UK raises overseas education aid by 50%
The UK will increase aid for education in developing countries by 50% to £75m per year, International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt will promise.
The government has faced criticism over its ring-fenced commitment to overseas aid – and this announcement marks a new emphasis on education projects.
Ms Mordaunt said supporting schools in poorer countries was a “hard-headed” investment in a more prosperous future.
But aid agencies warned the amounts promised were still insufficient.
Ms Mordaunt will make the announcement of £225m funding over three years at a global education conference in Senegal, hosted by France’s President Emmanuel Macron and Senegal’s President Macky Sall.
Source : BBC
Religious extremists ‘trying to pervert education’
Religious extremists are using schools to narrow children’s horizons and “pervert education”, England’s chief inspector of schools has warned. Amanda Spielman said some community leaders see schools as vehicles to “indoctrinate impressionable minds” – with extremist ideology in some cases.
Ofsted inspectors are increasingly coming into contact with such extremists, she said.
She is asking head teachers to confront those who foster extremist behaviour.
It comes after an east London head teacher who tried to stop girls under the age of eight from wearing a hijab in the classroom was subjected to a campaign of abuse.
“Rather than adopting a passive liberalism that says anything goes, for fear of causing offence, schools leaders should be promoting a muscular liberalism,” Ms Spielman has said at a conference held by the Church of England in London.
Source : BBC
JAMB generates N46bn in forms’ sales in 6 years
MANY nations world over that perceive the education of its citizenry as part of capital and national development, have continuously ensured that its people have access to qualitative education by either offering them free education to certain level or making it affordable.
In Nigeria, it’s not clear if government is in that narrative, as the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, has become a source of revenue generation for the Federal Government.Speaking exclusively with Vanguard, yesterday, JAMB spokesperson, Dr. Fabian Benjamin said, “There is no section in the Act that established the Board that mandated it to generate revenue for the Federal Government.
We are not generating revenue for the Federal Government. What we collect from candidates are liabilities for the service we have not rendered. But in the event whereby we have excess, it is only natural to know that it’s not ours, therefore, we return it to the government.
Source : Vanguard