frsc insight october 2013 edition finale (2)

FRSC INSIGHT OCTOBER, 2013

A MONTHLY PUBLICATION OF FEDERAL ROAD SAFETY COMMISSION www.frscinsight.comgFRSCInsi ht

OCTOBER, 2013

Tyre RotationEliminate premature tyre wear

Care for the gate to your body

The teethCorps Marshal’s keynote Address in Akwa-Ibom State

Interview with Onyenso Esther Amarachi

FRSC INSIGHT OCTOBER , 2013 1

From the Editor-In-Chief

Insi htOCTOBER, 2013

Have you ever wondered why progress, according to George Bernard Shaw, is impossible without a change, and those

who cannot change their minds cannot change anything? This is very true to what vehicle manu-facturers have in mind. Knowing the importance of tyres in ensuring smooth and pleasant driving, manufacturers of tyres therefore recommends that at specified periods, tyres should be rotated to enhance their performance and guarantee safety.

In aviation, where safety is the watch word, air-craft tyres are designed to withstand extremely heavy loads for short durations, thus the num-ber of tyres required for aircraft increases with the weight of the plane, accordingly enhancing the capacity to distribute the weight of the air-plane better. For instance, the tyres on a wide-body jetliner like the Boeing 747 are designed to endure tremendous stress without rupturing.

Aircraft's tyres tread patterns are also de-signed to facilitate stability in high crosswind conditions, ensure effective braking and channel water away to prevent hy-droplaning, especially during landing or take off.

During landing, aircraft tyres are subjected to tremendous stress. When planes land, the tyres take the weight of the plane and endure some extreme friction as the plane hits the runway and starts to slow down, and may cause blow out where tyres are of poor quality or have not been well maintained. That is why aircraft tyres, despite their prohibitive costs may last for as few as 100 landings, before replacement.

Just like the motor vehicle's tyres are pressurised with air, aircraft tyres are usually inflated with ni-trogen or helium to minimize expansion and con-traction from extreme changes in ambient tem-perature and pressure experienced during flights.

Historically, Scottish inventor John Boyd Dunlop in 1887 produced the first pneumatic tyre, which he made for his son's bicycle, in an effort to pre-

vent the son's as-sociated head-aches while riding on rough roadsThis month's FRSC Insight dis-cusses why you need to rotate your vehicle tyres, when and how it should be done as well as the imper-atives derivable from doing so. In this edition you would also read the beautiful presentation made by the Corps Marshal during the award of excellence for teachers of public schools in Akwa Ibom state. It is a collector's item and I can assure you that you would not be able to drop the presentation until you finished reading it.

Onyenso Esther Amarachi may not sound famil-iar to you. The ex - Youth Corps member emerged the best overall in the 2013 essay competition on road safety organised by the Kwapda'as Road Safety Demand (KRSD) Trust Fund for NYSC members in memory of Hon. Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem's son, Kwapda'as who died in a road traffic crash. KRSD is a non government organisation, and they organised the essay com-petition in collaboration with the Federal Road Safety Corps. FRSC Insight caught up with Am-arachi after the awards ceremony. You would be delighted to know how she came about defeat-ing over one hundred and sixty other contestants.

All the other regular stories can be read in this edition. As usual all precious editions of FRSC Insight can be read on www.frscinsight.com

OC OladeleCorps CommanderEditor - In - Chief

The teeth

keynote Address in Akwa-Ibom State


Insi htg

EDITORIAL

Osita Chidoka OFR

Corps Marshal/Chief Executive Publisher

OC Oladele (CC) Editor–In-Chief

KD Alegieuno (ARC) Editor

Members VO Ogunnupebi (ACC) AR Obagbemiro (CRC)

CB Nwokolo (DRC)0I IKOKU (DRC)

DO Enakireru (ARC)

2

FRSC

Tyre Rotation: Eliminate premature tyre wear

Tyre rotation simply means moving them from one side of the vehicle to the other so that they trade places on your vehicle. The rotation is based on the type of vehicle or

tyres. For a directional tyres one is limited to moving the wheels and tyres forward and backward on the same side of the car.

Tyres that are asymmetrical require only that a particular side-wall is on the outside. Tyre rotation helps avoid uneven tyre wear, which can lead to poor performance and decreased fuel mileage.

Why it is essentialRotation is important because each tyre on a car carries a different amount of weight, making them wear at different rates. By rotating them, you basically even out those differences. Your owner’s manual will tell you how often to rotate your tyres, but as a rule of thumb, it should be done every 8,000 kilometres (5,000miles) to 13,000 kilometres (8,000 miles). You might want to rotate them sooner if you see signs of uneven wear. Misalignment and other mechanical problems can also cause such wear.

In a nutshell, tyre rotation is necessary as:• Tyres may wear differently depending on their position onthe vehicle, your driving style, and the condition of your suspension• Regularly rotating your tyres helps even-ly distribute tyre wear - helping you get the most miles out of your tyres while maximizing traction on all four wheels• The front tyres of front-wheel-drive vehicles, tend to wearfaster than rear tyres due to added pressure/resistance from steering

FRSC INSIGHT OCTOBER , 2013

Insi ht 3

Tyre Rotation: Eliminate premature tyre wear

ROTATION PATTERNSThere are various patterns for rotating tyres. A common one for front-wheel drive ve-hicles involves moving the tyres in a criss-cross fashion, with the left front tyre trading places with the right rear, and right front trad-ing with the left rear. If you have a full-size spare, you can include it in your rotation pat-tern-but don't do so with a small temporary use spare, because those are meant only for low-speed, short-distance emergency use.Note that certain types of tyres cannot be ro-tated as explained above. Such tyres may in-

clude directional and asymmetrical tires. Also, some vehicles may have different sized tyres mounted on the front and rear axles, and these different sized tyres have rotation restrictions.

Sources:ht tp: / /us.coopert ire .com/Tire-Safety/Tire-Maintenance/Tire-Rotation.aspxh t t p : / / w w w . g o o d y e a r . c o m /e n - U S / s e r v i c e s / t i r e - r o t a t i o n

FRSC INSIGHT OCTOBER, 2013 4

CARE FOR THE GATE TO YOUR BODY

the teethA tooth (plural teeth) is a small,

hard whitish structure found in the mouth to break down food.

Don't be surprised that tooth is long-last-ing even after the body has decomposed!

Habits that can wreck your teeth1. Chewing on iceIt's natural and sugar free, so you might think ice is harmless. But this can crack your teeth. When there is urge to chew ice, chew sugarless gum instead.

2. Grinding Teeth (Bruxism)This can wear teeth down overtime and can cause tooth sensitivity. Bruxism is most of-ten caused by stress and sleeping habits. Avoiding hard foods during the day can reduce pain. Wearing of mouth guard at

night can prevent grinding when sleeping.

3. Cough Drops (Tablets)They are not healthy as they are loaded with sugar. After soothing your throat with a loz-enge, brush well or rinse out. Sugar reacts with plaque (filmy substance that covers the tooth). The bacteria in the plaque convert the sugar into an acid that eats away the tooth enamel and results to holes in your tooth (cavities).

4. Gummy CandyAll sugary treats promote tooth decay, but some candies are harder to bear. Gummies stick in the teeth, keeping the sugar and resulting acids in contact with your tooth enamel for hours.

5. SodaSodas can have up to 11 teaspoons of sugar per


the teethserving. Sodas also contain phosphoric acid and citric acids, which eat away tooth enamel.

6. Opening things (stuffs) with your teethThis may be convenient but can cause your teeth to crack or chip.

7. Sports DrinkThese drinks are refreshing but high in sugar. They create an acid attack on the tooth enamel. Drinking them frequently can lead to decay.

8. Fruit JuiceThis is loaded with vitamins and antioxidants

but unfortunately loaded with sugar. Fruits are naturally sweet, so look for juice that has no added sugar. You can reduce the sugar content by diluting juice with some water.

9. Drinking Red wineThe acids in wine eat away the tooth enamel, creating rough spots that make teeth more vulnerable to staining. Red wine also contains a deep pigment called chromogen and tan-nis, which help the colour stick to the teeth.

To be continued next month.Till then, maintain your teeth and keep-ing smiling!

Corps Medical & Rescue Office


CORPS MARSHAL KEYNOTE SPEECHat the 2013 annual awards for teaching excellence in Akwa Ibom state public secondary schoolsINTRODUCTION

I am very honoured to be invited here to speak on my life's journey and on how we can all advance the development of quality education in Nigeria

especially at a period when our educational vehicle is incessantly grounded by strikes, a period when the cul-ture of reading has been reduced to blackberry ping-ing, a time when the social media has taken the place of classroom teaching, a time of course when educa-tional excellence is a rare commodity. Yet, it is a time when we still have great hope to turn things around.

EDUCATION; WHAT IT MEANSThe word "education" comes from the Latin root educare which means "to lead out". Education calls for belief in what is to be shared, com-mitment to the ideals embraced by humanistic values, and hope for the future. One of the basic rights of every citizen is the right to education and one of the priorities of every government should be the provision of quality edu-cation that could compete globally. In any society where young people have access to quality education the type of choices they make will definitely have positive impact on the development of that nation.

In ancient Greece for example, the cradle of West-ern scholarship, education was a highly functional search-light beamed on society. It has a key role in developing the human input to production and sup-porting the development of science and technology. Educational institutions on the other hand are built to foster the acquisition of skills and knowledge as well as moral development of the learner. The Pri-mary, Secondary and Tertiary institutions are de-signed to produce a diversified workforce for an economy in need of different types of skilled labour.

According to Harmon, Oosterbeek and Walker [2000], the more educated countries are develop-ing faster due to the fact that the school enables the labour force to innovate new technologies and to adapt the existing ones to the local production. Consequently, the economies that are inside the technological frontiers have greater opportunities

to develop faster [Barro and Sala-i-Martin, 1995].

The quality of education has an influence upon the speed with which societies become developed and the extent to which individuals can improve their own productivity. An educational system that is more effective in establishing cognitive skills to an advanced level and distributing them broad-ly through the population will bring stronger so-cial and economic benefits than less effective sys-tem. This implies that more emphasis should be placed on the subject structure of the curriculum.

NIGERIA EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM: REFLECTING ON PAST AND CURRENT SITUA-TIONCrisis in education, according to Bello Umar Gusau (2008), started manifesting itself when

government went all out to implement 6-3-3-4 sys-tem without sufficient plan put in place. The primary education was the first to suffer the effect of this inad-equate planning. For instance, in 1976, free Universal Primary Education was launched but the policy on education itself appeared in 1977, one year after im-plementation of the programme. In this kind of situa-tion where implementation is ahead of policy, confu-sion is certainly bound to emerge. Moreover, needs assessment was not properly done, and the end result was absence of adequate statistical data upon which evidence based public policy could be anchored.

Evidence abound that societies where long term stra-tegic planning are the norms, such societies naturally succeed. For instance the Nigerian economy witnessed improvements in the periods when strategic plans were implemented between 1962 and 1975 when ac-cording to the National Planning Commission, Nige-ria recorded an average GDP growth of 9.4 percent. When compared to comparator countries like Malay-sia which had forty five years of consistent strategic planning, GDP per capita in Malaysia grew from 808 US dollar to 10,345 USD by 2012. Similarly, Singapore due to forty years of consistent strategic planning grew its GDP per capita from 2,505 US dollar in 1975 to a whooping 52,052 USD in 2012.

In any society where young people have access to quality education the type of choices they make will definitely have positive impact on the development of that nation


Thus in comparism to Nigeria's strategic plan-ning limited to only fifteen years, we could only achieve a GDP per capita growth from 454 US dollar in 1975 to 1,526 USD in 2012.

Scant regards to long term strategic planning in Ni-geria for example affected the Universal Primary Education (UPE). On the launching of UPE, three million children showed up as against 2.3 million originally planned for, representing a 30 percent underestimation. This has implications for class-room spaces, teachers, and equipment (Akpa 1988).

The exercise triggered phenomenal rise in pupil pop-ulation from 8.7million in 1976/77 to 12.5 million in 1979/80 and reaching 15 million in 1982. Un-able to sustain the scheme, the Federal Government subsequently transferred the responsibility to the State and Local Government.

The junior secondary school which was designed to make the youth employable through vo-cational skill acquisition could not achieve its goal due to poor implementation. For instance, while Government purchased cheaper technological products from European markets, these products became re-dundant due to poor power supply and lack of req-uisite skills for the teachers to operate the machines.

Consequently, the prevocational subjects which were meant to launch Nigeria into a respect-able industrialized state with abundant pool of lower level manpower became an illusion with the subjects such as introductory technology be-ing taught theoretically as English Language. In the '70s, government took over all volun-tary and mission schools on the ground of free universal primary education. Unfortunate-ly, this reform collapsed in less than a decade.

Another effect was the relegation of the service of the Inspectorate Services who were the quality control watchdog in the education sector to limbo. No edu-cational programme can function effectively without a quality inspectorate service. The concept of inspec-tion has now been changed to supervision. According to Bello Umar Gusau (2008), the change is necessi-

tated by the perception of school inspectors as no less than police inspectors with a colonial mentality. He further stressed that this was because of their percep-tion as enforcers of discipline, and whose presence in a school was both fearsome and awesome to school teachers and administrators. The school inspectors, according to him brook no nonsense and tolerated no incompetence to duty. Despite the shortcomings of the colonial inherited inspectorate services, he said the system was by far better than what we have today.

According to John U Nwalor, the failure of our edu-cational reforms has made Nigerians obsessed with paper qualifications rather than the outcomes and

results that should emerge from such qualifications. He stat-ed: Education was not seen as a means for the constructive develop-ment of society but rather as the means to a larger share of the wealth of the nation the same sentiments that ruled in national politics then and par-ticularly still rules to-day, giving birth and prominence to issues

and measures associated with distrust and inequity in-security, quota, and the principle of rotation. We had a nation founded on the merits of synergy degenerate to one where everyone literally must fend for himself minding and protecting very narrow personal interest.

According to John U Nwalor, the educational sys-tem today has to contend with examination mal-practices of various types, admissions racketeering, and records falsification and misrepresentation as well as other vices that threaten its survival. From all this, most sadly, has evolved a culture of aspir-ing to that which the individual is not qualified for. Nigeria today, is suffering from development crises brought about by the distortion in our educational system and we must holistically do a review to know where we got it wrong and what could be done.

So let us look at the educational status of Akwa-Ibom and Ogun States for instance. The choice of these two states arose from their ranking in terms of the 2006 census, which ranked Akwa Ibom as number 15th and Ogun state immediately next at number 16th.

The junior secondary school which was de-signed to make the youth employable through vocational skill acquisition could not achieve its goal due to poor implementation. For in-stance, while Government purchased cheaper technological products from European markets, these products became redundant due to poor power supply and lack of requisite skills for the teachers to operate the machines. Conse-quently, the prevocational subjects which were meant to launch Nigeria into a respectable in-dustrialized state with abundant pool of lower level manpower became an illusion with the subjects such as introductory technology be-


THE CASE OF OGUN AND AKWA-IBOM STATEAkwa-Ibom according to the 2006 Census by the National Population Commission is a state with a population of 3,920,208 exceeding that of Ogun State by 192,110, which has 3,728,098. There are some similarities between Akwa Ibom and Ogun state; they both are states in Nigeria, they have Governors and State Houses of Assembly. Since return to democracy in 1999, Akwa Ibom state has been governed by the PDP for fourteen years, while Ogun state have been governed by PDP for eight years and AD/ACN/APC for six years.

Then the differences begin. In 2010, while Ogun state had an estimated GDP of $10 billion, Akwa-Ibom state within the same period was estimated to have a GDP of $11 billion. The Akwa Ibom GDP of $11 billion literarily translated to the state having an economy larger than that of at least 30 African countries includ-ing Gambia, Mali, Chad, Burkina Faso, Niger, Togo, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Sao Tome and Principe.

In addition, between January and December, 2012, Akwa Ibom state received N217, 776,188,886.07 thereby making it the high-est beneficiary of the statu-tory and VAT allocation. Ogun state on the other hand received N68, 975,959.69 within the same period.

In terms of budgeting, while in 2012, Akwa-Ibom budg-eted the sum of N533.113 billion, Ogun state budgeted the sum of 200.55 billion. This simply means that Akwa Ibom budget in 2012 was 166% larger than that of Ogun state. Also, Akwa Ibom in the 2012 appropriation budgeted the sum of N19.6 billion for education. This sum represented about 4% of the year's appropriation. Ogun state on the other hand in the 2012 appropriation budgeted N42.4 billion or 21% of her budget for education.According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), 2009 report, while the total numbers of public prima-ry schools in Ogun were 1,921, which served 388,930 pupils, the number of public primary schools in Akwa-Ibom state were 1,146 but served 243,079 pupils. The NBS 2012 report indicated that, while Ogun state had three hundred and thirty two public secondary schools,

there were six hundred and eight public secondary schools in Akwa-Ibom state. The 608 public second-ary schools in Akwa-Ibom enrolled 110,003 appli-cants within that year, while the 332 public secondary schools in Ogun state absorbed 151,478 applicants.

One would naturally assume that based on the com-paratively higher population figure of Akwa-Ibom, it would have more Universities, but the case is not so. Rather, while according to the National University Commission (NUC) there are eleven Universities in Ogun state, Akwa Ibom has only four Universities. Given that Universities are centers of excellence and research centers, mere presence of a University in a community presupposes access to innovation, criti-cal thinking and activation of problem solving mode.

In 2012, while the available higher institutions in Ak-wa-Ibom were able to absorb only 1,469 students, the higher institutions in Ogun state offered admission to 3,132 applicants, representing an amazing 72.28 percentage difference in number of enrolment into tertiary institutions in Ogun over Akwa Ibom state.

And in terms of performance, even though no Univer-sity in the two states of Ogun and Akwa Ibom ranked within the top 10 universities according to the National University Commission 2011 ranking of Nigerian Uni-versities, the University of Ag-riculture, Abeokuta ranked 11th while University of Uyo ranked a distance 21st. In another devel-opment it should be a source of concern that no secondary school in Akwa Ibom state have ever ranked within the league of the top ten secondary schools in Nigeria.

The differences in the educational pursuits between the two states therefore imparted on the two states as shown in the employment index. While the unem-ployment index in Ogun according to the NBS 2009 record stood at 8.5%, that of Akwa-Ibom was 34.1%.Still using the annual report of the National Bureau of Statistics, the 2012 NBS report indicated that Akwa Ibom state in 2011 had a projected HIV popu-lation of 236,285, second only to Benue with a HIV projected population of 260,288. Ogun state 2011 projected HIV population was only 55,902. In the same 2012 NBS report, while Akwa Ibom in 2011 had only 176 medical doctors and 5 dentists, Ogun

n terms of budgeting, while in 2012, Akwa-Ibom budgeted the sum of N533.113 billion, Ogun state budgeted the sum of 200.55 bil-lion. This simply means that Akwa Ibom budget in 2012 was 166% larger than that of Ogun state. Also, Akwa Ibom in the 2012 appropriation budgeted the sum of N19.6 billion for education. This sum rep-resented about 4% of the year's appropria-tion. Ogun state on the other hand in the 2012 appropriation budgeted N42.4 bil-lion or 21% of her budget for education.


for instance had 379 medical doctors and 15 dentists.

The afore mentioned therefore brought to the fore that education remains the key tool to building a formidable economy and positioning the wider populace towards making informed social and economic decisions. It must be emphasized and strongly too that, even though access to financial resources could aid or facilitate a society's path to greatness, the sure and reliable way to greatness is through knowledge and innovation.

The danger here is that even though Akwa Ibom state is financially more sufficient than Ogun state, judging from its financial accruals,. if urgent steps are not taken to improve the educational system in Akwa- Ibom State, it would not be well positioned to compete favourably, not only in Nigeria but globally. What this means is that by the year 2020, when Nigeria is projected to be within the league of the twenty global econo-mies, there will be a wide economic and educational gap between those of Akwa-Ibom and Ogun state.

This underscores the fact that no state can achieve sustainable economic growth and development without significant investment in human capi-tal. Education improves the quality of the people's lives and leads to broad social benefits to individu-als and society. Education increases the people's productivity and ingenuity as well as promotes entrepreneurship and technological advances. In also plays a very vital role in securing economic, social advancement and efficient income distribu-tion. For, Akwa Ibom to enjoy economic prosper-ity, it must invest more in the educational sector.

Permit me to share with you few examples of how investment in education can truly advance a society.

CHINA EDUCATIONAL REVOLUTION China has made huge strides in educating its popula-tion. During the Cultural Revolution, educated people, including teachers, were sent to rural areas to work in the fields. Before then, the teaching force was effec-tively destroyed. But today after three decades, parts of China notably Shanghai are among the contenders for top spots on the world's education league tables.

In 1986, China enacted the Law of Compulsory Education, which required every child to complete

nine years of formal schooling six years of primary school and three years of junior secondary school. By the mid-1990s, it had basically achieved this goal.

The main lessons to learn from this experience in-clude government's abandonment of a system built around key schools for a small elite and its devel-opment of a more inclusive system in which all stu-dents are expected to perform at high levels; greatly raising teacher pay and upgrading teacher standards and teacher education; reducing the emphasis on rote learning and increasing the emphasis on deep

understanding with abil-ity to apply knowledge to solving new problems and thinking creatively. All of these are reflected in deep reforms in the

curriculum and examinations.

These changes have been accompanied by great-er curricular choice for students and more lati-tude for local authorities to decide on exami-nation content, which in turn is loosening the constraints on curriculum and instruction.

Between 1990 to the present day, China has passed the stage of quantitative expansion in basic education with a net enrolment of 99.4 percent at the primary school level, the envy of many countries. The gross enrol-ment ratio for junior secondary school was 99 percent.

In 1990, the gross enrolment at senior secondary level, both general and vocational, was 79.2 percent. The general (i.e. academic) senior secondary schools enrolled 52.5 percent of students at this level, putting about half of senior high school students in the aca-demic stream. In most urban areas, gross enrolment at the senior secondary school level is 100 percent or above, which means that the number of students en-rolled exceeds the number in the appropriate age group.

China also has a unique case in higher education development. For instance, in 2010, it achieved a Gross Enrolment Ratio of 30 per cent in higher ed-ucation, up from an abysmally low 3-4 per cent in 1990. The country has grown its higher education sector primarily with the help of universities, which number more than 2,300. The 2009 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) taken by 65 economies worldwide showed that Shanghai scored number one in the world in all three subjects; Maths literacy, reading literacy and science literacy,

The 2009 NBS statistics report on educational data between Ogun state Akwa-Ibom, the land of prom-ise tells only one story that education remains the key tool to building a formidable economy.


beating the previous top scoring nation, Finland.The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is an international study that was launched by the OECD in 1997. It aims at evaluating education systems worldwide in every three years by assess-ing 15-year-olds' competencies in the key subjects: reading, mathematics and sciences. The assessment provides the world's most extensive and rigorous set of international surveys assessing the knowledge and skills of secondary school students. To date over 70 countries and economies have participated in PISA.

LESSONS FROM CHINAShanghai became a major industrial centre under the government of the People's Republic, and later, at the opening of China. It moved on to become the city with the most remarkable development in the service sector. China felt the need for fundamen-tal reforms of its educational system. The reform in Shanghai was part of a national undertaking.

Shanghai belongs to an organised society and ap-proached education reform in an organised way. It would be inaccurate to describe the Shanghai reform as top-down, because unmistakable and remarkable initiatives emerged from the grassroots. However, the municipal government did not only design the reform but also effectively intervened in the process, for ex-ample in running schools and improving teaching.

FINLAND, A DISTINCT EXAMPLE OF EDUCA-TIONAL REFORM

Finland is one of the world's leaders in the academic performance of its secondary school students, a posi-tion it has held for the past decade. This top performance is also remarkably consistent across schools. Finnish schools seem to serve all students well, regardless of family background, socio-economic status or ability.

Since the publication of the first PISA results in 2001, Finland is now seen as a major international leader in education. It has consistently ranked in the very top tier of countries in all PISA assessments over the past decade, and its performance has been especially notable for its remarkable consistency across schools. No other country has so little variation in outcomes between schools, and the gap within schools between the top and bottom-achieving students is extraordinar-ily modest as well. For these reasons, Finnish schools have become a kind of tourist destination, with hun-dreds of educators and policy makers annually travel-ling to Helsinki to try to learn the secret of their success.

LESSONS FROM FINLANDFor all of Finland’s perceived advantages of size, rela-tive cultural homogeneity, and (in recent years) eco-nomic strength, it is important to remember that as recently as 1970 only 30% of Finnish adults had


completed upper secondary school, and as recent-ly as 1993 Finland was in near economic collapse. Finland's ascent into the very top tier of educational performance was by no means inevitable: it was at least as much the result of a set of policy decisions deliberately taken, implemented thoughtfully, and sustained over a very long period of time as of fac-tors endemic to the country's culture and history.

One of the striking things about Finland's reform sto-ry is that the political consensus achieved 50 years ago that children should be educated together in a common school system has remained intact across numerous changes of government. Many countries pay lip-service to the importance of attracting and retaining a high-quality teacher force, but few have pursued this goal as single-mindedly as Finland.

Finland has managed to make teaching the single most desirable career choice among young Finns through a combination of raising the bar for entry into the pro-fession and granting teachers greater autonomy and control over their classrooms and working conditions than their peers enjoy elsewhere. Accountability clearly matters in Finland, but it is almost entirely a professional model of accountability. The strongest manifestation of that accountability can be seen in the degree to which Finnish schools are organised to take collective responsibility for struggling learners. Finnish teachers are trained to identify children who are having difficulty and to intervene before these children get discouraged and fall too far behind their classmates. The fact that every school has a specially trained intervention specialist the special teacher- means that the regular classroom teacher has easy ac-cess to support and that struggling children are much less likely to go unnoticed or to fall through the cracks.

LESSONS FROM THE USThe United state was certainty founded on innova-tion and competitiveness. Educational Institutions are ranked on certain parameters with schools rank-ing the best in each state made to compete nationally to determine their national score. The rankings are based on many factors, but the high school must pro-duce measurable academic outcomes across a large number of important academic indicators. In addi-tion, a great public high school will have a good repu-tation with recruiting colleges and be highly ranked in measures of student satisfaction and faculty quality.

As recently as 1993 Finland was in near economic collapse. Finland's ascent into the very top tier of ed-ucational performance was by no means inevitable: it was at least as much the result of a set of policy deci-sions deliberately taken, implemented thoughtfully, and sustained over a very long period of time as of factors endemic to the country's culture and history.

One of the striking things about Finland's reform sto-ry is that the political consensus achieved 50 years ago that children should be educated together in a common school system has remained intact across numerous changes of government. Many countries pay lip-service to the importance of attracting and retaining a high-quality teacher force, but few have pursued this goal as single-mindedly as Finland.

Finland has managed to make teaching the single most desirable career choice among young Finns through a combination of raising the bar for entry into the profession and granting teachers greater au-tonomy and control over their classrooms and work-ing conditions than their peers enjoy elsewhere. Accountability clearly matters in Finland, but it is al-most entirely a professional model of accountability.


The strongest manifestation of that accountability can be seen in the degree to which Finnish schools are organised to take collective responsibility for struggling learners. Finnish teachers are trained to identify children who are having difficulty and to intervene before these children get discouraged and fall too far behind their classmates. The fact that every school has a specially trained interven-tion specialist the special teacher- means that the regular classroom teacher has easy access to sup-port and that struggling children are much less likely to go unnoticed or to fall through the cracks.

LESSONS FROM THE USThe United state was certainty founded on innovation and competitiveness. Educational Institutions are ranked on certain parameters with schools ranking the best in each state made to compete nationally to deter-mine their national score. The rankings are based on many factors, but the high school must produce meas-urable academic outcomes across a large number of important academic indicators. In addition, a great public high school will have a good reputation with recruiting colleges and be highly ranked in measures of student satisfaction and faculty quality. For instance in 2012, while the School Without Walls High School ranked 1st within District of Columbia in US, the school na-tional ranking was 266th . Students of the School Without Walls High School have the opportunity to take Advanced Placement course work and exams. The AP par-ticipation rate at School Without Walls High School was 95 percent.

School for the Talented and Gifted ranked the 1st in Boston as well as obtaining the 1st national rat-ing of schools in the US. The School for the Tal-ented and Gifted follows the state's Distinguished Achievement Program, and places an emphasis on Advanced Placement curriculum a minimum of 11 AP courses are required for graduation. Students at the School for the Talented and Gifted may con-duct field research via partnerships with local uni-versities and take electives such as Web mastery.It is not too surprising that the School for the Tal-ented and Gifted ranked the 1st in Boston as well as obtaining the 1st national rating of schools in the US. This may not be unconnected with the lo-cation of the school in Boston, having proxim-

ity to where the top ranking Harvard Univer-sity and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are also located in Boston, Massachusetts.

SINGAPORE A COUNTRY OF RAPID EDUCA-TIONAL IMPROVEMENT AND HIGH PERFOR-MANCESingapore is one of Asia's great success stories, transforming itself from a developing country to a modern industrial economy in one generation. During the last decade, Singapore's education sys-tem has remained consistently at or near the top of most major world education ranking systems.

From Singapore's beginning, education has been seen as central to building both the economy and the nation. The objective was to serve as the engine of human capital to drive economic growth. The ability of the government to successfully match supply with demand of education and skills is a major source of Singapore's competitive advantage. Other elements in its success include a clear vision and belief in the centrality of education for students and the nation;

persistent political leadership and align-ment between policy and practice; a focus on building teacher and leadership capac-ity to deliver reforms at the school level; ambitious standards and assessments; and a culture of continu-ous improvement and future orientation that benchmarks edu-

cational practices against the best in the world.

When Singapore became independent in 1965, it was a poor, small (about 700 km2), tropical island with few natural resources, little fresh water, rapid population growth, substandard housing and recur-ring conflict among the ethnic and religious groups that made up its population. At that time there was no compulsory education and only a small number of high school and college graduates and skilled work-ers. Today, Singapore is a gleaming global hub of trade, finance and transportation. Its transformation from third world to first in one generation is one of Asia's great success stories (Lee, 2000). All chil-dren in Singapore receive a minimum of 10 years of education in one of the country's 360 schools.


Singapore's students were among the top in the world in mathematics and sciences on the Trends in Inter-national Math and Science Study (TIMSS) in 1995, 1999, 2003 and 2007. They came fourth in literacy in the 2006 progress in International Reading Lit-eracy Study (PIRLS). Their excellence is further underlined by the fact that Singapore was one of the top-performing countries in the 2009 PISA survey, the first PISA survey in which it participated. Singa-pore was rated as one of the best performing educa-tion systems in a 2007 McKinsey study of teachers (Barber and Mourshed, 2007), and was rated first in the 2007 IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook (IMD, 2007) for having an education system that best meets the needs of a competitive economy.

The growth of the global knowledge economy required a paradigm shift in Singapore's educa-tion system towards a focus on innova-tion, creativity and research. A key instru-ment as Singapore intentionally navigated towards the global knowledge economy has been the gov-ernment Agency for Science, Technology and Re-search. At the school level, Singapore created a new educational vision, Thinking Schools, Learning Na-tion. This major milestone in Singapore's educa-tion journey recognised Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong's belief that a nation's wealth in the 21st cen-tury will depend on the capacity of its people to learn.

Thinking Schools represented a vision of a school system that can develop creative thinking skills, life-long learning passion and nationalistic commitment in the young. Learning nation is a vision of learning as a national culture, where creativity and innovation flourish at every level of society (Lee et al., 2008).

LESSONS FROM SINGAPORESingapore is both a rapid improver and a continuing high performer. If we believe that large-scale change in educational performance is not possible, Singapore has shown several times over that significant change is possible. Singapore has developed a high-quality system in terms of educational retention, quality and efficiency. To become and remain high-performing, countries need a policy infrastructure that drives per-formance and builds the capacity for educators to deliver it in schools. Singapore has developed both. Where Singapore is today is no accident. It is the re-sult of several decades of judicious policy and effec-tive implementation. On the spectrum of national re-form models, Singapore's is both comprehensive the

goal has been to move the whole system and public policy-driven.

THE KOREAN EXAMPLEMaking education an impor-tant issue for a country is criti-cal for an outcome in school. In Nigeria, for instance, it used to be that passing the National

Common Entrance Examination or gaining Univer-sity admission was a matter for celebration in the whole neighbourhood. Today, education has been relegated to the periphery of our society; students can no longer identify the importance of education in a society where University students could stay home for four months over ASUU strike without any impact on the economy or in the wider society.

Consider the situation in Korea,, where according to Amanda Ripley, during a national test, the Ko-rean Electric Power Corporation would send its men to monitor the power supply to the schools, to avoid disruption. The stock market would de-lay opening for one hour to avoid chaotic conges-tion of students trooping to write their exams. Taxis would give students free rides; and Police Officers

Consider the situation in Korea,, where according to Amanda Ripley, during a national test, the Ko-rean Electric Power Corporation would send its men to monitor the power supply to the schools, to avoid disruption. The stock market would de-lay opening for one hour to avoid chaotic con-gestion of students trooping to write their exams.


would be mobilised to patrol the school premises to discourage motorists from honking their horns to disturb students. During the English language listening portion of the test, airplanes are ground-ed to prevent noise from disturbing the students. For a country that does these to its students to give education the kind of attention it deserves, are we surprised that Korea is a leader in the PISA test?

THE LESSON FROM POLAND In 1997, in a new book by Amanda Ripley, titled, Smartest Kids, in the World and how they got that way, Poland appointed Miroskaw Handke as Educa-tion Minister, an outsider, a chemist by profession and an accomplished one at that but one that knew next to nothing about education or education policy. At the time he took over, Poland faced an existen-tial crisis in which only half of rural adults finished primary school. Poland was relegated to low skilled and low paid jobs other Europeans did not want to do. He then embarked on an ambitious educa-tion Reform Programme that had four main points:

First, inject rigour into the system. The new pro-gramme mould fundamentally layout goals, but leave details to school and government which require a quarter of the teachers to go back school to school to improve the system. Secondly, accountability - students would start taking standardized test at regu-lar intervals through their schooling.The third reform was adding an ex-tra full year in high schools, delaying grad-uation from high school to age sixteen.Fourthly, autonomy - teachers would be free to chose their text books and curriculum from the over one hundred approved curriculum and earn bonuses on how much development they did.The reform was bold in conception and novel but met stiff resistance from entrenched interest in the education industry, yet the minister persisted.In year 2000, three years after the programme, pol-ish student, fifteen old took the PISA exams and ranked 21st in reading and 20th in Maths, below the United State and below the OECD average for the developed world. A very poor out come.In 2003, a new group of polish took PISA. This is now six years after the reform and the result was interesting. Poland ranked 13th in reading and 18th in Maths just above the US in both subjects.In space of three years, Poland had caught up with the developed world. This was a surprising out come in that reforms normally take many years to have impact,

but this clearly showed that a clear minded reform can produce outcomes if properly focused in a short time.

GOING FORWARDThe Future of Nigerian Education educational sys-tem must be built on existing foundations by improv-ing on those structures and at every level we need to focus on areas for improvement using national and international metrics to measure performance. I am delighted that this award ceremony for excel-lence is a wake up call for us to reinvent the pub-lic schools that can front leap Akwa Ibom state into the league of global competiveness that is the hall-mark of the present information age. Certainly the map of oil is changing, therefore Akwa Ibom must invest more in the education of the future genera-tions. This will then make us confident that their tomorrow is fully assured and prosperous. The on-going transformation in the state requires conscious strategic planning that would produce a generation of educated, well skilled, and competent manpower that would not only sustain the ongoing progress but cause quantum improvement in positioning Akwa Ibom and Nigeria as the pride of the black race.

In conclusion, I strongly believe that in advancing the development of qual-ity education in Akwa Ibom state there is need to:

• Set up an independent committee made up of experts in the education sector to study the ex-isting educational policy of the state and come up with workable strategies that will trans-form the educational sector in Akwa Ibom

• Considering international metrics, educa-tion experts should debate how new cur-ricula and assessment strategies can en-hance the relevance and impact of learning.

• Develop a rigorous, research-based teacher-education programmes that prepares teachers in content, pedagogy, and educational theory, as well as the capacity to do their own research and


craft creative academic solutions for teaching;• Evolve an educational policy that in-

centives attendance of public schools, which can compete better than prod-ucts of private schools. One of the ways to achieve this is to recruit, develop, re-ward, and retain effective teachers and principals, while developing a reliable data base capable of measuring stu-dents success and feedback teachers on their performance while exploring smart-er procedures for improving teaching.

• Create a significant financial support for teacher education, professional de-velopment, reasonable and equitable salaries, and supportive working condi-tions. This would include granting long term loans to teachers which are writ-ten off based on their continued em-ployment as teachers up to ten or more years after attracting the loan facilities.

• Factor the measurement of the impact of teachers and their teaching as a ma-jor parameter in the ranking of schools.

• There should also be a policy on continu-ous tracking of student's performance, es-pecially those that did well in their JAMB and pre degree examinations to see the correlation to their final academic perfor-mance at graduation, to see if consistencies are maintained. This would certainly fos-ter the spirit of continuing high performer.

• Reforming school curriculum by increas-ing the emphasis on deep understand-ing with ability to apply knowledge to solving new problems and thinking crea-tively rather than narrowing performance to written examinations, which some-times make students to memorize only for purpose of passing examinations.

• Designing flexible educational programmes with flair for greater curricular choice for students and more latitude for authorities at the local communities to decide on ex-amination content, aimed at loosening the

constraints on curriculum and instruction.• Commence a conscious programme that

would present students of Akwa Ibom pub-lic schools to participate and excel in inter-nationally known educational rating pro-grammes, especially the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA).

• Build a sense of shared understand-ing and common purpose among key stakeholders and groups in order to achieve system coherence and continuity.

CONCLUSIONTo improve the quality of our education, we need to study what other countries did that made a positive difference in their edu-cational system and remodel it to suite our own system. Just recently, the United States President, Barack Obama launched one of the world's most ambitious education re-form agendas called, race to the top. The agenda encourages US states to adopt inter-

nationally benchmarked standards and as-sessments as a framework within which they can prepare students for success in college and the workplace; recruit, develop, reward, and retain effective teachers and principals; build data systems that measure student suc-cess and inform teachers and principals how they can improve their practices; and turn around their lowest-performing schools.


The world today is a global village. If we must make education the foundation of our future, if we must cre-ate knowledge based - economy; then we must orient ourselves with what other countries have done to beat the global standard. We must make a quantum leap in restructuring our educational system from being a mere box for students gathering to citadel of innova-tion and value. As drivers of Nigerian future economy, you are not only competing within the blue waters of our national sea but against the global ocean current.

Akwa- Ibom then under the Calabar Kingdom was among the first in the country to have a taste of western education in Nigeria with the establishment of Hope Waddell Training Institute, Calabar as far back as in the 1895 and the Methodist Boys High School, Oron in 1905. As a land of promise, it is time for Akwa-Ibom to reclaim its pride of place in the educational arena. By shifting your paradigm towards this line of thought and through concerted efforts from the parents, teach-ers and the government, I have no doubt in my mind that the educational system should be able to transform into a world class model, producing enviable gradu-ates capable of creating an emerging economy that will compete globally, while Akwa Ibom; the state of promise remain a society where no man is oppressed.

Thank you for listening.

References:

Goswami, R. Economic growth and higher education in India and Chi-na. July 2012

Gusau, B,U., Educational reforms in Nigeria: successive years of in-consistencies and confusions Paper presented at the Gusau Educational Development Association (GEDA), interactive session. January 2008.

Harmon, C., Oosterbeek, H., Walker, I., The Returns to Education. A Review of Evidence, Issues and Deficiencies in the Literature, Centre for the Economics of Education, LSE, 2000.

Nwalor, J.N. Reviving Academic Standards in Nigerian Universities: Role of the Academia OECD 2010 Strong Performers and Successful Reformers in Educa-tion: Lessons from PISA for the United States

OECD (2011), Lessons from PISA for the United States, Strong Per-formers and Successful Reformers in Education, OECD Publishing. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264096660-en

OECD 2012 Strong Performers and Successful Reformers In educa-tion: Lessons from PISA for Japan

http://www.wise-qatar.org/content/improving-education-systems

http://nigeria.prognoz.com/en/Maphttp://saction.org/books/Citizens_Report_2012.pdfhttp://www.elombah.com/index.php/articles/nasir-el-rufai/11812-ak-wa-ibom-s-budgethttp://www.ngex.com/nigeria/places/states/ogun.htmwww.ogunstate.gov.ngwww.nuc.edu.ng

www.nigerianstat.gov.ng

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” – Nelson Mandela

“Next in importance to freedom and justice is popular education, without which neither freedom nor justice can be permanently maintained.” – James A Garfield

“Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army.” Edward Everett

“Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.” – Malcolm Forbes

“If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement and mystery of the world we live in.” – Rachel Carson

“Education is essential to change, for education creates both new wants and the ability to satisfy them.” – Henry Steele Commager

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it- Aristotle

Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire- William Butler Yeats

Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.- John DeweyRead more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/topics/topic_education.html#BfY97SLcqrqUWy38.99

Quotes on Education


ONE-ON -ONE WITHOnyenso Esther Amarachi

Can we meet you? I am Onyenso Esther Amarachi. I am from Abia state. A graduate of banking and fi-nance from University of Nigeira, Nsuka. I served at the Teaching Service Commission in Lokoja, Kogi state. I was born on 21 March 1989. I attended st Anthony nursery and pri-mary school and for my secondary school I went to Nigeria Christian Seminary, Aba.

You said you studied banking and finance, how come you emerged the overall best out of the 160 people that participated in the essay competition on road safety titled, "Road traffic crash my future in my hands?"

My discipline and the essay that came up were not related but I am somebody that has passion for safety tips. I actually and pur-posely joined Road Safety for the passion. I went for road safety recruitment during my school days but I with my exams at hand, I had to let go. My dream is to see how much I could contribute in reducing carnage on our roads. I joined road safety to help in my little way to eradicate the high rate of road traf-fic crash in Nigeria and the essay provided

me with the opportunity to write hence I used the platform to offer advice to road us-ers. Just as the topic has it, the future is in my hands. I think we should not leave the whole work for FRSC instead we should col-lectively keep ourselves safe from crashes.

How did you get to know about the completion? During my NYSC days, I was a road safe-ty club member as part of my Commu-nity Development Service (CDS). The Competition was announced to us in July at one of our CDS meeting and I de-cided to participate in the competition. You are no longer a corps member, when did you pass out?

10th October, 2013

During your NYSC what was your con-tribution in your place of assignment? My work was more of secretariat job. I helped in compilation of the centralized mock examination when due and which is usually very tedious. During the last cen-tralized mock exams we worked tired-ly in contributing to national service.

With your load of work how did you have the time to write the essay?

Actually the work load was very heavy dur-ing my PPA. I was also the treasurer of my


passing out group in my fellowship, the NCCF an acronym for the Nigerian Christian Corpers Fellowship. Though I had so much in my hand I still had to create time to take care of my personal needs and growth. And because of my keen interest in road safety, I had to create that time in writing the essay.

When you wrote the essay, were you expecting to emerge the best nationwide?

It was my least expectation, however I give glory to God that my effort was adjudged the best in the while coun-try. I only know that while writing the essay I took it seriously and I wrote to the best of my ability. For it to now become the best essay nationwide, I truly thank God and also appreciate the organizers for giving me the opportunity to dis-cover this writing talent in me.

Are you aware that the competition was named after the son of the founder who died in a road crash?

Yes

How did you feel when you learnt that it was organized in memory of the young man?

I felt pity for the founder who had to lose her son, who happened to be a young man and a law graduate. One could hardly imagine the pains the parents went though losing a son to road traffic crash. I think the concept is a wonderful one as it will continue to keep the memory alive. As they keep celebrating or re-membering him through this channel, it will also serve as a conscious reminder to all our road users to equally know that as individuals we can help in our own small ways to keep our

life safe and with God on our side we shall. That the young he died as a youth from road crash, it means that Road Traffic Crash has no respecter of age, race , sex or colour. We need to know that RTC can kill anybody but if we are careful road users and have considerations for other road users we can avoid road crash.

When you were informed that you won the prize how did you feel?

I felt good when I emerged the first position, more es-pecially knowing that my effort was not in vain. I sincerely appreciate the organizers of the competi-tion. I pray that the gentle soul of the young man in whose memory the com-petition is organized to rest in perfect peace. I also thank our mummy, justice Mensie Monica for organ-

izing this programme without being weighted down by the death of her son she want to en-sure that the Nigerian youth is careful when using the road. I pray that the good Lord keeps her and the members of her family safe.

What advice do you have for your colleagues especially those you just passed out with and most especially the Nigerian youths?

My advice is as the saying goes God helps those who help themselves. We have a role to play to keep ourselves safe. With God on our side we can defeat road traffic crash which happens to be no respecter of person.

Do you think that FRSC is doing enough to keep our roads safe?

One can only do his best and leave the rest for God. FRSC has been working hard to eradicate road traffic crashes, they should


equally look into our road construction by advising the appropriate agencies on how roads should be safely constructed in or-der to reduce rate of environmental factors that lead to road crashes. As FRSC contin-ues to do its best, other agencies should join hands in the fight against road traffic crash.

How do you see Federal Road Safety Corps in the next 100 years?

I see an organization with the might to eradi-cate traffic crashes and create a safe motor-ing environment to the extent that we shall have a zero percent crash rate in the country.

What are your hobbies?

I enjoy travelling, especially on good roads. I listen to gospel music and I cook.

Who is your role model?

No man is best enough to be my model except God.

Are you married?

No, I am single

Steps to becoming a purposeful leaderIt is said that salespersons are trained in the power of a first impression. Great speakers dedicate hours to opening statements. Jour-nalists are warned never to bury the lead. Ath-letes practice racing out of the starting blocks. Interviewees are taught the importance of their initial handshake with a potential employer.

In leadership, as in many other areas of life, the beginning often determines the end. False starts and weak foundations can be damaging. Here are five insights to help you start successfully.

1. Start with Yourself

If you want change, start with yourself. By so doing, you build the self-confidence needed to attract and inspire others. Leading your-self well is a leads to achievement. And tri-umph earns respect. In order to make de-posits in the lives of followers, you have to have a beginning balance in your leadership account. Start leading by proving your met-tle - to yourself and to prospective followers.

2. Start early

Many people waste their early years doing nothing to improve themselves towards be-coming the leaders they desire to be and spend the rest of their time trying to make up. In leadership, as with finances, decisions made early in life accrue the most interest. When we choose poorly or establish bad habits, we put ourselves in debt. Then, we must not only repay our loans, but the interest on them as well. On the flip side, when we invest our time and talent wisely from a young age, we reap the benefits of compounding interest on our leadership.

3. Start Small

Don't expect to understand what it takes to get to the top, just take the next step. Think big, but start small. Doing so encourages you to get started, and keeps you from being frozen by the magnitude of the vision in front of you. When you accomplish a small step, you gain confi-dence that you can accomplish the next step.


4. Start with the end in mind

To start with the end in mind, you need vigor and direction. Let your passion pull you forward, and let your planning give you direction. In order for passion to be a driving force in your life, you must iden-tify a purpose for your life. To locate your purpose, consider your strengths, interests, and past successes. What roles do you find most enjoyable? What brings you the great-est sense of satisfaction? Examine the areas that make you feel strong and angle your career toward them. Also, find people who

have been successful in the area of your in-terest. Listen to them and watch their lives.

5. Start Now

We exaggerate yesterday, overestimate to-morrow, and underestimate today. Embrace action daily. Don't wait until its too late before you begin to pursue the visions implanted in your heart. Make each day your masterpiece; you wll be surprised where you end up after stringing together a few months of superb days.


EMERGENCY CALL LINE: 0700- CALL-FRSC (0700-2255-3772)

EMERGENCY TEXT MESSAGE LINE: 0807 -769- 0362

FRSC EMERGENCY TOLL FREE LINE ON ALL NETWORKS: 122

frsc emergency

Converting data into intelligence for making evidence based decisionConducting global monitoring and benchmarking

Conducting surveys and internal consulting for departments and corps officesOffering technical assistance and coaching to departments and corps Offices

Phone:+234 8077201236+234 7036136152

Planning Advisory Unit

frsc insight october 2013 edition finale (2)

Documents

aircraft tyres

vehicle tyres

manufacturers of tyres

importance of tyres

aircraft tyres

motor vehicles tyres

aircrafts tyres tread

guarantee safety