The Edo State Government has announced an indefinite postponement of resumption of all schools in the state over the hike in fuel price.

The government announced this in a memo by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Ojo Akin-Longe, in Benin on Saturday.

The permanent secretary said the resumption, scheduled for Sept. 9, was postponed until further notice.

“The Edo State Government hereby announces the postponement of the resumption of all public and private schools in Edo State, originally scheduled for Monday, 9th September 2024, until further notice.

“An official statement from the government has directed that schools remain closed due to the tension arising from the recent increase in fuel prices and the challenges faced by parents and guardians.

“The government urges parents, guardians, and caregivers to monitor the activities of their children and wards closely, given the current situation and the rising tension caused by the fuel price hike,” Akin-Longe said.

The federal government has launched an electronic quality assurance system for basic education in Nigeria.

The platform, called the Federal Education Quality Assurance Service Cloud Server (FEQAS Collect), was unveiled in Abuja on Thursday.

Yusuf Sununu, minister of state for education, spoke at the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) digital resource centre.

He said the system is designed to streamline the collection, analysis, and reporting of data related to the quality of education in schools.

The minister said the cloud server would essentially automate the Federal Education Quality Assurance Service Department.

He said the server would better equip the education ministry to monitor, evaluate, and improve education quality assurance processes.

Sununu, represented by the director of ICT Abubakar Isa, said the server would revolutionise the operation of the FEQAS department.

He said it would enhance data capturing, streamline processes for efficiency, boost efficient reporting, and fortify data protection.

Hamid Bobboyi, the executive secretary of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), said the manual conduct of school quality assurance evaluation and reporting has been fraught with delay and human errors, hence the need to automate the system.

He said UBEC adopted digital technology for school quality assurance evaluation to promote flexibility, accuracy, and timely reporting.

The executive secretary said the technical support the commission received from the National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) led to the development of “UBEC Collect” which is currently being used by Quality Assurance Officers in the Commission.

He said UBEC Collect is also used by State Universal Basic Education Boards (SUBEBs) and Local Government Education Authorities (LGEAS).

“The impact of the technological intervention in our school quality assurance evaluation encouraged us to extend the facility to the Federal Quality Assurance Services (FEQAS) in the overall interest of educational development in the country,” he stated.

Helen Okoro, the UBEC quality assurance director, said that the launch of the Federal Education Quality Assurance Services (FEQAS) and the UBEC Quality Assurance Officers (QAOs) guarantees a unity of purpose in school monitoring and evaluation of schools.

“The use of the digital tablet in conducting school evaluation is meant to simplify the work of the field officers so that all areas of whole school evaluation are effectively covered without difficulties,” she added.

At least 17 pupils have been killed after a fire torched Hillside Endarasha Academy, a boarding primary school in Kenya’s Nyeri county.

The inferno occurred late Thursday night and has left 14 wounded.

There are fears that the death toll could rise as over a dozen others have been taken to hospital with severe burns.

Resila Onyango, spokesperson for the Kenya national police service, said the bodies were “burnt beyond recognition”.

Onyango added that the cause of the fire is unknown, but that the service “will update the public when we know more”.

More than 150 pupils were said to be in the dormitory when it caught fire at around midnight local time, police added.

Local reports attributed the swift spread of the fire to the timber the school is made from.

One of the dormitories housing the students was razed, killing 16 in one fell swoop.

President William Ruto called the fire “horrific” and “devastating”, and ordered an investigation.

“Those responsible will be held to account,” Ruto said on Friday in a statement.

“The Government under the Ministry of Interior and Coordination of the National Government is mobilising all the necessary resources to support the affected families.”

The Kenya Red Cross said it is providing psychosocial support and has set up a tracing desk at the school.

There have been a series of school fires in Kenya in recent years, with many of them turning out to be arson.

In September 2017, nine students were killed in a fire at a school in Nairobi that the government attributed to arson.

In 2001, 58 schoolboys were killed in a dormitory fire at Kyanguli Secondary School outside Nairobi. In 2012, eight students were killed at a school in Homa Bay County in western Kenya.