Happy International Children’s Day - “A Better Future for Every Child”. By Sofonie Dala

 The theme for the 2022 Children’s Day is “A Better Future for Every Child”.

Sustainable or unsustainable?

Plastic pollution is an unnecessary and unsustainable waste of that resource

Our heroine for today is only 11 years old. On the weekends she sells plastic bags in this informal market among adult women.

According to her, she goes to school from Monday to Friday but on the weekends she is forced to walk long distances to sell plastics in order to help her mother who is going through big difficulties.

She sells each bag for 50 Kwanza, to liven up her day at the end of the interview I bought her a bag.

Although the idea of helping her family is good, it is important to educate people especially children that plastics are not sustainable and pollute the environment.

This video shows children protesting against the use of plastics. They encourage people to stop using plastics, saying it harms the environment.

Real Madrid Weren’t The Best Team In The Champions League This Season – Lionel Messi

 Lionel Messi believes Real Madrid were not the best team in the Champions League this season and hinted his PSG side were the better side in their round of 16 clash.

Los Blancos won their 14th European crown after Vinicius Junior scored the only goal in Saturday night’s final against Liverpool in Paris.

It was the culmination of a campaign that had seen Carlo Ancelotti’s men defeat the likes of the Reds’ Premier League rivals Manchester City and Chelsea on their way to the final at the Stade de France.

It was the culmination of a campaign that had seen Carlo Ancelotti’s men defeat the likes of the Reds’ Premier League rivals Manchester City and Chelsea on their way to the final at the Stade de France.

Read Full Story …. Dailymail.co.uk >>> :   

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New UK visa scheme is ‘retrograde’ – SA professor

 The UK’s new visa scheme for top global graduates, which does not include those from African universities, is “de facto” exclusionary and is “retrograde” and “self-limiting” a professor at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg has told the BBC’s Newsday programme.

The university rankings are “imperfect”, said Prof Lynn Morris, the deputy vice-chancellor of research and innovation at the university.

Alumni of the top non-UK universities who graduated in the past five years will be eligible.

To qualify, a person must have attended an institution that appeared in the top 50 of at least two of the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, the Quacquarelli Symonds World University Rankings, or The Academic Ranking of World Universities in the year they graduated.

Thirty-seven universities have made the list – most are in the US, but there are also some in Europe and Asia, none are in Africa.

“The ranking system I think is really not the right way to be choosing the best people,” Prof Morris said, “highlighting that each ranking has different universities on their lists.”

She said people from “the global south” approach problems in different ways to the northern hemisphere, and this is something that should be tapped into to encourage “equity and diversity”.

She also highlighted the strengths of South African science when it came to tracking Covid and in “helping the world develop vaccines”.

DNT News

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President Akufo-Addo Receives AFTRA Highest Award

 President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo was on Monday presented with the highest award by the Africa Federation of Teaching Regulatory Authorities (AFTRA) for promoting education in Africa.

The President was presented with a citation for improving access, quality and efficiency of education systems on the African continent.

The presentation took place in Accra at the ninth AFTRA and Learning Conference and 11th Roundtable on the theme: “Unpacking Teaching and Learning in Africa for Excellence, ” hosted by the National Teaching Council (NTC).

Mrs Frema Osei Opare, the Chief of Staff who received the award on behalf of the President thanked AFTRA and expressed gratitude and honour for the recognition.

President Akufo-Addo stated that Ghana considered education a critical pillar to human development, protection of human rights and the promotion of healthy lifestyles.

He said the Government had put in place interventions to ensure that there were adequate qualified teachers to improve learning outcomes.

The President said the Government through the NTC had developed the national teacher education curriculum, ensured that teachers got a minimum of degree qualification to teach at the basic levels, and instituted the Ghana Teacher Licensing Exams to improve their professionalism.

“My Government has invested heavily in education in terms of teacher development, infrastructure, access and participation, hoping to consolidate the gains for the benefit of all,” he said.

The President said the introduction of the free Senior High School policy had increased enrolment by 69 per cent, stressing that the Government was poised to work assiduously to meet the Sustainable Development Goal four.

He announced that Ghana recorded the best performance in the 2021/2022 West African Senior School Certificate Examination, outclassing its sister countries due to incentives given to teachers for the preparation of the students.

President Akufo-Addo said the Government had extended the free education policy to the Technical and Vocational Education and Training,(TVET) with the aim of equipping the students with employable skills and making them productive in life.

The President said the continent had developed frameworks for the teaching arena, including the Africa Continental Guidelines for the profession.

He announced that this year’s World Teacher Day would be celebrated on October 5, in Tamale, and expressed the Government’s commitment to continue to support NTC to regulate the teaching profession in the country.

Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, the Minister of Education, said the Government was working assiduously to move from textbooks and focus more on practical modes that would enable students to be creative and innovative.

That, he explained, was critical because the fourth industrial revolution focused on skills development, stressing that TVET was the missing link in the resolution of the country’s socio-economic challenges.

The Government, he said, had prioritised Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) programmes to transform the country’s socio-economic development.

For the nation to stay competitive, he said, there was the need to build a scientifically literate citizenry and a pool of highly STEM literate employees.

Professor Josiah Asiboye, the President of ASTRA, said the Federation had grown since its inception and contributed immensely to regulating the teaching profession in Africa.

The conference, he stated would among others, examined all issues relating to teaching and learning in the post-COVID-19 pandemic era and come out with strategies to mitigate challenges.

Dr Christian Addai-Poku, Registrar, NTC, Ghana said the Conference would share and learn experiences from countries to improve teaching and learning.

DNT News

 

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Todd Boehly-Clearlake Consortium Completes £4.25bn Takeover of Chelsea

 The Blues have changed hands after a glorious 19 years with a predominantly US-based consortium now at the helm.

The Todd Boehly-Clearlake Capital consortium has officially completed the purchase of Chelsea, ending Roman Abramovich’s 19-year spell running the club.

The total investment will cost £4.25 billion ($5.2bn), with £2.5bn ($3.2bn) ending up being the sale price of the club, while there is an agreement in place that £1.75bn (2.1$bn) will be invested over 10 years.

The purchase agreement was signed a fortnight ago and has been waived through by the Premier League Owners’ and Directors’ test, while the UK government, Portuguese authorities and European Union (EU) have all approved the financial transaction.

Read Full Story …. Goal >>> :   

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How spinal surgery inspired a Nigerian-American writer

 The award-winning Nigerian-American writer, who first wrote Black Panther’s T’challa character, said ;The Conversation programme that she started writing fiction “late” at the age of 20 during a “very pivotal moment” in her life.

“I was mainly an athlete and I loved the sciences and I loved reading, but that was as far as it went”, Nnedi Okafor said.

At the age of 19 Okafor has spinal surgery for severe scoliosis and was “mysteriously paralysed”. Doctors didn’t know if she “would ever walk again”, she recalled.

It was during her stay in hospital that she got what she described as a “spiritual” inspiration to write.

“I was in a lot of pain, I was in shock,” she said. “I had this book, I had a copy of Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot, and I was in too much pain to read it, and so I just started telling myself this story around the edges of the words.”

Okafor said visiting Nigeria in her childhood was what inspired her stories: “Those trips had a huge effect on everything, on who I am, how I perceive the world and how I imagine”.

She describes her writing genre as Afrofuturism and afro jujuism, which she defines as a “subcategory” of science-fiction rooted in African culture. Meanwhile afro jujuism is a “subcategory” of fantasy and weaves in African spirituality, she said.

She said there is a “long way to go” when it comes to diversity in publishing.

“I remember when my first novel and my second novel came out it was still a controversial, risk-taking thing for publishers to even put a person of colour on the cover, and I remember there being a discussion about that.”

Okafor is a recipient of the World Fantasy, Hugo and Nebula Awards. Her books have strong female leads and draw inspiration from her Nigerian roots. She has written 23 books and seven comics.

DNT News

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5,012 People Die From Tobacco-Related Illnesses Annually – Research

 About 5,012 people die every year from tobacco-related illnesses, out of the 3.5 per cent of the adult population who smoke in the country, according to data from the Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction, an NGO.

The Executive Director of Harm Reduction Alliance, Ghana, Samuel Cudjoe Hanu, who disclosed this at a press conference in Accra yesterday[May 30, 2022], therefore, called for increased education on the health implications of tobacco smoking and the need for tobacco harm reduction programmes to be made an integral part of Ghana’s public health system for healthier lives.

The press conference formed part of activities commemorating the 2022 World Vape Day, which was observed in Accra yesterday, and the World No Tobacco Day, which is being commemorated today.

The World Health Organisation established World No Tobacco Day in 1987 to draw global attention to the tobacco epidemic and the preventable deaths and the diseases it causes.

The theme for this year’s commemoration is: “Protect the environment”.

Tobacco health reduction
Tobacco health reduction is a public health strategy to lower the risk tobacco products pose to individuals and the wider society.

Mr Hanu said cigarette smoking was considered deadly because of the toxic mix of chemicals in smoke from the combustion of tobacco.

“We do not believe that there is ever going to be a drug-free society. There are some who cannot quit smoking cigarette, and for such people they should have options.

“Electronic nicotine delivery systems (EMDS), otherwise known as e-cigarette, is one of the harm reduction products which, when encouraged for use among smokers, will help them quit smoking or reduce the number of people who smoke,” he said.

He, therefore, advocated that instead of banning EMDS, the country should rather encourage people who smoked cigarettes to switch to EMDS.

“There have been concerns that because we do not know the long-term effect of EMDS, policymakers should ban them, but the WHO has described the system as 95 per cent safer than traditional cigarettes.

“Harm reduction products such as EMDS are effective ways to quit smoking. If you ban e-cigarettes, the chances of people going back to combustible smoking — cigarettes — are high, and that is dangerous,” he said.

Information
Mr Hanu further entreated the authorities to provide the right information on e-cigarettes and other reduced risk products for the public to enable smokers to have the option of switching from combustible nicotine products such as cigarettes to non-combustibles and reduced-risk products such as EMDS.

Source: graphiconline.com

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