43 Mexican students missing since September 26th.

 CNN reports that 43 Mexican students were kidnapped on the 26th of September after the buses they were traveling in were ambushed by some police men in the southern part of Mexico.
The Mexican state of Guerrero posted pictures of the students and offered a reward of $74,000 for information leading to discovery of the missing students.

In recent times, students have been turned into soft targets, ranging from over 200 Nigerian female students kidnapped in Chibok to students being killed in Dubai, Malaysia and UK.
Adequate protection should be provided for students worldwide.

Effects of Ebola virus scar on international students mobility. (1)

Students cordoned off on the campus of Southwestern College during a mid-October Ebola scare (Reuters/Mike Blake)

An abundance of caution

Many institutions are now considering what measures they will take in response to Ebola. Some are encouraging students or staff who have travelled from West Africa to monitor their health closely. Others are introducing travel bans for faculty and staff to prevent travel to affected countries.
Spurred by three confirmed Ebola cases in the Dallas area, and, on 24 October, another confirmed case in New York City, some US institutions have been quick to act in response to even the possibility of contact with the disease.

• In mid-October, a public health doctoral student at Yale University, recently returned from Liberia, was isolated in hospital with fever symptoms. The student later tested negative for the disease.
• Kent State University asked three staff members who had possibly been exposed to stay off campus and monitor their health for 21 days, widely considered to be the maximum incubation period for the virus.
• Students at California’s Southwestern College were evacuated and quarantined for several hours after rumours spread that a student had been in contact with someone with Ebola-like symptoms. (The claim was soon disproved and the quarantine lifted.)
• Syracuse University and the University of Georgia have both recently cancelled speaking appearances by journalists who had returned from Liberia.
• Oregon’s Jesuit High School cancelled a school visit by a group of African student leaders.
• Dallas-area Navarro College rejected applications from Nigerian students, saying that the community college was “not accepting international students from countries with confirmed Ebola cases,” though they have since cited other reasons for the rejection.       Source: ICEF Monitor

Another season of UK Education Fairs is here. How you can make the right choice of college / university.

In order to make a knowledgeable choice,  

1. Make a list of the universities & colleges you are interested in and conduct a research on them by visiting their websites. From the information you gather from their sites, compile questions you will ask the  representatives.

2. At the fair, ask the representatives to confirm the services they claim to offer on their web site.

3. You should have a fair idea of the course & career path you wish to follow before approaching an institution for admission. Education fair is not the appropriate place to choose a career path. Rather it is a platform which provides you with several university / college options under one roof.
The career talks provided at such fairs are meant to enhance course/career choice you have already made.

4. Check if the institution offers guidance on personal growth as well as intellectual growth.

5. Check the employment prospects rating of the university because at the end of the day it's all about gaining good employment.

6. Check the support offered to international students in that institution by asking to speak with some current international students in the school.

7. Compare cost of living in each city, some places are cheaper in terms of accommodation & feeding. London is the most expensive due to the high population.

8. If fair organizers offer to connect you with a UK Visa expert, ask them about the cost to avoid expensive surprises.
9. If the entry requirements are too low, that's a red flag, get worried. Such schools are only concerned with numbers and not quality.

10. Foreign education is expensive so think of funding beyond the first year before embarking on that journey.
If you cannot afford it, you can get equally good education in Nigeria.

Is free education really free?

Nigerian law on 'Basic Education' states that the first 9 years of education for all Nigerian children should be free.

Who is monitoring compliance? It is on record that most public schools ask students to buy their test books, exercise books and other learning materials themselves. 
Most public schools students also pay levies several times in a session. 
A good number of low income earners cannot cope with these financial demands and the resultant effect is that they will not send their children to school.

Reoccurring poor performance in WASSCE, who is to blame?

Result of 2014 WASSCE released by West African Examination Council (WAEC) shows that only 31% of the students obtained credits in five subjects including English & Maths.
I believe that this is not the time to trade blames rather, it is time for all stake holders, namely, parents, teachers, students and relevant government agencies to come together and find a sustainable solution to this very embarrassing persistent problem.