[size=14pt]Jonathan inaugurates committee on scholarship for best brains[/size]



President Goodluck Jonathan has inaugurated a committee to scout the nation’s tertiary institutions for the best 100 first-class students that will be given scholarships to further study abroad.

Inaugurating the Special Committee on Scholarship for Best Brains in Abuja, on Thursday, the president instructed the ten-man committee to completely eschew the quota system in the selection process and go for the best brains.

The committee is expected to select the best 100 first-class students in some specialized courses such as the sciences, engineering and economics from universities in the country and expose them to the best facilities in the world.

In a bid to encourage and enhance knowledge transfer, beneficiaries of the scholarship after their graduation, are expected to lecture for the first five years, in the nation’s institutions, after which they can go on to be on their own.

The President, who is a doctorate degree holder, condemned the dearth of academics in the nation’s tertiary institutions, where only 60 percent of lecturers are doctorate degree holders.

President Jonathan noted that such a situation must change if Nigeria is be transformed.

He charged the committee headed by the executive secretary of the Nigerian Universities Commission (NUC), Professor Julius Okojie, to shun quota system and work only on merit in the selection of the brains for the scholarship programme.

According to the President, for Nigeria to maintain its status as a leading African country, and for the transformation agenda of the government to succeed, the government must pay more attention to the development of human capacity.

To this end, he pledged a total commitment to changing the educational system, across all levels from primary to tertiary.

New Ambassadors

The President also on Thursday received the letters of credence of three new ambassadors to Nigeria.

The new envoys are Mr Tagelsir Mahgoub Ali of Sudan, Mr Paul William Lumbi of Zambia and Mr Antonio Da Graca Correia of Sao Tome and Principe.

President Jonathan welcomed the ambassadors to Nigeria and assured them that the government would work closely with them to improve and strengthen the already warm relations with their countries.

The new ambassadors expressed appreciation for the reception, and pledged to pursue mutually beneficial cooperation with Nigeria during their different tenures.

http://www.channelstv.com/home/2012/05/24/jonathan-inaugurates-committee-on-scholarship-for-best-brains/

oduasolja: 70 percent of them will be yoruba , mark my words

70 percent is an exaggeration.It's a national, not South West, list!!!!! 20-32% is more realistic. But I have no doubt that the South will dominate the list and even within south, yes, the West will dominate it. The job of the committee (it seems GEJ like committee a lot) is made easier already in some schools like UI where there is Dean's Roll of Honour in each faculty. All that's needed is to compile such lists and submit them for national competition. There is no point sending names, just send the matric number with the CGPA.

This is one policy I have absolutely nothing against and can only wish it could have been much earlier. It should also be put on record that OBJ canceled the only FG scholarship in 2004. FG used to pay 40k-60k based on performance in the test then to some good students with good heads on their shoulders only for OBJ, in his usual manner, to cancel it without any cogent reason.

If the programmee is implemented faithfully, as in without any form of quota system, it won't take five years that opposition will mount against it as the list will primarily be that of South Nigeria. Thereafter, a modification will surface with some propositions for the best of the worst to be considered and the whole scheme then get bastardized. Time will tell.

^
The committee might be in place to inject federal character (which should be stoutly resisted) since it is an FG thing. It should go to strictly the best students.

Also, insentives should be given to the most inventive - the best performing students are not always the brainiest, indeed the brainiest students tend to be disinterested in school (since it is unchallenging) and to underperform.
A great example is Thomas Alva Edison - the wizard of Menlo Park; on one occasion an inspector visited his school, the inspector was so pleased with what he had seen and gushed with praise... Only for Thomas Edisons teacher to point out that it was ok for praise to go to every other child, but Thomas Alva Edison, whom she described as "somewhat addled."
Everywhere Thomas Edison went, people described him as mentally slow or having mental issues. To cut a long story short, Thomas Alva Edison became the greatest inventor of all time with over a thousand inventions to his name.

oduasolja: 70 percent of them will be yoruba , mark my words

70% is too high. But if pure merit, a disproportionate # of these brainy students will be Yoruba.

ekt_bear:

70% is too high. But if pure merit, a disproportionate # of these brainy students will be Yoruba.

JAMB scores do not bear this out.
Rather, it would tilt toward Delta, Anambra, Imo and Rivers; those are the real powerhouses of performance and statistics bears that claim out.

Beaf:

JAMB scores do not bear this out.
Rather, it would tilt toward Delta, Anambra, Imo and Rivers; those are the real powerhouses of performance and statistics bears that claim out.

https://www.nairaland.com/725471/2011-jamb-utme-data-state

In particular, look at the statistics of those getting above 170 on JAMB by zone.

This suggests that SW indigenes perform better on average on at least this particular standardized exam than other people do.

How do you select top 100? Will there be a specialised test for those with 1st class? I'm sure some students with 2.1 will beat some of the 1st class students from certain schools.

ekt_bear:

https://www.nairaland.com/725471/2011-jamb-utme-data-state

In particular, look at the statistics of those getting above 170 on JAMB by zone.

This suggests that SW indigenes perform better on average on at least this particular standardized exam than other people do.

Can you provide a link to the original source of the information on that naijapolitics forum?

I'll see if I can dig it up.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NIgerianWorldForum/message/132321
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/asaba/message/13577
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NigerDeltaForum/message/3138

This wasn't the particular forum I read it on initially, but the above contains the same information (or most of it, anyways).

ekt_bear:


https://www.nairaland.com/725471/2011-jamb-utme-data-state

In particular, look at the statistics of those getting above 170 on JAMB by zone.

This suggests that SW indigenes perform better on average on at least this particular standardized exam than other people do.

The highest JAMB scores are always provided by the states I mentioned (Delta, Anambra, Imo and Rivers). I forgot Edo, by the way.
Edo, Delta, Anambra, Imo and Rivers also provide the highest JAMB successes and university intakes per capita.

Its a proven statistic, year after year.

Thanks for the links. Anyway, I don't think that for the best few students in a country what you posted about barely passing to barely average scores on jamb will be particularly relevant. There will likely be little difference between groups in the south at the more high achieving end.

1. I've not seen anything in previous years suggesting that the highest scores come from any of those states you mention. Can you provide a reference backing this up? E.g., average JAMB performance per zone?
2. For the year referenced above, your statement is false. The highest JAMB pass rate was in the SW. 87.73% getting above a 170 in the SW, 84.29% in the SE, 81.58% in the SE.

ekt_bear: 1. I've not seen anything in previous years suggesting that the highest scores come from any of those states you mention. Can you provide a reference backing this up? E.g., average JAMB performance per zone?
2. For the year referenced above, your statement is false. The highest JAMB pass rate was in the SW. 87.73% getting above a 170 in the SW, 84.29% in the SE, 81.58% in the SE.

Per capita is the key phrase you should be looking out for. I noticed in your only link I looked at, that the SS had about the same number of JAMB applications as the SW, whereas we certainly lag far behind in terms of population.

By your own figures, your claims are false.

PhysicsQED: Thanks for the links. Anyway, I don't think that for the best few students in a country what you posted about barely passing to barely average scores on jamb will be particularly relevant. There will likely be little difference between groups in the south at the more high achieving end.

Granted, the spreadsheet only looks at cutoffs of 170 and 180 (iirc, other cutoffs weren't handy).

But I think that it is safe to say that one distribution has a higher mean than the other (at least, assuming that something perverse isn't happening).

Therefore, the trend is likely to persist at higher thresholds.

Beaf:

JAMB scores do not bear this out.
Rather, it would tilt toward Delta, Anambra, Imo and Rivers; those are the real powerhouses of performance and statistics bears that claim out.

JAMB scores are great but don't translate to making a first class. In fact, there is no good correlation between JAMB scores and performance in the university. That was what necessitated the so called post JAMB which had also been bastardized in many schools, it's become more or less a cash and carry thing. A survey carried out in UI, when I was there, showed that that many first class students had their JAMB scores with 220-260 bracket. 70% of students scoring 290 and above found it very difficult to cope and had to make the tsunami list-as in students sent away for poor academic performance.The UI experience was in large extent similar to many schools and the post JAMB policy was pushed through. So take JAMB scores with a pinch of salt. Infact, UI places high premium these days on WAEC than on a one-day exam called JAMB.

The North is a write off (sorry no derogatory remark intended) as far as the competition is concerned as the best students in such schools as ABU, UNIJOS, etc are often from the SOUTH, much same way that their faculties are dominated by the southerners. No competition.

The statistics is difficult to predict unless there is a pattern after first year of implementation. But based on the geographical spread of Yoruba students and of course the serious devotion given to education, South West can not lag behind in such a list. So I still stick to 20-32%, much so when almost half of the country can not even compete.

Beaf:

Per capita is the key phrase you should be looking out for. I noticed in your only link I looked at, that the SS had about the same number of JAMB applications as the SW, whereas we certainly lag far behind in terms of population.

By your own figures, your claims are false.

1. You seemed to have missed my other question earlier. I asked, where is this reference claiming that the top JAMB test takers were from any of the states you mentioned?
2. What is the relative population of the SS zone indigenes relative to SW zone indigenes? Is it truly far less that of the SW zone?

Here is the table of interest, btw:



Is the population of SS indigenes truly much less than that of SW indigenes, as Beaf seems to be suggesting?

My rough guess of the Yoruba population in Nigeria is ~40 million or so. Some of these are from Kwara and Kogi. So let's say ~32-35 million SW indigenes?

I don't think that the SS is that far behind, population-wise. Akwa Ibom is a very populated state. So is Rivers. So is Delta. Bayelsa is relatively unpopulated. Edo is pretty populated. Cross Rivers as well.

So it isn't entirely clear to me that we have massively, massively higher population in the SW zone (indigenes, mind you, not residents).

The population of the SS is 20 million approx.

By your own data, your claims are false.

bayooooooo:
JAMB scores are great but don't translate to making a first class. In fact, there is no good correlation between JAMB scores and performance in the university.

This I would find surprising if true. Perhaps weaker correlation than one might expect. But zero correlation? That seems implausible to me.

ekt bear:

Therefore, the trend is likely to persist at higher thresholds.

I'm not sure you have enough information to assume that it would, really. At the level of say getting 320+ or whatever is considered a high score, the number of people will be so few that it's unlikely that a significant difference would exist based on edging out other states by a few percent in numbers of barely competent or barely average students.
By the way, and this may be a silly question or something that should be obvious, what does column c represent in the spreadsheet you posted? Are columns f and d supposed to add up (along with the numbers from other cutoffs) to equal column c?

If indeed the total population of SS indigenes in Nigeria is 20 million out of a country of ~170 million or so, then yes, the SS is by far the most impressive region educationally both on a per capita PASS rate perspective, as well as a per capita TAKE rate perspective.

But somehow, I suspect that you are just making the number up. In any case, doesn't really matter too much...I think my point has been made abundantly clear.

Out of curiosity, are you ever going to provide a reference/citation for those claim that most of the top scorers on JAMB come from those states you mentioned?

PhysicsQED:

I'm not sure you have enough information to assume that it would, really. At the level of say getting 320+ or whatever is considered a high score, the number of people will be so few that it's unlikely that a significant difference would exist based on edging out other states by a few percent in numbers of barely competent or barely average students.

It depends on what assumptions I'm allowed to make. People typically assume normality (or approximate normality) for things like exam results, IQ, SAT, etc. So assuming that I'm allowed to make these standard assumptions that everyone else does, then yes, it does follow.

By the way, and this may be a silly question or something that should be obvious, what does column c represent in the spreadsheet you posted? Are columns f and d supposed to add up (along with the numbers from other cutoffs) to equal column c?

The data was sourced from those links I posted earlier. So almost all of your questions can be answered by comparing the two. Column C is the total # taking, per state.

ekt_bear:

This I would find surprising if true. Perhaps weaker correlation than one might expect. But zero correlation? That seems implausible to me.

There is no good correlation as students with top scores are often out performed by students with lower scores. It's not my proposition or my theory, it is based on several surveys in many schools nation wide which culminated in post-JAMB policy. Otherwise, why should a student take a post-JAMB exams if JAMB was deemed reliable?

bayooooooo:

JAMB scores are great but don't translate to making a first class. In fact, there is no good correlation between JAMB scores and performance in the university. That was what necessitated the so called post JAMB which had also been bastardized in many schools, it's become more or less a cash and carry thing. A survey carried out in UI, when I was there, showed that that many first class students had their JAMB scores with 220-260 bracket.

Reminds me of this dude in UNILAG who had the best jamb score of the year of about 340 . . . but became the scorn of his Engineering class cos his performance was shyte poor . . . It was such a sad story