British Council To Reopen Teaching Centers In Delhi

The British Council has announced plans to reopen its teaching centres in Delhi after being closed for around 18 months due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Written By Devanshe Pandey

British Council to reopen its Delhi centers     New Delhi:

The British Council has announced plans to reopen its teaching centres in Delhi after being closed for around 18 months due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Through practical classes, the council will focus on giving an interactive and positive learning atmosphere to the students.

The British Council has also declared to start two new diverse courses – myClass and Skills for IELTS. These courses will be available in offline mode only at the British Council’s English learning centres.

The myClass course will be conducted in three forms- ‘Everyday English’, ‘Workplace English’ and ‘Spoken English’ and these forms will focus on English learning as well as it will aim at enhancing the critical thinking skills of the learners.

Skills for the IELTS course will focus on the professional aspect of English learning. The course will help learners to ace the IELTS exams and get success in various tests to pursue higher education. The course will also focus on building skills that will help the learners aspiring to work in English speaking countries. It will improve learners’ listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills.

The council has ensured to follow all the COVID-19 protocols and safety precautions while conducting offline classes.

After the reopening of the classes, the British Council will focus on providing a dynamic and interactive learning environment which will help the learners to build their social skills.

Antonius Raghubansie, Director of Learning Services, British Council India, said, “The past 18 months have been an adjustment for both, the teachers as well as the learners. We know that our learners have missed attending classes in-person. We have gathered regular feedback from our students who felt comfortable to return to our classrooms once again, and to that end, we are implementing strict health and safety protocols in our premises to make our classrooms a safe space for learning. We look forward to welcoming learners back to our centres, as do our teachers, who have been teaching online for the last 18 months.”

“As the education sector grappled with challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the British Council was finding new and innovative ways to satisfy learners’ needs across the country. The transition to online classes and remote working – for students and professionals respectively – resulted in an increasing number of individuals looking to improve their English communication skills, as well as acquire other 21st century skills necessary in a digital-first world,” said council through a press release.

Source: Education News

Back to School: How Are Pupils Being Kept Covid-Safe?

Pupils are returning to school across the UK – with new measures in place to prevent large numbers being sent home because of Covid.

However, the start of the new term has prompted concerns it could spark a rise in cases.

Could schools lead to a surge in Covid cases?

It is right for children to have a “much more normal education experience” this term, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson told BBC News. He said mass testing offered a “sensible balance”.

And Dr Yvonne Doyle, Public Health England’s medical director, said “schools are not the drivers and not the hubs of infection”.

But Sage, a group of scientists advising the government, has warned “it is highly likely” high levels of coronavirus will be seen in schools in England by the end of September

In Scotland, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon thinks the new term could be linked to a rapid rise in Covid 19 cases.https://buy.tinypass.com/checkout/template/cacheableShow?aid=tYOkq7qlAI&templateId=OTBYI8Q89QWC&templateVariantId=OTV0YFYSXVQWV&offerId=fakeOfferId&experienceId=EXAWX60BX4NU&iframeId=offer_0e763acc7b457c03340a-0&displayMode=inline&widget=template

How often will pupils be tested?

In England, all secondary-school pupils are being asked to take two lateral-flow tests at school – three to five days apart.

Schools are testing for Covid just before term starts and staggering the return of pupils to manage this.

They have been contacting parents to seek consent and inform them of arrangements.

Those testing positive will be contacted by NHS Test and Trace and instructed to isolate.

• Read more about the rules in England

In Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland, pupils and staff are being encouraged to take home or community-based tests.

Across the UK, ongoing twice-weekly voluntary lateral-flow testing for pupils at home will be encouraged.

What happens if a pupil tests positive?

Pupils who test positive must isolate at home for 10 days.

The child – or their parents – will be asked to provide details about close contacts.

Children named as close contacts will be asked to take a polymerase-chain-reaction (PCR) swab test.

But this term, unless they test positive themselves, they will not have to self-isolate.

It’s hoped this will avoid whole classes being sent home.

Will pupils still need to socially distance?

For schools in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, social-distancing measures have been relaxed.

In many ways, the responsibility has been handed over to head teachers to decide what common-sense measures are needed.

Depending on the layout and size of their school, some will decide to keep some of their one-way systems and crowd-control measures.

In Scotland, more restrictions are being maintained.

On school premises, all staff must stay at least 1m (3ft) from pupils and colleagues.

• Read more about the rules in Scotland

What about face coverings and ventilation?

Face coverings are no longer routinely advised for staff or pupils in schools England and Wales, although they are still recommended in crowded spaces such as school buses.

• Read more about the rules in Wales

But in Scotland, face coverings are required at least until the October half-term. And in Northern Ireland, they are required in class for the first six weeks of term at least.

• What are Northern Ireland’s Covid-19 rules now?

The Department for Education has pledged to provide 300,000 carbon-dioxide monitors to schools in England from September – to help identify where airflow is limited and viruses may more easily spread.

The Welsh government is funding a £6m programme to increase air circulation and purity. Some 30,000 CO2 sensors and 1,800 ozone disinfecting machines will be made available.

Prof Catherine Noakes, a specialist in airborne infections, said ventilation could reduce airborne risk of coronavirus by up to 70%, but won’t stop close contact transmission. She said monitors will help schools realise which areas are poorly ventilated, so they can take action.

Are there any other measures?

If there is an outbreak, the Department for Education has also published a list of measures schools in England can consider, including:

• having classes and assemblies outside
• improving ventilation indoors

It may also become necessary to temporarily reintroduce bubble groups and face masks in communal spaces in areas with higher Covid rates.

Will exams go ahead in 2022?

Exams are expected to return in 2022 for GCSEs, A-levels and vocational qualifications in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

• In England, pupils are likely to be told which topics will come up
• In Wales, exams will be modified to take account of the challenges pupils have faced
• In Northern Ireland, national exams will have significantly fewer papers

In Scotland, the government says exams will go ahead next year. National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher exams will be held in spring 2022 providing public health advice allows it. Course content will be reduced.

Source: BBC

Cabinet Reshuffle: Where Did it Go Wrong for Gavin Williamson?

By Sean Coughlan

*Gavin Williamson

Gavin Williamson has been the highest-profile education secretary for England since Michael Gove – but probably not for the right reasons.

If the pandemic had a political fall guy, it was always likely to be Mr Williamson – often the lightning rod for irritation and exasperation from families facing disruption and seeing U-turns on schools and exams.

He has now tweeted his departure – but it is still not clear if he will be offered another post.

It might seem a long time ago now, but before the pandemic Mr Williamson was seen as the bringer of good news.

His predecessors as education secretary had faced constant maulings over school funding shortages – but Mr Williamson arrived with the promise of a £7bn increase. It was big bucks and big ambitions.

Exams chaos

The trouble only really began when his department collided with the giant iceberg of Covid.https://buy.tinypass.com/checkout/template/cacheableShow?aid=tYOkq7qlAI&templateId=OTBYI8Q89QWC&templateVariantId=OTV0YFYSXVQWV&offerId=fakeOfferId&experienceId=EXAWX60BX4NU&iframeId=offer_0e763acc7b457c03340a-0&displayMode=inline&widget=template

The first dent was a major U-turn on getting all primary school pupils back to school, and then there were self-defeating battles with Marcus Rashford over free meals in the holidays.

• Gavin Williamson: How did he survive the exams fiasco?
• The big U-turn of the 2020 exams
• •Gavin Williamson on coping with ‘lonely’ leadership

Online learning at home tested parents’ patience and fed into worries about lost learning and annoyance at the hokey-cokey of going in and out of school, with hundreds of thousands of pupils regularly having to isolate.

But the biggest disaster was the chaos of last year’s exams, with multiple U-turns and late-night lurches in policy that saw grades go through the roof and his department’s most senior civil servant and the head of the exams watchdog both go out the door.

That such senior staff had to step down while he stayed put didn’t add to the lustre of his reputation.

*The exam results system used last summer prompted protests

There has never been a full independent inquiry into what went wrong with the 2020 exams – so it’s hard to know who was really to blame. But it did serious harm to Mr Williamson’s credibility – and there was no shortage of people on his own side who were privately ready to point the finger.

And his poll ratings among Conservative supporters remained resolutely negative.

As a former chief whip, it was said his survival chances were boosted by knowing where the bodies were buried. But he also made political enemies ready to come back to haunt him.

Taking the blame

Mr Williamson, who has never appeared to complain about the criticism directed at him, could also feel aggrieved that he was taking the blame for decisions that were never down to an individual minister.

That was encapsulated in the plans to get schools back in January 2021, when his determination to open classrooms was reversed almost immediately by another lockdown.

Exams, which he’d wanted to go ahead, were again cancelled and the long-awaited catch-up plans turned to dust when the catch-up tsar Sir Kevan Collins walked out over a lack of funding.

The education secretary doesn’t write the cheques but he was left holding a punctured balloon of a policy.

This year’s replacement exam results, with much responsibility outsourced to teachers and schools, didn’t have any of the major problems of last year. There would have been cause for quiet celebration that it had all gone relatively smoothly – not an easy achievement in what remain unprecedented circumstances.

But after a successful re-opening of schools this autumn, there was another tripwire moment when in an interview with the London Evening Standard he seemed to confuse two black sportsmen, Marcus Rashford and Maro Itoje. It was another gift for his critics on social media.

It’s hard to know what the legacy will be of his education plans, because he never really got a chance to start them, beyond pushing for a greater emphasis on skills and further education. The pandemic overshadowed everything else.

Will he bounce back to a big post in government again? At 45 he is still young by political standards, and has the northern, state-school, non-Oxbridge credentials for the government’s levelling up plans.

He certainly seems ready to fight on, describing himself as having the hide of a rhino.

But there were times when he looked distinctly weary – such as an online talk with heads where he extolled the virtues of getting a dog who would always be there for you.

“Not every day has been brilliant,” he told them.

Source: BBC

Insecurity: Low Students, Teachers Attendance mars School Resumption in Kaduna

By John Gabriel

Only few students and teachers have resumed school in Kaduna State despite the government’s approval for schools to reopen from September 12, 2021.

DAILY POST reports that as at the second day of resumption, the number was still very low across the 23 local governments of the state.

However, the state Commissioner for Education, Alhaji Shehu Makarfi, announced during a virtual workshop organised by the Education Writers’ Association of Nigeria that the resumption would be in phases.

“The first term will resume on September 12, 2021, and they will be in school until December 16, 2021. The SS1 and SS2 students from five local government areas, which are affected by the crisis, will be moved to some boarding schools,” he said.

But, parents of children in the state jettisoned the arrangements, describing it as “a decision hurriedly made without security arrangements.”

Many who spoke to DAILYPOST blamed poor attendance of students and teachers on fear of bandit attacks as there are no proper security arrangements and lack of interest on the part of some parents to enroll their wards in Kaduna schools.

Recall that primary and post primary schools across the state were shutdown after several kidnap, killings and payment for ransom by parents of kidnapped school children.

Scores of Bethel Baptist School students were kidnapped on Monday, July 8,2021, with millions of naira paid in ransom. While some were released in batches, others are still in kidnappers’ den till date.

On May 28,2021, 14 students of Greenfield University were Kidnapped. Four were killed after their parents paid a huge ransom before the remaining ones were released.

On March 11,2021, 37 students of Federal School of Forestry, Afaka Mando, were Kidnapped. Five were released in batches, parents paid huge sums of money as ransom before they were finally released after spending over seven weeks in captivity.

Based on the horror, pains, and suffering parents and their kidnapped children went through in the hands of kidnappers, they assumed the government is playing politics with their children and vowed never to allow them in school, if proper security arrangements are not put in place.

Many parents have vowed to take their children to school outside Kaduna State. Others, currently send their children to learn vocations such as tailoring, motor mechanic, carpentry, woodwork, driving, baking, soap making among other businesses.

They see schools across Kaduna state as a no go area due to security threats.

Alhaji Mohammed Bulama told DAILY POST in Kaduna on Tuesday that since his daughter was a victim of kidnappers in Federal School of Forestry, Afaka, he was discouraged from sending any of his children to school in the state.

“When my daughter was kidnapped from the Federal School of Forestry, I knew what I went through. I borrow, sell my properties to pay the ransom demanded. I cannot make any mistake sending any of my children to kaduna schools again,” he said.

According to him, since the state government closed down the school due to security challenges, “what efforts has it made to improve security challenges? Were there not more kidnapping, killings of innocent souls in the state? Since the schools were closed down, has the government deployed more security personnel, is there security improvement?”

Dr. Moses Jumare Ayuba who said he took his children outside the state to a more secured environment wondered what might befall on students as they resumed this Monday.

According to him, the state government has not made any pronouncement regarding the security arrangements, only to announce schools’ resumption date.

“It’s only those who are eagerly waiting to send their wards to Kaduna schools, that will hastely allow their children.

“As far as I am concerned, nothing showed security improvement in schools within the Kaduna metropolis, not to even talk about bandits prone areas. Our children are not goats and animals. As a parent, I am yet to comprehend security arrangements in the state.” He said.

Source: Daily Post

Yobe Govt Inaugurates First State Education Council

By Shehu Usman

*Mai Mala Buni

It inline with its aspiration of taking basic and secondary education to an enviable height, Yobe State Governor, Mai Mala Buni has inaugurated a 13-man State Education Council to assist in revamping the sector in the state.

During the inauguration, Gov. Buni explained that on 30th of February, 2021, he had approved the establishment of the Yobe State Education Council as an executive organ with the objective to strengthen the expeditious and articulate implementation of the report on the Revitalization of Basic and Secondary Education in the state.

“Education remains the most effective tool for uplifting dignity, accelerating the technological and socio-economic development of any society”.

“This administration is committed to bequeathing a functional education system that will contribute to emancipating this generation and indeed future generations of Yobe state from the clutches of hunger, disease, unemployment and poverty”, he stressed.

Drawing its membership from a broad spectrum of experienced and sure-to-deliver educationists, academics, and administrators, amongst others, the Education Council is expected to play proactive advisory roles in ensuring that Yobe’s basic education infrastructure is brought at par with today’s requirements of a functional education system.

The governor disclosed that the council’s terms of reference is to among other things: “keep the state of basic and secondary education under review and to direct desirable actions by relevant institutional units, such as Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAS) to achieve the set objectives under the emergency on Basic and Secondary Education.

“To provide the unfettered political will to implement the framework for the revitalization of Basic and Secondary Education; to facilitate institutional cooperation through coordination of issues relating to Basic and Secondary Education amongst Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).

Others are: “to support inter-agency cooperation on education related issues through development of common positions on matters of common concern as well as cooperation in the implementation of education conventions at National and International levels as well as to encourage mechanisms that will promote best practices in Basic and Secondary education policy reforms and education management and also assist in delivery of national, multilateral, bilateral and official development assistance (ODA) programmes”.

According to Gov. Buni, the Yobe State Education Council is to be chaired under him with top government functionaries as members which include: Hon. Idi Barde Gubana, the Deputy Governor; Dr. Muhammad Sani Idris, Commissioner Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education and Prof. Muhammad Munkaila, Commissioner for Higher Education, Science and Technology.

Others are: Alhaji Musa Mustapha, Commissioner for Finance; Barr. Saleh Samanja, Commissioner for Justice; Dr. Abubakar Garba Iliya, Commissioner for Humanitarian Affairs & Disaster Management; Alh. Mohammed Garba Gagiyo, Commissioner for Budget & Planning; Alh. Baba Malam Wali, Secretary to the State Government;

Muhammad B. Nura, Head of the Civil Service; Dr. Kole Shettima Honourary Special Adviser on Education; Barr. Baba Dala, Special Adviser on Legal matters and Alhaji Aji Yerima Bularafa, Special Adviser on Political & Legislative Matters respectively are all to serve as members of the committee.

Governor Buni said he is confident that members of the committee have what it takes to implement that vision for a new, functional education environment that can inspire Yobe’s children to raise their sights high and make a success of their lives and their academic careers.

Recall that, on 29th May 2019, Gov Buni declared a State of Emergency on Basic and Secondary Education in the State with a view to addressing existing and emerging challenges in the sub-sector. This was followed by the first-ever Education Summit in the state on 1st July 2019.

Source: Daily Post

More Classes May Reopen in India

By Kangkan Kalita

The daily Covid count has been hovering around 500 for quite a while in the state, with a steady positivity rate between 0.50 and 1%. According to health experts, the only concern is Guwahati as Kamrup (Metro) district is contributing 20% of the state’s daily Covid count.

“There is no major threat of Covid infection in other districts. But if Class X and other classes reopen, Covid protocols will have to be very strictly followed in Kamrup (Metro),” a senior health department official said. A total 493 Covid cases were reported in Assam on Tuesday and the positivity rate was 0.70%. The highest 138 cases were detected in Kamrup (Metro). Nine Covid deaths were confirmed by the state health department on Tuesday.
Teachers and students are desperate to return to the classroom but lack of vaccination for those below 18 has been the biggest worry for the health and education departments.
Gobinda Kalita, general secretary of the Asom Madhyamik Sikshak Aru Karmachari Sanstha, said, “When life has returned to normalcy everywhere, the government should go ahead with its plans to start offline classes phase-wise. But we are also not in favour of opening all classes at one go. Nevertheless, physical classes for Class X should not be delayed in view of the board examination,” Kalita added.

A List of Higher Institutions in Urhobo Land

By Ejiro Imuere

1) One Federal University.
2) One State University
3) 2 Private Universities owned by Urhobos
4) A Petroleum training institute
5) A university Teaching Hospital.
6) 2 Nursing schools.
7) 1 state owned College of Education
😎 A State owned college of Physical and Health education
9) A state owned college of Health Technology
10) A state owned Polytechnic.
11) A Federal Polytechnic is already being built.
12) At least 3 centres of National open University.
13) A Campus of the institute of Chartered accountants(Ican) being built.
14) Several Theological seminaries.
15) A campus of Admiralty University

Guided Reading for Math?

Posted by Deborah McCallum

We often teach math differently than we do literacy, but the language used in math is often not only more complex, but also children come to math often with different levels of understanding. Families have vastly different comfort levels and knowledge of math- and this spread is often larger than traditional language. However children’s number ability is significantly and positively related to their ability to use complex language for number (Uscianowski et al., 2018).

              In my role as an Instructional Coach, I see the barriers that students face when they are unable to comprehend the literacy elements that are embedded within a complex math problem. If students cannot comprehend a math question or problem, then this will be a very large barrier for being able to solve the math.

One of the suggestions that I usually give is for teachers to use a complex math problem in a Guided Reading Group! This is different than guided math, where teachers might work with a small group of students to solve the math problem.

In a traditional Guided Reading group, you are helping students to read for meaning. Guided reading is meant to support independent reading and strategy use. It is not a prescribed protocol, but rather a flexible framework to help meet the needs of the students that teachers are working with. Guided reading, when done well, significantly can increase impact on reading ability.

Why not try guided reading to help students build cognitive, metacognitive and affective skills for reading complex math problems? I encourage you to give it a try.

If you are guided reading for math, here are some suggestions:

1. Do NOT have students solve the problem. You are working to help them read for meaning. Help them to conceptualize and understand the complex problem. Help them to build common understandings and internalize this. Build strong metacognitive skills, and help them feel positive about their achievements.
2. Allow students to interact with each other and ask questions. Learning is social, and students need opportunities to learn with others who are at similar levels. Which brings us to the next point:
3. Help students who are in the same Zone of Proximal Development. The students you are working with should all be able to read the challenging text with the teacher- because they have similar developmental needs.
4. Put scaffolds in place to help students to be successful while reading the math problem. Some students may need to read the problem aloud several times. Some students may need help understanding some of the vocabulary. Some still don’t understand the math concepts. Some have never experienced the ideas in the first place.
5. Help students develop the mathematical concepts they need to process the text. They need to internalize the meaning of math problem. They may need help building understanding of some of the concepts. The Big Ideas can be interwoven with the weekly learning goals, or personal learning goals.
6. Ask good questions. For instance, use questions to build background knowledge – something that many students may not have, but which is essential for developing the ability to read problems independently and internalize the meanings. Ask questions that allow the students to think and make conjectures and develop their own understandings of the math.
7. Help students to model and represent their thinking. Studies show that when all learners can visually represent their thinking, they develop higher levels of comprehension.
8. Help students to identify what they know, and what they don’t know orally, and in the form of a visual representation. Please do not have students rewrite the whole question. That can cause frustration and more anxiety about math.
9. Connect the guided math problems to your weekly mathematical learning goals – make sure that they are real problems that you are teaching, and providing opportunities to solve within math class.
10. Make sure your guided group meets your math goals.

This is not an exhaustive list, but I am deeply interested in pursuing this idea further.

Some other great comments shared earlier from @MarkChubb include the importance of teaching THROUGH problem solving, and the importance of teaching students how to read a problem. He also shared a word of caution that if our math goal is to improve literacy abilities, then we could miss key points about how to improve our students mathematical understandings.

2. If our math goal is to improve our literacy abilities, we might be missing a key point about how to improve our kids’ mathematical understanding. So be careful about what goals are.
3. It might be helpful to consider what it means to learn THROUGH problem solving— Mark Chubb (@MarkChubb3) May 26, 2019

Covid: What do parents think about vaccinating children?

By Jennifer Meierhans & Kris Bramwell

A decision on whether to offer coronavirus vaccines to all 12 to 15-year-olds is expected within days – but what do parents think?

The UK government believes there is a “strong case” for giving jabs to all healthy children over 12, a source has told the BBC.

But the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) said on Friday it did not recommend this, as the benefits on health grounds were only marginal. They have now asked the chief medical officers to consider the wider implications of extending vaccinations to younger pupils.

Some parents have told us whether they are for or against vaccinating their children and why.

‘Where is the science?’

image captionSandra Charleton said her son Charlie had recovered from Covid but she could not be sure he would not have side effects from a vaccine

Sandra Carleton said she did not want her 12 year-old son Charlie to have the vaccine.

“He has just recovered from Covid so giving him the vaccine most certainly poses more of a risk than a benefit,” she said.https://buy.tinypass.com/checkout/template/cacheableShow?aid=tYOkq7qlAI&templateId=OTBYI8Q89QWC&templateVariantId=OTV0YFYSXVQWV&offerId=fakeOfferId&experienceId=EXAWX60BX4NU&iframeId=offer_0e763acc7b457c03340a-0&displayMode=inline&widget=template

“He is fine following Covid but I am not so sure he would have been after the vaccine.

“I would have been against him having it anyway. If they don’t contemplate 11-year-olds then why 12-year-olds?

‘My son has asked to be vaccinated’

image captionTracey says her son also wants to carry on wearing a mask in school like these pupils are

Tracey, who asked us not to use her full name as she is a teacher, said her 14-year-old son had asked to be vaccinated and she supported his decision.

“He would also like to continue wearing a mask at school,” she said. “He wouldn’t even take it off to play sport last year as he felt it was his way of protecting others.

“We’ve been told we’re going back to full school assemblies with hundreds of pupils and that seems crazy. It just seems like we’ve got bored of Covid.

“With very few mitigations in place to protect against the virus, vaccination would be a way of not just reassuring and protecting pupils but those around them. 

“Many families have vulnerable people and people’s lives are important.”

What does the JCVI say?

The JCVI said children were at such a low risk from the virus that a mass vaccination programme for those aged 12-15 would offer only a marginal benefit, though it did advise widening the existing vaccine programme to include an extra 200,000 teenagers with specific underlying conditions.

Its deputy chairman Prof Anthony Harnden said “parents need to understand what the risks are, what the benefits are and make up their own mind about whether they offer consent or not.”

He said vaccinating 12 to 15-year-olds is “not a black and white decision”

‘Massive red flags’

image captionSteve Jones is concerned children could make a decision based on peer pressure

Steve Jones, 49, from Worthing in West Sussex, said if he was in charge vaccinations for 12 to 15-year-olds “would not go ahead”.

“I’ve also seen that parental consent may not be required, I’m against it anyway, but that makes it even more worrying in my mind,” he said.

Mr Jones said the fact that the JCVI had not recommended the move but the government was considering it “raises massive red flags for me”. 

• Decision on jabs for children due in days
• ‘My parents won’t let me get the Covid vaccine’
• Decision to jab children ‘entirely up to parents’

Mr Jones said his son, who is just about to turn 14, “may be too young to have a view or to weigh up the benefits and risks and make a decision”. 

“I think he and other children would make a decision that’s based on peer pressure rather than a cost, benefit analysis and that decision could have a long-term impact,” he said.

‘Parents are frightened’

image captionOne mother said she did not want to send her child back to school before she was vaccinated

Sue in Yorkshire, who asked us not use her surname, said she wanted her children, aged 12 and 13, to have the jab “as soon as possible”. 

She said: “The JCVI is unusually cautious about a vaccine and yet completely incautious about this virus and its impact on children. 

“Parents don’t ignore risks that they can’t quite yet put a figure on, and yet that’s exactly what the JCVI have decided to do with long Covid.

“A committee that can’t make timely decisions is not fit for purpose. 

“We could have been vaccinated before returning to school as is the case in France and Germany. 

“Parents are frightened. We don’t want to send our kids back to school, we’ve protected them all summer. I don’t want to send mine back.”

‘It would be stupid not to get the vaccine’

Children aged 12 to 15 who have specific underlying health conditions are already being offered a coronavirus vaccine.

Like Roseanna’s son 12-year-old Liam who has a condition called Charcot Marie Tooth Disease and had his jab today.

Roseanna, from the Isle of Man, said: “I’ve been that mother where doctors have come in and said they need to put your son on the breathing machine. 

“If there’s a virus that will do that to him again it would be stupid not to get the vaccine. 

“It’s quite nerve wracking when people do not understand how high risk you are or what the impact of Covid could be for us.”

Liam said: “The vaccine is made to help people and I think the positives will out way the negatives. 

“I forgot I had the vaccine. I feel fine. I’ve not noticed it at all and it’s going to help.”

Source:BBC

Chibok schoolgirls’ parents express mixed feelings over amnesty for terrorists

By Stephen Angbulu

File copy: Some of the kidnapped Chibok girls after their release. Source: Twitter

Some parents of the abducted Chibok girls have expressed mixed feelings about the Federal Government’s amnesty programme for repentant Boko Haram terrorists.

They said they welcome the news of the mass surrender, it does not assuage the sorrow they had borne since their daughters were kidnapped in 2014.

They added that they were still clinging to the assurances of the government and hoping for their daughters’ safe return.

The Borno State Governor, Babagana Zulum, disclosed that as of August 24, 2021,  at least 2,600 Boko Haram members had surrendered.

According to the governor, the insurgents who surrendered included Boko Haram commanders, IED manufacturers and their families.

Zulum said the repentant insurgents would be trained for reintegration as no law recommends the killing of surrendered insurgents.

He, however, gave the assurance that victims of insurgency would also be well taken care of, saying, “They will not be left behind.”

But in an interview with Saturday PUNCH, Abubakar Mallam, a resident of Chibok whose two daughters were among the 276 girls kidnapped by Boko Haram from Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok on the night of April 14, 2014, expressed sadness that his daughters, Hamsatu and Maryam, remained in captivity seven years after the abduction.

On amnesty for the insurgents, Mallam said, “Yes, I’m aware. Some of the Boko Haram terrorists have surrendered. Our chairman was contacted and he met with some of them and discussed a few issues. He even identified some of the commanders who held our children captive.

“The repentant commander said that they were treated fairly by the government. They were even given money to start businesses and get good accommodation. Those who surrendered are also urging the others to surrender their weapons to the government.

“But it pains me that the remaining girls, including two of my daughters, have not been released. Their names are Hamsatu Abubakar and Maryam Abubakar.”

As they have done in the past years, the government only assured us that our children will be released. They urged us to commit the situation to prayers. But it has been seven years already.

“My constant prayer is for God to bring them alive and for those who are dead, may their souls rest in peace.”

Another parent, Emmanuel Mutah, whose daughter was kidnapped, told Saturday PUNCH that “besides extending their condolences and giving us promises, the government hasn’t delivered my daughter back to me.”

“She was in school preparing for her final exams. The news reached us early the next day that Boko Haram invaded their school and captured some female students.

“We searched earnestly around the school environment and deep into the bush but there was no trace of the girls or the kidnappers. We were warned that the terrorists were heavily armed and we didn’t stand a chance. So, we tearfully returned home.

“I am happy they are surrendering already. But I still want my daughter back,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Abducted Chibok Girls Parent Association, Yakubu Nkeki, told our correspondent that although the return of their daughters remains the primary goal, he nevertheless supports the amnesty programme of the government.

He added that through the programme, two of the abducted girls had been found among the surrendered insurgents and were taken for rehabilitation before being returned to their families.

“As parents of the victims, we cannot tell the government that amnesty is not the way forward. At the end of the day, we want to see our children released through whatever strategy they can deploy. In fact, we found two of the Chibok girls among those who came forward to surrender. One of them is Ruth Gladar. I was contacted to come along with their parents.”

“But we couldn’t hand them over to their parents immediately, considering the circumstances they have been through. They were catered for through therapy and counselling before being handed over to their parents. I also met their husbands,” he said.

Source: Punch