish to request for collaboration from the Sudanese Government and institutions, towards take-off of the Yobe State University School of Medicine, as this will scale up studies and research in our school and it will greatly encourage training and exchange of ideas”.

The request of the partnership according to the governor, was based on the fact that Sudan has the largest number of Yobe students, studying medical sciences abroad.

“Available records have indicated that that there are 163 Yobe state students, studying medicine and related fields in Ten Sudanese Universities.

“This represents about 40% of Yobe indigenes studying medicine within and outside Nigeria and out of the 163, 10 are studying at Al-Ahfad University,” Governor Gaidam explained.

The required fields of medical sciences according to the governor are in the areas of Anatomy, Physiology, Biochemistry and Pharmacology as well as students exchange programmes for students of Sudan universities and university teaching hospitals.

He informed the team of the peace currently being enjoyed across the state and the efforts government has invested in remodeling hospitals across the state.

This according to him, would provide enabling an environment for the medical profession.

The leader of the delegation, Professor Mubarak who gave a vivid requirement of setting up a college of medical sciences, assured the Yobe state Government of partnership that would lead to the establishment of the school of medical sciences in the Yobe state University.

He assured that “the partnership will further scale up the number of medical students studying in Sudan as well as provide scholarships that would also encourage learning among the undergraduates”.

Furthermore, both parties discussed the need for partnership in other fields in which development still seems rudimentary across the state.

Imo State Wins NNPC Quiz Competition

NNPC logo2Students from Imo State, South East Nigeria have emerged winners of the 2014 NNPC Annual National Quiz Competition‎. 

With 155 points to 145 points, the team from Imo beat Ogun and Akwa Ibom states to 2nd and 3rd positions.

Since 2001, the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC has used this platform to encourage budding engineers and scientists to excel in their studies, and this year would not be an exception.

6 teams from the 6 geo-political zones including the FCT, Akwa Ibom, Imo, Ogun, Taraba and Kaduna states made it to the finals, and standing in between them and the coveted trophy were questions in Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, English and knowledge of the Corporation and its activities‎.

After the 1st and 2nd rounds, Imo State emerged overall winner, but only a sudden death could separate Ogun in 2nd and Akwa Ibom in 3rd positions.

The Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Mr Andrew Yakubu, was thrilled with the trend in performance and pledged the corporation’s commitment.

Applauding the performance of the 6 participating teams, Mr Yakubu pledged to increase the budget of the corporation’s scholarship scheme towards breeding young indigenous scientists and developing Nigeria’s education sector.

Now in its 14th year, the NNPC Quiz Competition has recorded several successes, providing indigenous and talented manpower for the oil and gas sector and this, the corporation hopes would continue.

LASU Fees: Fashola Says Government Is Not Inflexible

Gov FasholaaThe Lagos State Government says it is willing to make adjustment or amendment where there’s need for better understanding on lingering issue between it and the students of the Lagos State University (LASU).

This comes as it was revealed that the parties have been holding talks on ways of reaching an agreeable fee regime for the school.

The Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, who dropped the hint at the weekend, assured the students of the school that the State Executive Council was studying their paper to the Government on the increase in their school fees, promising that where there is need for adjustment or amendment it would be effected accordingly.

Following several agitations by the students on the fees increase, the State Governor met with them severally and it was agreed that the students should make their independent study and present to Government a position paper on the way forward.

Fielding questions at a live television interactive session with media executives at the Lagos Television, Ikeja, to mark Democracy Day in the State, Fashola said that the students have presented the paper which was before the Executive Council for consideration and approval.

He declared, “I have passed it out to the Council. We have told the students that we are not inflexible and where we see the need for adjustment or amendment, we will do it so that they might understand it better”, noting, however, that going by the position paper, the students were not against the increase but the parameters used in calculating the fees.

Fashola reiterated that the increase in fees regime was one of the many recommendations made by a Visitation Panel inaugurated at the instance of the students in a petition to the House of Assembly.

“There were many recommendations made by the panel many of which we accepted. It is the school fees that have become so vexatious as it were. What we have done is that we looked across schools, federal and state and private schools and tried to stay somewhere in the middle”, the Governor explained.

He said Government also decided that the new fee was not going to affect sitting students but only new intakes, adding that in consideration of qualified but indigent students, Government also increased its budget for scholarships and bursaries from N700 million, to about N1.2 – N1.3 billion “in order to ensure that no child was left behind”.

On reason for the increase, Fashola further explained, “We felt that there was no convergence of universal learning. We had begun to see LASU as a school only for children of the poor. For me that is a very dangerous thing to do, a university where children of the rich and the poor cannot sit together. The rich are taking their children to private schools; for me that is a time bomb for the future. They may not see it now”.

“In the event, the students have come back to me three years after, at the instance of their lecturers, who are saying that we should reduce the school fees otherwise they would go on strike. But the same lecturers are asking us under ASUU to increase their salaries”, he said.