Abiodun Ogunyemi: Brainpower and Political Activism, By Toyin Falola
This productive professor has shown that quality education is not negotiable.
Teachers like Ogunyemi are undeniably seers, and their projections into the future are not based on conjecture but valid conclusions aided by the accumulation of facts and an objective process of interrogation. For an educationist, two things occupy the cardinal position of their intellectual campaign: advocacy for a vibrant social environment and the development of fertile minds to enhance it.
Among the arrays of intellectual gifts for which Africa, in general, and Nigeria, in particular, is blessed is Abiodun Ogunyemi, whose brainpower is reflected in the numerous academic and non-academic engagements for which he is popularly known. His date of birth, December 25, which coincided with that of the Christian messiah, Jesus Christ’s secularist choice, is metaphoric and symbolic because of the life of sacrifice that Ogunyemi has lived
I was the circuit manager for Stellenbosch when a new building was constructed for Kayamandi High School. After principal Maphelo Ntshanga and his pupils had moved, hundreds of pupils were temporarily accommodated in the old building. And thus, Makupula High School was born. Charles Ndlebe, then deputy head of Kayamandi, was appointed as principal.
Today it is a school of excellence with subjects such as accounting, computer studies, economics and tourism. Despite the pandemic, Makupula achieved a pass rate of 94% in 2020 – a repetition of its 2019 results. Devoted teachers, motivated pupils, supportive parents and a dynamic head have shown that it is not the building but what happens
Fifty-four per cent of Canadians believe there will be negative long-term impacts on children s education from the pandemic, the survey found. However, 63 per cent see online learning having a positive long-term change.
Jay Wilson is the head of the Department of Curriculum Studies at the College of Education at the U of S. He said there are some struggles with online or remote learning. It s going to take a long time for us to really figure out how it s going to impact [education], but we re seeing all kinds of pressures on students in terms of mental health … all kinds of things that are maybe existing pressures but have been magnified by the pandemic, Wilson told
Canadians hopeful for new workplace arrangements: USask research newsoptimist.ca - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from newsoptimist.ca Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
My matric year in 1976 was not easy. Due to the youth uprising, we were out of school for a long time. There were no online facilities. However, after numerous extra classes over weekends and in the evenings, and thanks to matric exemption, I could realise my dream to qualify as a teacher at the University of the Working Class (UWC). Here I would reach political maturity and get involved with the student protest against apartheid. As one of six children of parents from the working class, my studies would not have been possible without a government bursary.
It is 40 years later. It is said that history repeats itself every 40 years. True or not, last week I had to teach my students (via online classes) that the world is a set of related systems in which problems cannot be solved in isolation. In good times, governments embrace a bureaucratic management style, just as in 2017 when Jacob Zuma, without consultation, announced free higher education. In bad times we discover the value of