There is “absolutely no reason” schools in England will not be ready to mass test pupils when they return next term, the education secretary has said.
Gavin Williamson said he wanted school closures to be as “short as possible” after delaying their reopening amid surging coronavirus cases.
It comes as people are being warned to not to gather on New Year’s Eve.
Some 20 million people in England have been told to “stay at home” after tier four was expanded at midnight.
They join the 24 million already in the toughest restrictions – meaning non-essential businesses must close, and people should stay home unless they have a “reasonable excuse”.
Tier four restrictions mean residents must stay home unless they have a “reasonable excuse” and all non-essential shops must close along with indoor entertainment venues and businesses such as hairdressers and nail bars.
Areas of the Midlands and the North, including Greater Manchester, Leicestershire and Warwickshire among those added.
An intensive care doctor has also urged people not to gather and said those who do not wear masks have “blood on their hands”.
Prof Hugh Montgomery, professor of intensive care medicine at University College London, said: “It is making me actually very angry now that people are laying the blame on the virus, and it is not the virus, it is people, people are not washing their hands, they are not wearing their masks.”
NHS England medical director Prof Stephen Powis called on people to show restraint, saying it was “absolutely vital” people stayed home and did not mix.
On Wednesday the UK recorded a further 50,023 new Covid cases, as well as 981 more deaths within 28 days of a positive test – more than double Tuesday’s total.
On Wednesday, Mr Williamson announced that secondary schools across most of England are to remain closed for an extra two weeks for most pupils, to help regain control of coronavirus.
The education secretary told BBC Breakfast that remote learning would be “mandatory” from the week commencing 11 January for all secondary students, other than years 11 and 13 who would physically return to school on that date.
Defending the delay to term, he said the government was “battling this hidden enemy” saying there was £78m of funding for schools to get testing up and running.
As soon as news emerged of the new faster-spreading variant questions began to be asked about schools.
An analysis by Public Health England released this week showed there was no evidence it was more able to infect children than other variants.
But that does not mean infection rates have not been rising among children.
As with all age groups, the proportion of school children testing positive increased during December – with more virus around there was more transmission.
Primary school children however still remain one of the age groups with the lowest infection rates.
But the sheer scale of the infection levels in the worst-hit areas means ministers wanted to buy themselves time, hence some primaries will remain closed.
If large numbers of pupils and staff need to isolate, it makes the smooth-running of schools impractical.
Ministers are hoping mass testing coupled with the tougher restrictions – three-quarters of England are now in the highest tier – will be enough to curb infection levels and keep a lid on the spread in schools.
But it is clear they will have to tread carefully to achieve that.
Mr Williamson said more than 85% of primary schools were reopening on Monday and that he wanted any closures to be “short”.
At a Downing Street press conference on Wednesday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the “sheer pace of spread of new variant means we have to take tougher action in some areas”.
But teaching unions said the move did not go far enough, and one labelled it another “last-minute mess”. They have been calling for a working test-and-trace system since before schools returned from the lockdown in September.
Pepe Di’Iasio, headteacher of Wales High near Rotherham and vice-president of the Association of School and College Leaders, said he thought everyone in the country had known there was “going to be a surge” in January.
He said: “We’ve all seen this coming and we would have preferred to have been able to plan for this before the end of last term so that parents can be made aware of it, so that students can be made aware of it and so that the teachers themselves can make sure that their plans are in place to deliver education from next Monday.”
It’s almost impossible for kindergarten students and first graders to learn remotely without adult supervision. But school and work start and end around the same time. It’s difficult for parents to oversee remote learning and do their jobs at the same time, even if they’re working from home.
So KIPP Newark, a free, public charter school network in Newark, N.J., started offering a kindergarten and first grade class at night in mid-October. For working parents and high-needs children, the 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. window makes everything possible.
“Attendance-wise, it’s completely changed,” said Meredith Eger, the lead teacher of the night kindergarten class. “Some of the kids that joined us right away, they missed school all of September and most of October.”
For Ethan, a kindergarten student with autism, daytime school just didn’t work. He missed 29 classes when school met during the day. Without both of his parents there, he struggled to wake up and stay focused, said his mother, Jessica Blair.
Now, they log on together 10 minutes early and pipe the class through speakers, so Ethan still hears class even if he wanders. The 5-year-old likes to sit on his father’s lap to learn, she said.
“If it was just me, I don’t think I could do it and Ethan probably would not do it,” said Blair. “But with his father being there, that helps a lot.”
KIPP has some remote classes meeting during the day. But 24 kids have signed up for the night experiment, Eger said, and interest continues to grow.
“Compared with my daytime, I see parents sitting right next to them,” said Lily Ventrell, the learning specialist for first graders and kindergarten students. “It just makes it so much easier for them, compared to the daytime. Even if a parent is working at home, it’s just so hard.”
Flipping the schedule, Ventrell said, simplified everything. “We can only do so much from our side,” she said. “We need our families. We can’t go and give the kids a hug or grab them a pencil.”
*Buses have become community routers in Jackson, Miss.Credit…Erin Kirkland for The New York Times
In Jackson, Mich., where more than 70 percent of children are eligible for free and reduced-price lunch, 50 school buses now act as mobile hot spots. The buses, fitted with Wi-Fi antennas, have made this semester possible for about a fifth of the district’s 5,000 schoolchildren. The project cost the district $65,000.
At 8 a.m., drivers park their yellow armada at parks, apartment complexes, a homeless shelter and a rec center. The Wi-Fi reaches about 100 yards.
The interactive Times story, reported by Kathleen Gray with photographs by Erin Kirkland, has beautiful pictures and stories from families and teachers in Jackson. To read it in full, click here.
The Chicago fight continues
Since March, public school students have learned remotely in Chicago, the third-largest district in the United States. There has been a messy political fight about when and how schools might reopen — and it may be about to get even messier.
The Chicago Teachers Union has pushed back against the district’s efforts to reopen classrooms, citing concerns over testing and tracing, health and safety protocols, vaccines and questions about the metrics the district will use to reopen schools.
On Thursday, the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board denied the union’s request to seek a preliminary injunction that could have complicated the planned return to school next year. Undeterred, the union is looking ahead to a hearing, which could escalate the fight.
Right now, staff members are slated to return to classrooms on Jan. 4. Students will begin a phased return to in-person learning on Jan. 11.Schools During Coronavirus ›
Class Disrupted
Updated Dec. 24, 2020
The latest on how the pandemic is reshaping education.
“We are obviously thrilled with the ruling,” Janice Jackson, the district’s chief executive, told Amelia.
In a recent survey, only about a third of Chicago families said they would return for in-person learning. A majority of the about 208,000 students in the district who are eligible return are Black and Latino, as are a majority of the over 77,000 students who selected in-person learning. But white families expressed a preference for in-person learning at higher rates.
To the district, that’s evidence that schools need to reopen.
“We, as a school system, serve primarily Black and Latinx students,” Dr. Jackson said. “And when we look at the data and when we see who is not attending school on a regular basis or where there are lower levels of engagement, they are Black and Latinx.”
To the union, which contends teachers shouldn’t have to simultaneously teach in-person and remotely, the survey is evidence that reopening schools would hurt most students.
“If we take our teachers and we put them in classrooms where they’re going to have to supervise and pay attention to the one-third of the students who are there with them, what does it mean for the two-thirds of the students that they’re not able to devote their full attention to?” Jesse Sharkey, the union president, told Amelia. “It means that two-thirds of the students are going to get a less good education.”
A similar fight is brewing in California, where most public school children are still learning at home. Two teachers unions oppose legislation that could force schools to reopen in March.
Judson College, a women’s Christian college in Alabama, might not reopen for the spring semester after the pandemic exacerbated financial difficulties. If the college does not receive $500,000 in donations by Dec. 31, the president said, the college will not open for spring and “all students will be informed of transfer options to complete their degrees.”
The football team at the University of California, Los Angeleswill not play in a bowl game, one of several teams to make such a decision.
An opinion: “There is no ethical way for Penn State to resume any in person classes next semester, unless the coronavirus vaccine is available to all students and required,” wrote Grace Miller, the opinion editor at The Daily Collegian, the student newspaper at Pennsylvania State University. The state of Pennsylvania also urged colleges to delay a return to campus next semester.
K-12 update
The Supreme Court refused to exempt religious schools in Kentucky from a statewide shutdown of in-person learning.
Instead of failing students this semester, Los Angeles will give them a second chance to pass their classes.
The Idaho Board of Education voted to waive a college-entrance exam requirement for this year’s graduating high school seniors.
A good watch: The Times embedded in one school in the Bronx for 33 days, chronicling its effort to reopen during the pandemic. Go watch, please. You won’t regret it.
A note, from us
As finals loom and schools go on break, we will, too. We’ll be back in your inbox in the new year. For now, we just wanted to thank you for reading our work and offering your suggestions and reflections. Here’s hoping for an easier semester to come.
Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly said the Wi-Fi bus program was in Jackson, Mississippi. In fact, it is in Jackson, Michigan.
Amelia Nierenberg writes the Coronavirus Schools Briefing. Previously, she was a reporter on the Food desk and a member of the first class of The New York Times fellows. @AJNierenberg
Adam Pasick oversees the Times’s portfolio of newsletters, including The Morning, DealBook, and pop-ups like the Coronavirus Briefing. @adampasick
A leading researcher at the Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA), in South-West Nigeria, Dr. Folashade Olajuyigbe, has won the 2020 International Research Grant from the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Collaborative Research Programme (ICGEB-CRP) Italy.
Olajuyigbe, a prolific scholar, who won the 2017 Fulbright African Research Scholar Programme (ARSP) award for advanced research in the United States for the 2017/2018 academic year, was awarded the grant, which was keenly contested by applicants from 50 ICGEB member countries at both national and international levels.
With the grant comes her designation as the Principal Investigator for the project titled ‘Enzymatic Analysis of the Cellulolytic System of Ligninolytic Stenotraphmonas sp. and Development of Bifunctional Chimeric Enzyme for Efficient Simultaneous Delignification and Saccharification of Lignocellulose Biomass.’
The research grant application was among the three shortlisted and endorsed by ICGEB liaison office, Abuja and was evaluated at ICGEB headquarters, Italy, based on a two-tier procedure by a committee of internationally recognised experts and peer review by independent external professionals.
The ICGEB-CRP grant covers purchase of equipment, consumables, training of researchers, travel and literature to ensure successful completion of proposed project, which has potentials for important outcomes on the environment and economy.
In a congratulatory letter conveying the award, ICGEB Director General, Dr. Lawrence Banks and Head of Fellowship Programme, Barbara Argenti, said Olajuyigbe won the grant after a comparative evaluation of all submitted projects by a committee of 12 scientists of international standing, who found her project worthy of the grant and eligible for funding over a three-year period.
“We wish to congratulate you on receiving this grant and remain confident that your research will constitute a major contribution to the broader ICGEB scientific community,” the duo wrote in the letter.
The Vice Chancellor of FUTA, Professor Joseph Fuwape, has commended Olajuyigbe, an expert in Enzyme Biotechnology and Environmental Health, Department of Biochemistry, for doing the university and Nigeria proud.
He stated that the award would boost the image of the university, the country and spur other academics to achieve greater feats in their scholastic endeavours.
Fuwape assured that with her pedigree, Olajuyigbe would deliver the research project to the admiration of the international sponsors and other stakeholders and for the benefit of humanity.
ICGEB plays a key role in biotechnology worldwide for excellence in research, training and technology transfer to industry and its operations are aligned to those of the United Nations System. It was established as a project of the United Nations Industrial Development (UNIDO) in 1983. It has since evolved into a unique intergovernmental organisation with 46 state-of-the-art laboratories in different parts of the world.
The fight to reclaim the pride and heritage of the Black man has been a tedious, but yet fulfilling battle. After hundreds of years of lies told about the Black man, nature has made it possible that we are at a great reawakening and that facts about ancient Black civilizations are exposed daily.
The knowledge which we have gathered on the history of Black civilizations has set the Black race on a new path – a path to pride and self-awareness. Which African school would have ever thought Africans this secretes? None actually. That Is because, even to date, the curriculum of many African schools is decided by European governments.
The first humans on earth were black people. And since that is so and has been proven by historians, scientists, and archeologists, it is safe to agree that Black people dominated many parts of Europe for thousands and hundreds of years, before the European stock moved in.
Italy, which is known for housing Rome, was originally inhabited by Black people, who are referred to as Etruscans.
Legends say they were descendants of refugees from the fallen city of Troy, led by the swarthy (dark-skinned) prince Aeneas after the city fell to the Greeks. The statues and art of the Etruscans revealed them to be Africans – black people.
History shows that they were a sensual and creative people, and were the original founders of the city of Rome. The city of Rome was originally known as Ra Ouma which means a “place protected by Ra”.
This worship of Ra, undoubtedly by the Etruscans, means that they most likely had a spiritual, physical and cultural link to Kemet (kmt), ancient Egypt or Phoenicia. In archeology, finding show that African peoples, the Sicani and the Liburni occupied ancient Italy.
The Roman writer Virgil revealed that the Pelasgians, the Kemetians (Black people) who in settled southern Greece, also occupied the Palatine, one of the seven hills of Rome. The Romans later became a ” Latin” people and became a mixed race.
But the African element played a major part in Rome’s history. The Blacks were everything, from charioteers to soldiers, generals, and Emperors. Rome’s famous Oracles were the Sibyls, African prophetesses who wrote the famous Sibylline Prophecies. These writings were later plagiarized by the Christians. It was the African Sibyls who built the original Vatican, which was a temple to Mami Wata, goddess of the sea.
Undisputable Historical Evidence:
Now, before we go further, we must state that many accounts about the origin of Rome found on the internet or even in books are lies. They are Caucasian versions to usurp the true identity of the Etruscans, who occupied Etruria (ancient Rome).
The first albinos (Caucasians), who were called “the Latins” started to migrate from the Eurasian plains to Italy. They most likely traveled with Hellene’s people into Greece and then moved further into Italy, which was a Black territory.
The contact between the Caucasians and the Black inhabitants of Italy was chaotic, as the Caucasians were violent and invasive.
It is important to note that the first original Black inhabitants were not just limited to Italy (Rome), but stretched to Greece, and the Aegean area. When the threats and violence from the White invaders increased, the Blacks of these areas formed a coalition. A large number of them packed up their belongings, boarded their ships and moved out of their land. Some of the people stayed back, to defend their lands and deal with the white Etruria.
The Etruscans (Black owners of Rome), had a unique way of building their homes and cities. They built their houses on steep hills, which were surrounded by thick walls. Caucasian Roman mythology claims that the white Romans built the walls, but according to factual history and accounts of the Etruscans, the Blacks built the ancient walls of Rome and the Vatican.
To fully understand and possess the entire documents to this important historical fact, you can click on this link here. It gives more detailed accounts with pictures and archeological points to disprove the Caucasian Historians who keep lying and distorting history to discredit the Black man’s achievements and heritage through history.
Miguel Cardona faces a breathtaking to-do list that includes getting the country’s public schools back open. And that list is growing longer by the day.
Miguel Cardona, President-elect Joe Biden’s nominee for Secretary of Education, speaks during a news conference in Wilmington, Del., on Dec. 23.(SARAH SILBIGER/THE WASHINGTON POST/GETTY IMAGES)
IF MIGUEL CARDONA, THE top education chief in Connecticut and president-elect Joe Biden’s nominee for education secretary, is confirmed, his agenda will stretch from early education to K-12 to higher education and adult learning, and include the major lift of reopening schools for in-person learning as the coronavirus pandemic rages on – a gauntlet Biden set for his first 100 days.[
Joe Biden: ‘Irresponsibility’ of Trump over failure to share national security information
“He is a secretary of education for this moment,” Biden said in introducing him to the country last week.
In accepting the nomination, Cardona also accepts a breathtaking to-do list, including the behemoth task of getting the country’s public school system back open and overseeing a potentially historic infusion of federal dollars for poor students and those with disabilities. And as he acquaints himself better with the major players in Washington, he’s finding that to-do list growing longer by the day.
On the K-12 side of things, civil rights groups have been pining to reinstate a slew of Obama-era regulations overturned by the Trump administration, including guidance aimed at reducing discipline of Black and Latino students and students with disabilities, protecting the rights of transgender students to use the bathroom of their choice and clawing back the Trump administration’s new Title IX rules that bolster the rights of students accused of sexual assault and harrassment.
“Under the Biden-Harris administration, we look forward to the Department returning to its role of protecting rather than eroding students’ civil rights,” more than 100 civil rights and advocacy groups wrote to Biden regarding the Trump administration’s new Title IX rules on campus sexual assault.
And as part of the national reckoning over systemic racism, many are also looking for the incoming administration to address the presence of police in schools, as well as various ways to better integrate schools and funnel resources to communities that have been most severely impacted by redlining. null[
State school chiefs, among whom Cardona counts himself, are most concerned about whether the new administration will provide them flexibility with regard to the annual testing and accountability requirements of the federal K-12 law, the Every Student Succeeds Act, given how intense the learning loss has been as a result of the ongoing pandemic and how millions of students haven’t stepped foot in a classroom since March.
“The reality is that exactly how states collect and report this data may need to look different this school year, depending on the impact of COVID-19 on each state’s education system,” they wrote earlier this month in a letter to the incoming administration. “For this reason, states must have the flexibility from federally approved accountability measures tied to statewide summative assessments in the 2020-21 school year.”
Teachers unions, principals and superintendents are all lobbying for Congress to greenlight Biden’s call to triple federal funding for Title I and IDEA for schools serving lots of poor students and students with disabilities. And teachers unions, in particular, whose members played a major role in his election, plan to hold Biden at his word when he committed to boosting teacher salaries, providing more support staff in the form of counselors, nurses and librarians and elevating the role of labor unions.
Other items on Cardona’s list, should he be confirmed, would include closing the digital divide for the estimated 12 to 16 million children who lack reliable internet access and devices to learn remotely, directing federal funding to schools for infrastructure costs and establishing a universal early education system. null
And then there’s higher education, where Cardona would be tasked with overseeing the cancelation of at least some student loan debt, making community college free and reinstating regulations on the for-profit college sector, including making it easier for students who have been defrauded by their schools to have their federal loans relieved. He’d also oversee a substantial investment in historically Back colleges and universities and teacher preparation programs.
Cardona, a newcomer to the national education scene, is a strategic pick for Biden’s team. He checks a lot of boxes, having served as a teacher, principal, district superintendent and most recently as the head of Connecticut’s Education Department. He’s been in classrooms and in management. He has experience trying to close achievement gaps, establishing pre-kindergarten programs and finding ways to keep schools open amid a pandemic.
Having spent the entirety of his education career in Connecticut – and only the last year-and-a-half in the state’s top post – has allowed him to, for the most part, sidestep the education policy wars of the last decade. He’s not afraid to push back against teachers unions, but, as a former member of one himself, he’s rarely had to. And while he doesn’t go out of his way to support charter schools, he’s also not on a warpath against them.
He grew up in public housing, speaking Spanish, and was classified as an English learner in school. His parents moved to Connecticut from Puerto Rico before he was born. He was the first in his family to go to college.null
In a sense, he comes to the position with a little bit of something for everyone.
Indeed, in the current hyper-partisan atmosphere, his nomination was received warmly by every national education organization, from teachers unions to private school choice advocates to civil rights groups – a sharp contrast to the warring statements they’ve grown accustomed to lobbing over the last four years. [
Cardona himself had to agree: “There is a saying in Spanish,” he said upon accepting his nomination. “En la union esta la fuerza. We gain strength from joining together.”
“In that spirit,” he said, “I look forward to sitting at the table with educators, parents, caregivers, students, advocates and state, local and tribal leaders.”
Despite the long to-do list, in addition to the No. 1 priority of getting school reopened for in-person learning, Washington insiders expect Biden and his team to make good on a number of the items within his first few months.
A survey conducted by Whiteboard Advisers earlier this month shows that a majority of current and former White House and Education Department officials, current and former congressional staff, state education leaders, including current and former state chiefs and governors, and heads of major education organizations and think tanks expect Biden and his team to waive the federal testing and accountability requirements, take action to relieve at least some student loan debt, propose new regulations to clamp down on the for-profit college industry and begin to address desegregation issues all within the first year.
Cardona, for his part, says he’s up to the challenge.
“There are no shortage of challenges ahead, no shortage of problems for us to solve,” he said. “For too many students, public education in America has been a ‘flor palida’: a wilted rose, neglected, in need of care. We must be the master gardeners who cultivate it, who work every day to preserve its beauty and its purpose.”
Children all over the world have had their education severely disrupted this year, as schools struggle to cope with repeated closures and re-openings, and the transition, if it’s even an option, to online schooling. Disadvantaged children, however, have been worst-hit by the emergency measures. In part three of our look back at the effect that COVID-19 has had on the world, we focus on the education crisis provoked by the pandemic.
Global impact of unparalleled disruption
*UNICEF India. Children in Odisha, India take lessons in the open air as a precaution against COVID-19.
School closures as a result of health and other crises are not new, at least not in the developing world, and the potentially devastating consequences are well known; loss of learning and higher drop-out rates, increased violence against children, teen pregnancies and early marriages.
What sets the COVID-19 pandemic apart from all other crises is that it has affected children everywhere and at the same time.
It is the poorest, most vulnerable children who are hurt the most when schools close and so the UN was quick to advocate for continuity of learning, and the safe opening of schools, where possible, as countries began to put lockdown measures in place: “unfortunately, the global scale and speed of the current educational disruption is unparalleled and, if prolonged, could threaten the right to education”, Audrey Azoulay, the head of the UN education agency, UNESCO, warned in March.
Students and teachers found themselves grappling with unfamiliar conferencing technology, an experience that many found difficult to cope with, but which was, for many living in lockdown, the only way to ensure any kind of education could carry on.
However, for millions of children, the idea of an online virtual classroom is an unattainable dream. In April, UNESCO revealed startling divides in digitally based distance learning, with data showing that some 830 million students do not have access to a computer.
The picture is particularly bleak in low-income countries: nearly 90 per cent of students in sub-Saharan Africa do not have household computers while 82 per cent are unable to get online. “A learning crisis already existed before COVID-19 hit”, a UNICEF official said in June.” We are now looking at an even more divisive and deepening education crisis.”
However, in many of the developing countries where online or computer learning are not an option for most students, radio still has the power to reach millions of people and is being used to keep some form of education going. In South Sudan, Radio Miraya, a highly trusted news source run by the UN mission in the country (UNMISS), began broadcasting educational programming for the many children who, due to COVID-19 measures, were unable to be in the classroom. You can hear excerpts from the Miraya programmes in this episode of our flagship podcast, The Lid Is On.
Despite such efforts, the UN was warning in August that the long-term impact of disrupted education could create a “lost generation” of children in Africa. A World Health Organization (WHO) survey of 39 sub-Saharan African countries revealed that schools were open in only six nations and partially open in 19.
By the end of the year, 320 million children were still locked out of schools worldwide, and UNICEF felt compelled to issue a call for governments to prioritize school reopening and make classrooms as safe as possible.
“What we have learned about schooling during the time of COVID is clear: the benefits of keeping schools open, far outweigh the costs of closing them, and nationwide closures of schools should be avoided at all costs”, said Robert Jenkins, UNICEF Global Chief of Education.
As much of the world experiences a spike in COVID-19 cases, and with vaccinations still out of reach of most people, more nuanced policies are needed from national authorities, declared Mr. Jenkins, rather than blanket shutdowns and closures:
“Evidence shows that schools are not the main drivers of this pandemic. Yet we are seeing an alarming trend whereby governments are once again closing down schools as a first recourse rather than a last resort. In some cases, this is being done nationwide, rather than community by community, and children are continuing to suffer the devastating impacts on their learning, mental and physical well-being and safety”.
When the dreaded Boko Haram insurgents began their campaign of terror, bombing, killings and destroying public facilities, one of their primary goals is to stop the teaching of Western education in the North-East states. And their emergence came at a wrong time when the region was trying to bridge the wide education gap that existed between it and the South-West.
The posers the group failed to answers are: Is the Boko Haram group aware that without the Western education, they could not wear clothes, neither hold and wield theirs guns? If they hate Western education as they want us to believe, why do they use radio and other technology devices?
Boko Haram’s destructive conspiracy theory is nothing but outright lies and propaganda which cannot hold water. If there is anything the group wants to achieve, it is overseeing the destruction of education of the Northern Nigeria. Evidences of this are the abduction of Chibok and Dapchi students, and the massacre of helpless students in Buni Yadi Yobe State.
The recent abduction of over 500 students in Kankara, Katsina State, has further raised suspicion about the plan of the group to discourage parents from sending their children to schools. Although, Nigerians are yet to know whether the abduction of Kankara students are carried out by bandits or Boko Haram insurgents, whichever group that carried out the abduction did so with clear intention to instill fear in the minds of teachers, students and parents.
Mr. President during an interactive session with the abducted students at Katsina State Government House encouraged them not to relent in pursuing their studies despite the threat by the bandits. These calming words are apt and come at the right time.
However, Mr. President and northern governors should go beyond dishing out sympathetic words and come up with robust security strategies aimed at securing our schools and higher institutions of learning. Most of our schools are porous, with little or no presence of security outfits to provide timely response in case of emergency. Recently, there have been disturbing news on how kidnappers forcefully entered our universities and polytechnics to carry out their nefarious activities.
The Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) stated recently that over 5000 of its members were killed across the country within the period under review by the Boko Haram insurgents and in other banditry related violence.
The killing of these teachers and destruction of schools have negatively affected the educationally disadvantaged North and the country at large. Besides, there is the fear being expressed that Boko Haram has penetrated or infiltrated the North-West states. The ransacking of villages, killing and abduction for ransom by suspected bandits are similar tactics adopted by the violent sect.
With the abduction of Kankara students, the bandits or Boko Haram have finally turned their face to the North-West. Unless the region wants to experience the destruction of its education as it happened in the North-East, it should quickly move and stop the madness being displayed by these so-called bandits.
The future of education in northern Nigeria looks bleak with increasing number of out-of-school children, inadequate manpower and teaching materials, and above all the activities of bandits which threaten the school enrollment. I think it is high time our northern governors and other stakeholders confronted these challenges with all seriousness it deserves.
Ibrahim Mustapha, KadunaState, <imustapha650@gmail.com>
The Edo State chapter of the Nigeria Union of Teachers has issued a 14-day strike notice to the state government over alleged failure to meet its financial obligation and other entitlements.
The union had on December 8, 2020, gave the state government 21-day to fulfil its promises or its members would embark on an indefinite industrial action.
The communiqué for the 14-day strike notice, dated December 29, 2020, signed by the state chairman, Pius Okhueleigbe and Assistant General Secretary, Moni Modesty, and four others, was made available to newsmen in Benin on Wednesday.
In the communiqué, the union noted that the 14-day ultimatum which takes effect from Tuesday, 29 December 2020, was to enable the Edo State government meet its demands.
“We have observed that the state government has not taken any step aimed at meeting the demands of the union during the 21-day ultimatum. So we have issued a 14-day strike notice to the government over the alleged failure to meet its financial obligations,” the statement reads partly.
The union also restated that its call for removal of Mary Oseghale as the acting Education Secretary of the Esan North-East local government authority still stood, while declaring her persona non grata.
It urged the primary school teachers in the state to continue to mobilise for an indefinite strike action while awaiting further directives on take-off date.
The Edo State council of the Nigeria Labour Congress also gave its nod to the NUT’s proposed strike in a letter titled, ‘Re:Communique,’ dated, December 16, 2020 and signed by its acting secretary, Barry Imade.
*Buhari addressing the Kankara school boys, after their return from captivity
A professor of African History, Peace and Conflict Studies, Isaac Olawale, has said it is strange that none of the abductors of the Kankara schoolboys was arrested or killed. This, he said, signalled a conspiracy by some powerful leaders against the people they govern.
About 344 pupils of the Government Science Secondary School, Kankara, Katsina State, were on December 11 abducted from their hostels on the school premises by bandits.
They were released about a week after following negotiations between the government and the bandits.
Governor Aminu Masari of Katsina State had said his adviser, members of Miyetti Allah and some top police and military operatives were involved in the negotiation that led to the pupils’ release, while the military said it secured their release, even as presidential spokesperson, Garba Shehu, also said repentant bandits helped in securing the release of the boys.
Speaking on the conflicting accounts of how the pupils were rescued, Olawale, who is also the pioneer Director of the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ibadan, argued that criminals had been exploiting the absence of coordinationin government to carry out attacks.
He added, “So, the military would want to present it to us as a rescue while the civilian rulers would want to present it to us as something else. It shows clearly that we are not coordinated. However, what I can pick from this, based on my own professional perspective, is that indeed several agencies participated in that operation to get the boys out, but there is confusion in the explanation of what happened.
“Each of these agencies wants to take all the credit. However, the most disgraceful part of this, if we move beyond people trying to canonise themselves, is that none of the bandits was arrested or killed and the whole thing melted just like that. It’s very strange. It tells you that there is a big conspiracy against Nigerians by some of these people claiming to be our leaders.”
K-12 employees can start getting vaccinated in January. These are some common questions and answers about the process.
(Courtesy University of Utah Health) University of Utah Health unboxes their COVID-19 vaccines, prep the doses, and giving vaccinations to front-line health care workers on Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2020.
By Courtney Tanner
After certain designated health care workers and long-term care center residents, teachers are next in line to get the COVID-19 vaccine.The announcement by Gov. Gary Herbert earlier this month was met with cheers and sighs of relief from many in the education community. Teachers have come into the classroom each day, continuing to instruct during the pandemic despite worrying about the virus spreading. And more than 2,300 have been infected this fall with schools open (a rate much higher than among students).
Their shots are expected to start in January. “The excitement around here was pretty high,” added Jeff Haney, spokesperson for Canyons School District. “The interest is just so great among our employees.”
Here are some answers to commonly asked questions about how the vaccine will be administered to K-12 staff in the coming weeks.Which employees at a school can be immunized?null
All staff at a school, including part-time personnel, can get COVID-19 vaccine. It is not limited only to the 27,000 teachers in the state.
“It includes administrators, bus drivers, custodians, lunch staff, paraprofessionals and so on,” Haney noted. Playground aides are also included, as are most substitutes who regularly work in schools.
The state has budgeted enough vaccine for any K-12 employee that would like one. Overall, there are roughly 70,000 school staffers in the state who qualify, according to the Utah Board of Education.
To verify employment, staff will be asked to bring a valid ID. The only individuals not included would be volunteers who are not paid by a school for their work.What is the timeline for my district?null
Utah has already started vaccinating health care workers who are in contact with COVID-19 patients, expects to start vaccinating staff and residents at long-term care facilities this week, and will next give doses to health care professionals who work outside hospitals.
Then, county health departments — not the state — largely will administer vaccinations for school staff. So dates for getting immunized vary based on location.
Most K-12 employees can expect to be able to get a first dose of vaccine sometime around the middle of January, though, said Tom Hudachko, spokesperson for the Utah Department of Health. The second dose will come in early February.Salt Lake City School District appears to be starting the soonest, with its first vaccinations set for Jan. 8 and 9. Those came as part of an agreement with state leaders for the district to reopen in person; previously, it had been the only one to remain with all classes online.
“Fingers crossed everything works out,” said spokesperson Yándary Chatwin.null
Elsewhere in Salt Lake County, Granite School District will be holding a vaccine clinic on Jan. 15, with a makeup day on Jan. 23. Canyons School District is set for Jan. 15 and may also include Jan. 16, if needed. And Murray School District has Jan. 14 and 15 penciled in.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Jennifer Frederick, a teacher at Mount Jordan Middle School in Sandy, conducting a discussion in her Utah studies class on Wednesday, December 15, 2020.
Jordan School District it is still setting up a time and will have more information for employees after their winter break, said spokesperson Sandy Riesgraf.
Hudachko said the dates are tentative for now, as the state calculates how many doses of the vaccine it will have. But each district is able to start scheduling. And most have sent information to their employees about when the administration is expected to happen.Will the state have enough of the vaccine to give to school workers?
The promised vaccine supply varies a bit week to week, Hudachko said. But based on current estimates, the state is comfortable with the plan moving forward.
Charla Haley, also a spokesperson for the state health department, said officials are being careful and calculated with the doses. If they don’t have enough to administer a second dose, then giving someone just the first one would be “a big waste.”
“There’s a lot of logistics involved in all of this,” she said. The first dose is about 70% effective. A week after the second dose is administered, it jumps to 90-95%.
Currently, school districts are surveying their employees to see who wants the shots. That’s helped the state budget supplies. Granite School District, for example, has about 9,000 total employees, said spokesperson Ben Horsley. So far, 3,200 have signed up.
Murray is planning for about half of its 1,000 staffers to get immunized. Canyons, though, has seen 3,900 sign up — that’s about 85% of its employees.Does a school employee have to get vaccinated?null
No. Public school employees will not be required to get the vaccine if they don’t want it. “And we certainly don’t anticipate that everyone is going to,” said Doug Perry, spokesperson for Murray School District.
It’s possible, though, that private schools could mandate it.Does a parent or student get to know if their teacher has been vaccinated?
No. Hudachko said a teacher “could share that info if they want.” But the state will not be providing it because of privacy requirements.
(Photo courtesy of University of Utah Health) Christy Mulder, a medical intensive care unit nurse at University of Utah Health, receives the COVID-19 vaccine on Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2020. She is believed to be the first person in Utah to receive the vaccine.Herbert has said teachers have acted as essential workers throughout the pandemic, teaching face-to-face after he encouraged schools to reopen. Getting them the vaccine, he added, will also help students to be able to continue attending school in person.
“We want to make sure that our students are going to school to learn,” Herbert said. “This will help minimize families’ disruption at home.”
The plan has the support of the Utah Education Association, the largest teachers union in the state.After Phase 1, which concludes with school employees and protective services, such as police, the vaccine will go next to people at higher risk of getting sicker from COVID-19 and other essential workers. That Phase 2 will happen from February through May. The general public is expected to get the vaccine by June or July.Will the vaccines be administered at school?null
This again depends on the district. Many are planning to bring in nurses to administer the vaccine at schools or district buildings so staff can easily get immunized. At Granite School District, for example, there will be 10 locations — including all eight of its high schools, as well as two other spots.
The tentative day set to get the vaccine there is a Friday, the day the district uses for distance learning. Horsley said teachers and staff will have flexibility then to go get the vaccine without having to use their personal time. The shot takes about two minutes to get, Horsley added.
In Murray School District, the shots will be administered at Hillcrest Junior High. And in Canyons, it will be at Mount Jordan Middle School. Both will have staff come at designated times based on alphabetical order by last name.
All districts in Salt Lake County will be contracting with Community Nursing Services, which will provide staff to administer the vaccines, said Nicholas Rupp, spokesperson for the county health department. The nonprofit has conducted student vaccine clinics for years.
Each district is expected to communicate with its staff about logistics. Other districts, for instance, are vaccinating all of their EMS staff and paramedics first and then they will administer the vaccines to teachers, Haley said.null
In more rural areas of the state, distance makes things harder than along the Wasatch Front. Haley said some teachers there will have to drive 100 miles to get a vaccine.
“There’s so many moving pieces,” she acknowledged. “It’s kind of all over the board.”What about employees who can’t make it during their district’s time?
Rupp said the county health department will have a clinic after the schools have administered their first vaccines for anyone who couldn’t make it. They just need to bring a staff ID. “We will be that safety net,” he noted.What about teachers who are instructing only online?null
They can also sign up for a vaccine. The state has not put any limitations on school staff based on how classes are taught.Are private schools included in this? What about charters?
Yes. Administrators at private and charter schools will work with the local health department to schedule times for the staff vaccinations. Some private schools are teaming up with nearby districts to do them on the same day and location to share resources. That’s happening with Murray School District and Mount Vernon Academy. Are the vaccines free?
Yes. All school staff can get immunized with no out-of-pocket cost. They are asked to bring an insurance card if they have one, but they will not be charged, Horsley added.null
“Teachers are essential in the midst of this pandemic,” he noted. “We want to do everything we can to help them get a vaccine, if they want one.”What about students?It will still be a long time — possibly another year — before students younger than 18 can get vaccinated. That’s largely because the first trials for the new vaccines have not yet been completed with kids.
Part of that is by design because the older individuals are, the more seriously ill they can get from the coronavirus. Unlike their teachers, children rarely develop severe complications.Pfizer is, though, getting underway now with clinical trials of its vaccine on those ages 12 to 17, which have different immune responses than adults. Moderna will likely begin the same later this month.
Afro-Global Education Deliveries 