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Lawmakers Seek Robust ICT Framework In Education Sector – Voice of Nigeria

Lawmakers Seek Robust ICT Framework In Education Sector – Voice of Nigeria


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The Speaker of the House Of Representatives ,Mr. Tajudeen Abbas says a robust ICT framework will not only transform NIgeria’s educational sector but also create fertile ground for job creation, youth empowerment, and economic diversification.
He made the comment at a Public Hearing Of The House Committee On Digital And Information Technology (ICT), held in Abuja.
He noted that ICT would serve as a strong barrier against the challenges of unemployment and social discontent, equipping the youth with skills that align with the demands of the 21st-century workplace.
“It is imperative for us to explore how ICT can transform the way education is conducted, how students learn, how knowledge is transmitted, and how educational processes are managed. We must tap into the immense potential of emerging and future ICT technologies to revolutionize the education system,” Mr. Abbas said.
He stressed that public hearings create a platform for citizens, experts, and other stakeholders to contribute to shaping the future of ICT education in Nigeria.
“Such contributions will not only guide lawmakers in further legislative work but also provide valuable insights into the probable outcomes of these bills.
“I urge all present today to recognize that the success of these bills transcend legislative processes. It requires a collective commitment to implementing policies that will redefine the role of technology in our national development narrative,” the speaker added
In his opening remarks the Chairman House Committee On Digital And Information Technology (ICT), Mr. Adedeji Stanley Olajide pointed out that the objective of the public hearing is to obtain information and get expert opinion on the proposed legislations.
It is also to provide citizens the opportunity to take part in the legislative process.
Please be free to make your contributions, and I assure you that it will never be in vain,” Mr. Olajide said.
The public hearing which was aimed at promoting Information Communication Technology (ICT), focused on two bills:
“i A Bill for an Act to Establish the Federal Institute of Information Communication Technology, Idanre, Ondo State, to Provide Full-Time Courses, Teaching, Instruction, and Training in Information Communication Technology; and to Provide for the Appointment of the Provost and Other Officers of the Institute to Carry Out the Administration and the Discipline of Students of the Institute, and for Related Matters (HB.783).
” ii. A Bill for an Act to Promote Information Technology Education, Entrepreneurship, and Infrastructure Development Across Nigeria’s Six Geopolitical Zones, with Atisbo as the Hub for the South-West Zone, and for Related Matters (HB.1360)”.
 
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Marc Lowes' legacy sparks hope in Everett – KING5.com

Marc Lowes' legacy sparks hope in Everett – KING5.com

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EVERETT, Wash. — Finishing touches are being put on a new, 70,000 square foot behavioral health center in downtown Everett run by Compass Health.
“I think the clients are going to like coming in with all of the light and wide open space,” said Marcelene Lowes, as she checks out her new office space.
For Lowes, it’s always about the clients. She is a clinician for Compass and has been with the organization for 40 years.
Lowes started her career in the kitchen, but was promptly promoted to case manager when a supervisor saw her rapport with people.
“She told me they could train me and that I could do this,” Lowes said. “My husband, who is very supportive, agreed that I could do this. And I did.”
The new facility is major advancement for Snohomish County, housing a 16-bed involuntary treatment unit, a 16-bed crisis center, support for people with behavioral challenges residing in adult family homes, as well as offices for crisis prevention, and community outreach. 
Compass Health CEO Tom Sebastian said it’s a game-changer for those in need.
“Right now, their only alternative is either going into a community emergency room where they are overwhelmed with other demands, or they’re possibly facing incarceration if there is no other option,” Sebastian said. 
Lowes is known as “Marc” among her friends and coworkers at Compass. 
After four decades, she has left her mark on the organization and now the organization is honoring her. 
The new facility, set to open in August, was officially named the Marc Healing Center.
“It truly is an honor, but it’s not about me,” Lowes said. “It’s about the clients.”
As is her nature, she immediately deflects any attention. Instead, Lowes focuses on the people she serves.
The Snohomish County Health Department reported that 50% of respondents experienced poor mental health in the past 30 days.
The center bearing Lowes’ name will make an immediate impact.
“This really will be a place of healing for our community members,” Sebastian said. 
After four decades of serving the struggling in her community, Lowes teaches by example.
She is living proof to her clients that showing up, doing the work and believing in yourself can bring achievements you never thought possible. 
It’s the same lesson Lowes learned from her supervisor all those years ago.
“My main message to my clients is they can do it,” Lowes said. “I know they can do this. They can have what they want out of life and what they deserve.”

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Gym chain lets teens work out free during summer break – WKMG

Gym chain lets teens work out free during summer break – WKMG

Jacob Langston, Digital Journalist
Published: 
Jacob Langston, Digital Journalist
ORLANDO, Fla. – Gym chain Planet Fitness announced that teens can work out for free at participating locations during the summer break.
According to a news release, from June 1 until Aug. 31, teens age 14-19 can work out during the High School Summer Pass initiative which gives “teens free access to fitness resources, training equipment, and a welcoming space to stay active during the summer break.”
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Participating clubs will be hosting open houses on May 29 and June 5 from 4-8 p.m. to offer assistance in signing up for the program.
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“It’s a great way for teens to stay active in a Judgement Free environment all summer long,” the release read in part.
For information on the open houses and participating clubs in Florida, click here. you can also pre-register by clicking here.
Copyright 2025 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.
Jacob joined ClickOrlando.com in 2022. He spent 19 years at the Orlando Sentinel, mostly as a photojournalist and video journalist, before joining Spectrum News 13 as a web editor and digital journalist in 2021.
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Nigeria Launches Alternate Education and School Feeding Project – Voice of Nigeria

Nigeria Launches Alternate Education and School Feeding Project – Voice of Nigeria


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The Nigerian Government has launched the Alternate Education and Renewed Hope National Home-Grown School Feeding project for Out-of-School Children in Abuja, the nation’s capital
The project is in collaboration with the National Commission for Almajiri and Out-of-School Children and the National Identity Management Commission

The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Nentawe Yilwatda, said the Alternate Education Programme is a strategic and compassionate response to one of the most critical educational and social development challenges facing the country, resulting in the rising number of out-of-school children adding that the government is working to ensure that no child is left behind, either in the cities, rural areas, conflict zones or the country’s nomadic populations.
“It is our firm belief that every child, regardless of background, location, or social status, deserves the right to learn, to grow, and to dream,” the Minister stated.
He explained that the launch of the Alternate Education and Renewed Hope National Home Grown School Feeding project, done in commemoration of the Children’s Day celebration, represents more than a ceremonial milestone but the beginning of a new era in reaching underserved and vulnerable children across Nigeria.

“Our aim is to scale this initiative to other settlements and communities nationwide, building a national framework for reintegrating out-of-school children into safe, structured, and nourishing learning environments.
 “In furtherance of this goal, the NHGSFP-under the renewed mandate of NSIPA-has identified Karsana II, a nomadic settlement in the Federal Capital Territory, as the pilot site of this transformative initiative.”
According to him, over 150 children in various communities remain outside the traditional school system.
“Through this programme, we have established temporary learning centres to accommodate pupils from Primary 1 to 3, alongside a dedicated staff room and a solar-powered borehole to guarantee access to clean water for the children and their families”.
The Minister said the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) will be enrolling every child captured under the programme into the National Identity Number (NIN) system, providing them with a legal identity and a gateway to future government services, including education, health, and social protection.
“Together, these institutions have joined forces with NSIPA and NHGSFP in a whole-of-government approach to solve a generational challenge.” He added.

The Programme Manager, Renewed Hope National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme, Princess Adebowale said the launch of the Alternate Education Programme for Out-of-School Children, is a strategic and timely intervention that aligns with the priorities of the Renewed Hope Agenda.
She said the programme underscores a renewed national resolve to reach Nigeria’s out-of-school children-those living in border communities, informal settlements, nomadic groups, and IDP camps-through an inclusive, community-led model of education that integrates identity management, feeding, and foundational learning.
“This historic event is being held in commemoration of two significant milestones. the second-year anniversary in office of His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR whose leadership has championed social protection, inclusive education, and poverty reduction across Nigeria.
“Children’s Day 2025, a day set aside to honour the rights, voices, and aspirations of Nigerian children, especially the most vulnerable among them.” She stated.
According to her, RH-NHGSFP, which currently provides daily school meals to over 10.2 million pupils in Primary 1-3 across the 774 LGAS, is proud to expand its scope under this initiative, with a target of reaching 20 million pupils by 2026,
“Our mission is not just to feed, but to improve nutrition, boost enrolment and retention, and reduce insecurity across the nation”. She added.
The Chairman House Committee on Poverty Alleviation Mr Abdulkadri Jobe explained that the launch of the re-branded and re-packaged Renewed Hope National Home Grown School Feeding project demonstrates governments untiring efforts at reducing poverty level in Nigeria adding that the project also encourages primary school pupils enrolment, empowers farmers to produce more food for consumption and create a healthy society.
“Obviously, this will assist the Committee to ascertain the extent of the programme implementation, thereby evaluating its successes and challenges, in order to improve on the entire system.” He said.
He noted that the House of Representatives is always willing to avail itself at any point to help drive the programme or any other one on reasonable grounds.
Mr Jobe commended President Bola Tinubu for sustaining the National Home-Grown School Feeding and other programmes that were initiated by the past administration to address poverty in Nigeria.
The event also witnessed the presentation of gift items to the Almajiri and Out-of-School Children to mark this year’s Children’s Day celebration.
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Trump's education secretary didn't know AI from A1 sauce. Neither will our kids | Opinion – The Arizona Republic

Trump's education secretary didn't know AI from A1 sauce. Neither will our kids | Opinion – The Arizona Republic

Former “WWE Raw” empresario Linda McMahon got roasted online after confusing the acronym for artificial intelligence — AI — with a sauce you might use on a steak — A1 — at an April 8 event in San Diego featuring all kinds of big-brained educators.
It’s not just what she deserved. I’d guess it’s what Donald Trump expected. Even wanted.
The former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment and Trump’s pick for secretary of Education was attending the ASU + GSV Summit, where, among other things, she said, “A school system that’s going to start making sure that first graders, or even pre-Ks, have A1 teaching in every year. That’s a wonderful thing!”
As bad as that seems, it’s what Trump was looking for in an education secretary.
And McMahon is not alone.
This month Arizona has been host to a couple of Trump stooges — Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
Sending McMahon to an event tied to Arizona State University (though this one took place in San Diego) is like sending in Curly to round out appearances by Moe and Larry.
In Trump’s world, unlike planet earth, this makes perfect sense. Particularly since McMahon’s entire job, as defined by her Dear Leader, is to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education.
In March Trump signed an executive order aimed at killing the department, something a president can’t do without approval of Congress (which Trump might have learned if he was lucky enough to attend public rather than private schools).
Trump called the department “a big con job” that he wants to be “closed immediately.”
Making McMahon secretary of a doomed department must have seemed like a great idea to Trump.
He had to give her something in return for her investment.
After all, between the Make America Great Again Inc. super PAC and other Trump fundraising entities, McMahon is reported to have donated more than $21 million to help Trump get elected.
By Trump’s standards (assuming “standards” is even close to the right word), that is cabinet-level largesse.
So, Trump gave her something he does not want and made it her job to get rid of it for him (with the help of Elon Musk’s DOGE bros, of course).
They’ve already eliminated roughly 50% of the department’s positions, more than 1,300 jobs.
And, since Trump’s education secretary needs to know nothing about education, his selection of McMahon seems almost … logical.
The nice folks who make A1 sauce had a little fun with McMahon’s comment about making sure kids have “A1” exposure early, producing a meme with a picture of the sauce that reads, “Agree, best to start them early.”
Although that might not be a bad idea.
Considering what Trump has planned for public education, it’s likely that the next generation of American school kids won’t know the difference between AI and A1, either.
Reach Montini at ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com.
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Column: The True Cost of Brazilian Coffee Goes Far Beyond the Commodity Market – Daily Coffee News by Roast Magazine

Column: The True Cost of Brazilian Coffee Goes Far Beyond the Commodity Market – Daily Coffee News by Roast Magazine

Jonas Ferraresso | May 7, 2025
Images courtesy of the author.
[Note: This is Part 3 of a short series of stories by guest author Jonas Ferraresso exploring some of the intricacies of the Brazilian coffee market and Brazil’s outsize influence on the global coffee trade. Find all the stories here.]
If you have even minimal contact with the coffee supply chain — and by minimal, I mean even just being an occasional drinker — you’ve probably noticed your green coffee supplier, your roaster, your barista, or even a coworker or family member, talking about the sharp rise in coffee prices lately, right?
For people who drink coffee only sporadically and aren’t familiar with the production chain, it’s important to understand that coffee is an agricultural commodity. Just like corn, soybeans, rice, and wheat, its prices are traded on global exchanges, and nearly all green coffee transactions worldwide are based on an internationally established price that’s updated daily. In general terms, this price reflects the classic dynamics of supply, demand and speculation.
With that in mind, let’s consider why coffee prices increased in recent months.
Of course, domestic factors like inflation, local conflicts, logistics, taxes and other influences can affect the price of your cup. But here, I want to focus on the more macroeconomic aspects of the supply chain.
For many decades now, Brazil has been the world leader in coffee production. This is due to a production chain heavily supported by agricultural technology, genetic research and efficient production systems. These advancements have allowed the country to significantly increase output, without having to drastically expand planted area, over more than a decade.
In recent years, Brazilian coffee producers have also turned their focus to quality and sustainability, investing in niche sectors that barely existed twenty years ago, like organic, agroforestry and regenerative systems.
What happens when you invest in more efficient and sustainable systems? Production costs go up.
As the current conversations around price develop, they should also take into account the steady increases in production costs facing growers. The prices of today are only now helping to recapitalize producers — not just in Brazil, but around the world. For many years, it was nearly impossible to cover production costs and still make a profit. In some cases, profitability wasn’t even part of the equation.
Brazil coffee seedlings
Yet this is the economic reality of many coffee farmers who are participating in a commodity-based system. When global prices for a product are standardized, they fail to account for the social and economic realities of producers in different growing countries and regions. The cost of production and the needs of a grower in Mexico are not the same as those of a grower in Indonesia, for example, and commodity-based pricing can lead to gaps between costs and profitability.
This gap has led thousands of coffee producers worldwide to either abandon crops or switch to other, more lucrative or less volatile alternatives.
In Brazil, I’ve seen this migration happen year after year. Most small- or medium-sized producers — and some larger ones, too — have exited the activity. Meanwhile, the more advanced and better-capitalized producers have been able to expand their areas or improve productivity. These are the producers who can absorb the risks inherent to the commodity market and operate on tighter margins.
Over the past four years — and most likely in 2025, as well — Brazilian harvests have remained below levels last seen in 2020. This decline is directly linked to climate-related factors, starting with a severe frost in 2021, followed by years of heatwaves and droughts across various coffee-growing regions. As a response, producers of all sizes began investing in irrigation systems and technologies like sunblock sprays, or more conservation-focused practices such as organic matter management or targeted plant nutrition.
While agronomists and technical advisors know that these practices help mitigate climate stress in coffee fields, they are not enough to fully prevent the damage. Another major challenge producers face is the growing scarcity and rising cost of labor in the field.
Thus, while coffee producers may be breathing a little easier today, a sharp drop in prices could be catastrophic in the medium term for many farms. At the time of this article, the arabica future market market has been trading between $3 to $4 per pound of green coffee — a level that has helped keep producers in business and even sparked renewed interest in expanding production. But operating at prices below $2.00, as happened not long ago, would be unfeasible for most growers today.
The coffee supply chain constantly lives on this unbalanced scale — where for coffee to be more affordable to the consumer, the commodity market has to dip, which in turn puts enormous pressure on the very people producing the raw material the entire chain depends on.
I understand that classic economic theory would say “If it’s not profitable, exit the business and let the market rebalance itself.” But that logic simply doesn’t apply to a professional coffee farm.
Establishing and maintaining a coffee farm is a high-investment endeavor. During the first three years after planting, the farmer sees no return on that investment — and in the event of a major climatic event, they may not even recover the capital invested. Exiting the activity can be incredibly costly. So, the producer keeps cultivating coffee, holding on to the hope of a more promising future.
It’s precisely because of that persistence that we still have coffee available in years when prices have fallen to unsustainably low levels.
The question is: How far can a farm go today just to hold on to that hope?
Publisher’s note: Daily Coffee News does not engage in sponsored content of any kind. Any statements or opinions expressed belong solely to the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Daily Coffee News or its management.
Comments? Questions? News to share? Contact DCN’s editors here. For all the latest coffee industry news, subscribe to the DCN newsletter
Jonas Ferraresso
Jonas Leme Ferraresso holds an agronomy degree from São Paulo State University (UNESP). He has worked as a coffee farmer, a coffee agronomist and as an advisor for several farms in Brazil.
Tags: Brazil, coffee prices, commodities, cost of production, green coffee, Jonas Ferraresso, prices, Understanding Brazil
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