Learning a language allows students to think the unthinkable. It allows us to think, feel, speak, listen, read and write in new ways we never thought possible. We learn new things about ourselves. Intercultural understanding has always been an important part of language learning.

Therefore VINJOK is positioned to help you broaden your outlook and become more open-minded to learn other languages. VINJOK will also broaden your scope in diverse language by integrating new personality in your mind, which occurs every time you dig deeper into a new language

Register at https://forms.gle/52g4WgHzPbUXzADt6

Chinese is now considered as an important language worldwide because of its increase in presence in the business world. Chinese are involved in many businesses throughout the world Learning their language would be the best way to open the doors to a lot of other business opportunities

WHY LEARN CHINESE

Important For Travelling
It’s a fact that the mandarin language in spoken in a lot of areas. From Beijing to Singapore, there are many people who use this language. So, if you want to make your journey entertaining, you must learn this language. On top of that, by learning their language, it would be easier for you to communicate with the locals.

World’s Biggest Language
Chinese is considered one of the biggest languages in the world. You would be surprised to know that around one-fifth of the entire world population speaks Chinese as their native language. By learning this language you would be able to cover a fair bit of the whole world. Learn this language and enjoy the benefits of it.

Economically Important
One of the most important reasons to learn Chinese as a second language is that it is very important in terms of the economic factors. Look at the countries who use Chinese as their language, they include Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong and China, it will be so much easier to gain access to this big share of business if you can converse in Chinese.

Useful In Business
Another thing about learning Chinese as a second language is that it is very useful in business. If you are doing business with Chinese people and you are unable to understand Chinese, then it would be impossible for you to understand the deal without translators. If you can understand and converse in Chinese, there would be significant chance to make this deal successful.

Ancient Culture
Another thing which can attract you towards learning Chinese as a second language is that it is a very ancient culture. By learning this language in depth, it will help you a lot in learning and delving into the most ancient literature

 

French is a major language of international communication. It is the second most widely learned language after English and the sixth most widely spoken language in the world. French is also the second most widely taught language after English, and is taught on every continent.

More than 220 million people speak French on all the five continents. French is a major language of international communication. It is the second most widely learned language after English and the sixth most widely spoken language in the world. French is also the second most widely taught language after English, and is taught on every continent. The OIF, an international organisation of French-speaking countries, is made up of 77 member States and governments. France also operates the biggest international network of cultural institutes, which run French-language course for close on a million learners

WHY LEARN FRENCH

A career asset
The ability to speak both French and English is an advantage for finding a job with the many multinational companies using French as their working language, in a wide range of sectors (retailing, automotive, luxury goods, aeronautics, etc.). France, as the world’s fifth biggest economy, attracts entrepreneurs, researchers and the cream of foreign students.

An introduction to an incomparable cultural universe
France is often considered the language of culture. A French lesson is a cultural journey into the worlds of fashion, gastronomy, the arts, architecture and science.

An advantage for studying in France
Speaking French opens up opportunities for higher education at some of France’s best-known universities. Students with a good level of French may be eligible to apply for a French government grant to enroll on a postgraduate course of their choice in France, leading to an internationally recognized postgraduate degree.

Visiting Paris and the rest of France
France is the world’s top tourist destination and attracts more than 79,5 million visitors a year. The ability to speak even a little French makes it so much more enjoyable to visit Paris and all the regions of France (from the mild climes of the Cote d’Azur to the snow-capped peaks of the Alps via the rugged coastline of Brittany) and offers insights into French culture, mentality and way of life. French also comes in handy when travelling to Africa, Switzerland, Canada, Monaco, the Seychelles and other places.

The language of international relations
French is both a working language and an official language of the United Nations, the European Union, UNESCO, NATO, the International Olympic Committee, the International Red Cross and international courts. Proficiency in French is essential for anyone considering a career in any international organisation.

A language that opens up the world
After English and German, French is the third most widely used language on the Internet, ahead of Spanish. An ability to understand French offers an alternative view of the world through communication with French speakers from all over the world

The language of the Enlightenment
French is the language of the universal ideals advocated by the philosophers of the 18th century Enlightenment, who helped to spread the idea of human rights throughout the world.

A language that is fun to learn
Contrary to popular belief, French is not a difficult language to learn. It is a language that requires a certain precision but is also capable of expressing great subtlety. It does not take long to reach a level where you can communicate in French. There are many methods on the market that make learning French enjoyable, starting with the first years of school. French also appeals to students because it is a soft, melodious, romantic language.

 

Portuguese is the sixth most spoken language worldwide, with 222 million native speakers — mostly in Portugal and Brazil, but also in several African countries. There are also almost a million native-Portuguese speakers in the USA.

WHY LEARN PORTUGUESE

large number of people speak Portuguese
Portuguese is very widely spoken, so it is not some old, unnecessary language you will never use. World language resource Ethnologue estimates that there are over 236 million Portuguese speakers in the world, including a whopping 222 million native speakers.

Portuguese is spoken in a lot more places than you may think
When you think about Portuguese, chances are you immediately think of Brazil and Portugal.

While the language is most well-known for being spoken in these countries, you can find it in some other, more unexpected places. Portuguese is also widely spoken in Sri Lanka, Goa, India and Macau, China. So you might find yourself needing your Portuguese skills in Europe, South America, Africa or even Asia!

Learning Portuguese opens up worlds of travel opportunities
Portuguese is spoken in some very popular tourist destinations.

If you enjoy beautiful beaches or enchanting rain-forests, learning Portuguese can help you on your next trip to Brazil.

Can getting in touch with the Earth’s electrons improve your well-being? We look at the science.

 

The concepts are ones that we all can understand. Celebrating nature. Improving health. Getting a good night’s sleep. Strengthening the primordial bond between humans and the planet on which we live.

The science of it all? Well, that’s a little harder to grasp. Which is why earthing — the practice of physically getting in touch with Mother Earth to better your health — remains fact for some and fiction for others.

 

In Defense Of Earthing

Backers of the practice of earthing — also known as grounding — often point to a 2012 study in the Journal of Environmental and Public Heath entitled “Earthing: Health Implications of Reconnecting the Human Body to the Earth’s Surface Electrons” to prove their point. (There are other studies, too, that earthing proponents tout, but the JEPH one is their touchstone.)

The article concludes that, “Emerging evidence shows that contact with the Earth — whether being outside barefoot or indoors connected to grounded conductive systems — may be a simple, natural, and yet profoundly effective environmental strategy against chronic stress, [autonomic nervous system] dysfunction, inflammation, pain, poor sleep, disturbed [heart rate variability], hypercoagulable blood and many common health disorders, including cardiovascular disease.”

How does one “earth?” Well, it can be as simple as the act of walking barefoot outdoors. There, with bare skin on bare earth — this, again from the JEPH article — “Reconnection with the Earth’s electrons has been found to promote intriguing physiological changes and subjective reports of well-being.”

It is, earthing proponents state, all in the electrons. The Earth’s surface is electrically conductive, enabling free-ranging electrons to jump into the human body. That is, providing nothing else — say, that pair or rubberized sneakers — gets in the way.

Once at one with the body, the electrons “rebalance” the electrical state of the body and create, according to the article by Gaétan Chevalier, Stephen T. Sinatra, James L. Oschman, Karol Sokal and Pawel Sokal, “a stable internal bioelectrical environment for the normal functioning of all body systems.”

OK. But what about indoors, sleeping or working or eating? Can you get your electrons on indoors?

Many earthing products — sheets, pillowcases, mats for the floor, etc. — are sold (red flag! red flag!) so that you can get all that good earth energy with a roof over your head. The products all have some kind of energy conductive material — metal strips of some kind — woven into the product. The product is plugged into the grounding hole of any electrical outlet. That ground, of course, should have a direct line to the earth.

So, from ground to your king-sized bed on the second floor — you’re earthed. All you need are a couple grounding products, sold on several websites. These sites, it must be pointed out, have direct ties to some of the the authors of the aforementioned study (red flag!).

 

Speaking Out Against Earthing

Dr. David Gorski, on the blog Science-Based Medicine, leaves no earth unscorched in his assessment of the practice.

“Basically, it’s the overlaying of ‘science-y’-sounding terminology to earth worship, where the power of the earth somehow maintains and protects us, and the cause of all illness is because of man’s ‘disconnectedness’ from the earth,” writes Gorski, a surgical oncologist at the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute at Wayne State University in Detroit. He’s also chairman of the board of directors for the Society for Science-Based Medicine, a group which is dedicated to promoting good science in medicine and opposing pseudoscience in medicine.

“Basically,” Gorski writes, “it’s magical thinking on par with homeopathy.”

The Wall Street Journal did a look into earthing in a 2014 article entitled, “Will Getting Grounded Help You Sleep Better and Ease Pain?” and found it lacking in credibility, too. Author Laura Johannes interviewed professors and electrical engineers who confirmed that, yes, walking barefoot outdoors, or inside on a grounded mat, can cause the body to absorb electrons.

But, they point out, that happens all the time. Plus, they say, nothing is special about the Earth’’ electrons.

Johannes writes that there is “little credible proof of health benefits,” according to the experts the Journal interviewed.

Dr. Andrew Weil is the founder, professor and director of the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona in Tucson. He’s also a best-selling author of books on holistic health.

In a 2013 article on his site, DrWeil.com, he addresses the controversies surrounding earthing.

“We’ll need additional studies of better design and with more participants before we can know whether it is really possible to derive health benefits from earthing,” Weil wrote. “While the studies done so far are intriguing, some of the hype for earthing is over-the-top.”

In the end, there are proponents of earthing who are steadfast in their belief that it works, and that the science-based community (along with some journalists and other unsavory characters) are out to get them. And there are hard-nosed skeptics who look at earthing as a scam, as a bunch of scientific hooey and, at worst, as a capitalistic enterprise designed to take money from sick people.

As Weil suggests, more studies are never a bad thing. Until then, though, most would probably agree that a little barefoot walk in the park now and again can’t hurt.

 

Quality education is one that provides all learners with capabilities they require to become economically productive, develop sustainable livelihoods, contribute to peaceful and democratic societies and enhance individual well-being.

Remarkably, major progress has been made in access to education, specifically at the primary school level, for both boys and girls. Still, at least 22 million children in 43 countries will miss out on pre-primary education unless the rate of progress doubles.

According to the United Nations Development Programme statistics

• Enrollment in primary education in developing countries has reached 91 percent.
• Still, 57 million primary-aged children remain out of school, more than half of them in sub-Saharan Africa.
• In developing countries, one in four girls is not in school.
• About half of all out-of-school children of primary school age live in conflict-affected areas.
• 103 million youth worldwide lack basic literacy skills, and more than 60 percent of them are women.
• Globally, 6 out of 10 children and adolescents are not achieving a minimum level of proficiency in reading and math.

There is little doubt that the failure of countries like Nigeria to attain real appreciable progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) was what led to the adoption of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGAS) in New York on September 25, 2015.

With this in mind, the SDG 3 is designed to achieve inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all by 2030.

 

THE STATE OF NIGERIAN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM

Long before the adoption of the SDGs in 2015, Nigeria’s educational system had variously been rated poor by many analysts.

In the early 2000s, a lecturer in the Department of English Language at the University of Abuja, argued that contrary to what many people think, the standard of education in Nigeria had not fallen as there is only one excellent standard. He posited that what had gone bad were things that ought to sustain that standard. Controversial may be but the remark is not far from the truth.

One of these ‘’things’’ is facilities, many of which, as at the early 2000s, were moribund in many tertiary institutions, secondary and primary schools across the country. It was so bad that the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) embarked on a six-month strike to protest, among other matters of concern, the poor state of education in Nigeria’s universities.

Clearly, little was achieved by the strike, as 12 years later, ASUU again called its members out on strike to protest what it called “the abysmal state of Nigerian Universities. In embarking on the fresh strike, ASUU said that the Federal Government had failed to honour the agreement on improving the university system that it had reached with the union in 2009. The strike also lasted six months and in order to resolve it, the government agreed to release the sum of N200 billion per annum to be disbursed to Nigerian Universities over a five-year period.  But issues surrounding the 2009 agreement remain unresolved, and ASUU has again threatened to go on strike. Nor is ASUU the only body to do so, as associations of Polytechnic and College of Education lecturers had also embarked on strike action over the government’s failed promises or breaches of contract.

This negative trend is even more disheartening at the basic level.

The Universal Basic Education (UBE) Programme is key to achieving development goals. Established in 1999, UBE’s primary objective is to eradicate illiteracy, ignorance and poverty as well as stimulate and accelerate national development, political consciousness and national integration. For such a critical agency, it is surprising that even by its own admittance, since it was set up, its progress was hampered by lack of an enabling law to execute certain aspects of the programme. This issue was addressed on the 26th of May 2004, when President Obasanjo signed the Universal Basic Education Act into law. The results achieved, however, has been less than satisfactory.

In 2016, the management of the Universal Basic Education Commission released a distressing statistics on the state of education at the primary level in Nigeria. It was revealed that Nigeria had the highest number of out-of-school children in the world which was estimated to be around 10.5 million, something UBEC considered a worrisome trend and remains a major challenge in the delivery of basic education in the country.

A high percentage of these out-of-school children are in northern part of Nigeria, and in this regard, the report states that over the last decade, Nigeria’s exponential growth in population has put immense pressure on the country’s resources and on already overstretched public services and infrastructure. With children under 15 years of age accounting for about 45 percent of the country’s population, the burden on education and other sectors has become overwhelming. Forty percent of Nigerian children aged 6 -11 do not attend any primary school with the Northern region recording the lowest school attendance rate in the country, particularly for girls. This statistics was compiled by UNICEF in 2005.

By 2015, the situation had not changed, as another UNICEF report revealed that 10.5 million children are out of school in Nigeria, with more than 60 percent of them girls.

These, however, are just a tip of the iceberg as there are a plethora of other underlying problems at the various levels of the educational system in Nigeria. These issues have dealt a crippling blow to the system through poor funding, discriminatory practices, decayed infrastructure, weak and obsolete legal and regulatory regimes, wanton and wilful breach of agreements as well as serial and sustained cases of impunity in the sector.

 

THE WAY FORWARD

It is not all doom and gloom for the Nigerian educational system even if the stats confirm that it is indeed a herculean task. The government has a major role to play in reversing this ugly trend.

The introduction of incentives like nutritious and delicious school meals could go a long way to get children back into school. A feeding programme as has to introduced and sustained by the federal government. A hungry child cannot concentrate in school.

The State Universal Basic Education Board has an essential action plan that must be seen through by the government. The cardinal points are enumerated below.

• SUBEB works to ensure unfettered access to nine years of formal basic education.
• The provision of free Universal Basic Education for every Nigerian child of school going age.
• The drastic reduction of the incidence of drop-out from the formal school system, through improved relevance, quality and efficiency.
• Ensuring the acquisition of appropriate levels of literacy, numeracy, manipulative, communicative and life skills.
• Ensuring the acquisition of  ethical, moral and civic values needed for laying a solid foundation for lifelong learning.

Alas, all these cannot be achieved if billions of naira meant for improving the quality of basic education continue to be misappropriated and unaccounted for.

Attaining progress on education and meeting the SDG 4 goal will go beyond planning without effective implementation. As the experts have said, amongst other things, it will also require improved funding of the sector, the political will to curb corruption and mediocrity, and partnership with the private sector. While the Federal Government has collaborated with the private sector, including foreign agencies, on education matters in the past two years, it needs to deepen such engagement.

Also, it is of utmost importance to put an end to strikes and ensure uninterrupted academic sessions; the government should – as a matter of urgency – establish a statutory body that must meet periodically to dialogue and negotiate with stakeholders on issues affecting the education sector.

Beyond such collaboration, direct private sector involvement could go a long way towards improving not only the quality of education but also providing less privileged children with the opportunity to go to school. In February 2017, a foundation established by Nollywood actress, Tonto Dike, pledged to renovate some schools in Warri and provide items such as books, whiteboard and school uniforms. Clearly, all hands must be on deck if we are to run this race to the finish line.

 

Quality education is a human right and a public good. Governments and other public authorities should ensure that quality education service is available freely to all citizens from early childhood into adulthood. Quality education provides the foundation for equity in society.

The benefits of quality education in a society cannot be overemphasized. Education liberates the intellect, unlocks the imagination and is fundamental for self-respect. It is the key to prosperity and opens a world of opportunities, making it possible for each of us to contribute to a progressive, healthy society. Learning benefits every human being and should be available to all.

Despite the pessimism expressed by many Nigerians, the country would do well to be part of the successful group that achieves Quality Education status come 2030.

The chief objective of SDG 3 is to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.

According to the United Nations Development Programme statistics

• Each year around the world, more than 6 million children die before reaching their fifth birthday.
• Children born into poverty are almost twice as likely to die before the age of 5 as those from wealthier families.
• Measles vaccines have averted nearly 15.6 million deaths since the year 2000.
• Over 6.2 million malaria deaths were averted between 2000 and 2015, primarily of children under 5 years of age in sub-Saharan Africa.
• Maternal mortality has fallen by almost 50 percent since 1990. In East Asia, North Africa and South Asia, it has declined by around two thirds.
• An estimated 2.1 million people were infected with HIV in 2013, down 38 percent from 2001.

Giant strides have been taken in increasing life expectancy and reducing some of the common killers associated with child and maternal mortality, but working towards achieving the target of less than 70 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births by 2030 would require improvements in skilled delivery care.

In Nigeria, the major challenge to the attainment of the SDGs is the lack of awareness and inadequate sensitization of the public of these goals, what they entail and how their implantation impacts the quality of life of the average citizen. Studies in Nigeria show that more than 50% of the population is unaware of what the sustainable development goals are or how they affect their own development. How then can these goals be achieved if people do not know about them or how they fit into the implementation of the goals?

Governments have the prerogative to ensure that people understand that they play a large role in taking up actions especially regarding identifying one particular goal which speaks to them the most, connecting it all on how best the other goals can be achieved.

Unfortunately, people in Nigeria continue to experience avoidable deaths; they continue to die of treatable illnesses. The habit of periodic medical check-up has still not been formed and swaths of the population only go to the doctor or to the hospital when seriously ill only to be misdiagnosed or wrongly medicated.

Most of the time, people seek medical assistance when the illness has reached an advanced stage. In some cases, no medical attention is sought due to paucity of funds. In such situations, individuals are forced to seek quack or native doctors. It is rather absurd!

The realization of SDG 3 face a serious challenge as so very little has been done when there is clearly much to do.

Since independence, Nigeria has survived on public health “guesstimates”, rather than informed estimates. There is no single dependable, reliable, validated and easily verifiable public health dataset in Nigeria. Even organisations that ought to have these datasets like the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) do not have a validated, verifiable dataset of those enrolled into the insurance system. All attempts to have national ID cards, proper censuses and nationwide surveys have failed to deliver verifiable results. This account for seemingly “150 – 200%” coverage rates on National Immunization days, even when there are obvious deficiencies in the process. The basis for most calculations and projections are very faulty. Good Health And Well-Being cannot be attained in Nigeria when there are no real baseline data with which to compare progress.

There is the absence of formative, midcourse and proper end-line evaluation. Lots of resources may be invested into the management of SDGs but all that would be futile if little was done in terms of progress (formative), midcourse and end-line (summative) evaluations to effectively and scientifically look at the progress of the roll-out of the SDG program. If these are to be done, it would give the managers early warning signs on when the delivery of the SDG program is going off-course, and thus, necessitate midcourse corrections. Evaluations, audits and consequent corrections would need to be carried out. Rather, the program is dependent on oral reports, informal adhoc data from program managers designed to make the National President and the world happy, as well as positive newspaper reports of opening of new healthcare centres, donation of medical equipment and increased employment of healthcare workers. These are wrong measures of success.

In a recent study conducted by the Pan African Medical Journal and presented at the 38th/39th West African College of Physicians Annual General and Scientific Meeting in Abuja, Nigeria, there were more than 10 different healthcare workers’ strikes in Nigeria over a 36-month period. These paralyzed the healthcare industry, resulting in avoidable mortality and morbidities, as well as catastrophic health expenditure and resultant outgoing medical tourism.

Children and pregnant women are the worst victims of the healthcare worker industrial action. Without access to affordable healthcare services, deaths are inevitable.

The upscale of social discord, killings and bombings in the northern part of Nigeria; and kidnapping in southern Nigeria reversed the gains of so many years of investments in healthcare in Nigeria, especially in affected communities. Today, there are several hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons who are current victims of communicable diseases, malnutrition and several other social problems. This figure was estimated to be 1,538,982 as of April 2015 by the internally-displaced monitoring centre. As these people live on charity, have limited access to healthcare services, school enrolment and healthy shelter, their health and emotional conditions are far from ideal. These people are also denied access to quality care, even when they could afford it. Sexual exploitation and harassment has led to several unwanted pregnancies and maternal deaths. Fear of attacks has led to mass exodus of healthcare workers resulting in brain drain of the health sector, closure of healthcare facilities and deserted communities, causing difficulties in accessing healthcare during emergencies, outbreak of communicable diseases, and many avoidable deaths and complications.

The absence of National Health Insurance Scheme is a genuine cause for concern. As at mid-2012, NHIS still covered only about 3 percent of the population (that is about 5 million individuals). By the time of this report, less than 6 percent of Nigerians have access to health insurance schemes in Nigeria. Again, this figure is not verifiable, nor is it reliable. People pay for services from out-of-pocket expenditure, accounting for more than 60% of healthcare costs in Nigeria. This results in various types of delays including accessing care, seeking care, receiving care at the health facilities, obtaining prescribed care, and delays in leaving the healthcare facility after treatment has taken place. These delays deepen the physical challenges of the patients and facilitate nosocomial infections, which usually results in additional associated cost of care.

Difficult as it sounds, it is not all doom and gloom for Nigeria. The SDG 3 can be met but only with seriousness and commitment. The Federal government must engage in meaningful collaborative effort with state and local governments to stem off the enigma surrounding the country’s healthcare system. The era of paying lip service to healthcare should be done away with.

Proper and measurable process (formative) evaluations are critical at key intervals and should be built into the implementation plans. This will help keep the implementation of the SDG 3 program on course, and when deviations occur, make corrections early enough to achieve the goal as at 2030. Systems should be developed and put in place in all segments of the health system – including fund management systems.

Individuals should be trained and retrained to ensure proper reorientation with a new integrated care mentality. These trainings should also be aimed at building transparency into the system, developing skilled data managers and excellent evaluators who will conduct both the process and summative evaluations.

The time to work differently in Nigeria is now. Positive change is a choice, and not a chance occurrence. Change results from choices made, not a product of what is happening. It is triggered by purpose, passion, focus, sacrifices, and discipline. Nigeria must make positive changes to achieve Good Health And Well-Being come 2030.

A unique opportunity to study in Brazil – the World’s 5th largest economy, and arguably the most ecologically diverse country in the world. Brazil is a veritable mecca for culture tourists, academics, artists and eco-travelers.

Successful candidates will obtain full scholarships for post-graduate studies, and tuition scholarships for undergraduate studies.

The prerequisite 6-month language proficiency course which starts in October 2015 also offers entrepreneurs and other business professionals the chance to broaden their business horizons to include Brazil, Portugal, Angola, and other Portuguese-speaking countries in Africa.

To view a list of participating  Brazilian universities and the courses they offer click here.

Training Fees:

• Undergraduates ₦195 500.00
• Post-graduates ₦225 900.00

The training fees are payable once or half and then quarter twice, all prepaid. The fees are inclusive of the Celpe-Bras exam registration fees and learning materials.

Registration starts 17th of August.

for more info, contact: 01-453-2526 | 0803-755-4826 | 0810-514-3461 | sola@fote.org.ng