Education TETFAIR develops “Chord Hearing Device”, gets international recognition

By Maryam Abeeb

Innovative products developed under the Tertiary Education Trust Fund,TETFund, Alliance for Innovative Research, TETFAIR, programme have started getting global attention as the “Chord Hearing Device” developed by a team under the TETFAIR initiative recently got opportunity for exhibition at the prestigious Sheba ARC (Accelerate, Redesign, Collaborate) Global Entrepreneurship Programme.

A press statement obtained from TETFund, explained that the Chord Hearing Device is an innovative, affordable, and self-programmable hearing aid developed by Dr. Adebolajo Adeyemo and his team (Team 12) comprising Associate Professor Bolanle Oladejo and Dr. Oluwasola Adeniji), all from the University of Ibadan.

The statement noted that the team was selected to participate in TETFAIR based on its idea for a solution to the challenge of affordable and accessible hearing aid devices in Nigeria. Since the inception of TETFAIR, with the support of innovation, technology and venture creation experts, the team has made significant progress with the completion of the development of the first prototype, which is now being tested with users, as part of the proof-of-concept phase of TETFAIR.

“Dr. Adeyemo represented the team at the ARC Programme, where for 12 weeks, 29 startups from Israel, USA, Germany, Japan, Colombia, Nigeria, South Africa and Australia worked on finding solutions to pressing healthcare challenges.

“Based on the viability of his idea and good impression, Dr. Adeyemo was selected among 11 healthcare researchers from five continents to present their innovation to investors and experts at the final event of the Sheba ARC Global Entrepreneurship programme, held in Israel.

“Eventually, his innovation and pitch led him to also being selected among the 3 startups that presented their innovations at the ARC Global Summit in Tel Aviv on 14th June 2023.

“The TETFAIR journey of Dr. Adeyemo and his team is still ongoing and in the coming months, based on feedback from the user tests, the prototype will be refined and the product development will continue with the support of TETFAIR experts at Innov8 Hub, Abuja,”the statement read in part.

TETFund, however, said the Chord Hearing Aid will be presented at TETFAIR’s final showcase event at Innov8 Hub, Abuja, among other innovative solutions developed by members of the Nigerian academia.

“TETFund through the TETFAIR initiative, continues to support and guide members of the Nigerian academia through the critical journey of translating researches into innovation, solution and enterprise,” it said.

By Maryam Abeeb

UNESCO Read and Earn Federation (UNESCO REF) on Monday called on President Bola Tinubu to engage genuine education stakeholders to curb the menace inherent in child labour.

President of UNESCO REF, Abdulsalami Ladigbolu made the call in a statement as Nigeria joins other parts of the world to celebrate the International Child Labour Day, Ladigbolu spoke of the need for the president to be pragmatic in addressing the issues at stake in child labour.

According to him, June 12 has been set aside by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to remind the world about the menace associated with child labour.

”Child labour is a complex phenomenon and seems to have prevailed in spite of its being hazardous with associated consequences on the child and the laws of the land.

”We should also remember that child labour is a global issue and not peculiar to any country.

”An estimated 250 million children are working worldwide. This is important to remind us of the need for collective effort to address this problem because the majority of the children undergoing these circumstances are meant to be in school.

”As a concerned citizen and strong believer and supporter of smart intellectuals, I urge President Tinubu to take stronger action and strategic dynamics to address the issue,” he said.

Ladigbolu said it was important to study the factors contributing to child labour in various states/communities so that sincere and holistic action plans could be designed to address the fundamental causes of Child labour in Nigeria.

”This issue of child labour in Nigeria keeps increasing and changing in pattern, putting into consideration the generic factors and issues contributing to the children scrambling for purchasing power to cater to their immediate needs,” he said.

L-R.... Mr Sunday Osunrayi, Mrs Yinka Akirede, Mr Oladimeji Omiwole National president Wesley College of Science ( WESCOSA) Alumni 95 Set Elekuro Ibadan, Mrs Olanike Mustapha and Dr Bodunde Onifade during the inauguration of WESCOSA 95 Set Abuja Branch at NUJ press Center Utako yesterday in Abuja

By Maryam Abeeb

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has called on the government and other stakeholders to exploit the opportunities digitalisation offers for learning and development of Nigerian children.

This was contained in a statement issued by the UNICEF to commemorate the day of the African Child’s Day with the theme: “The Rights of the Child in the digital environment.”

UNICEF Representative in Nigeria, Cristian Munduate in the statement lamented that the disruption to education by school attacks has meant millions of children have significantly missed out on learning, noting that about 10 million children are not in school at the primary level.

Munduate added that attacks on schools and the abduction of learners exacerbate these challenges, as parents have become fearful of sending their children to school.

The statement further disclosed that UNICEF had last year collaborated with the Federal Ministry of Education to launch the Nigeria Learning Passport (NLP), an online, mobile, and offline digital learning platform powered by Microsoft that enables continuous access to 15,000 curriculum-aligned learning and training materials in local languages for learners, teachers and parents.

It said this was to bridge the access to quality learning opportunities, adding that since its inception, the Nigeria Learning Passport has provided access to quality teaching and learning resources to 280,000 learners, teachers, parents and young people.

Munduate noted that the education sector in Nigeria faces many challenges, including access to quality learning inhibited by low domestic spending on education, resulting in limited school infrastructure and qualified teachers, high levels of poverty, and social norms not supportive of education, especially for girls.

“Digital technology provides us with a platform to innovate and seeks ways for inclusive quality education for all children. I urge all stakeholders in the education sector to adopt and take the Nigeria Learning Passport to scale to reduce the number of children not receiving any education in Nigeria. It will also improve foundational literacy and numeracy”, she said.

“We’ve been fighting for more than 10 years to get the truth about what happened to my father acknowledged,” says Rosa María Payá.

Ms Payá, 34, never had any doubt that the car crash which killed Cuban dissident Oswaldo Payá and fellow activist Harold Cepero in 2012 was no accident.

“The Cuban regime killed my father and Harold Cepero,” she told the BBC after the release this week of a new report - issued by the leading regional human rights entity for the Americas - which concludes that Cuban state agents “participated” in their deaths.

Oswaldo Payá was one of Cuba’s main pro-democracy campaigners, who spent decades pressing for human rights and democracy on the Communist-run island, where political opposition is banned by law and actively persecuted.

Cuban authorities have long insisted that the death of Oswaldo Payá, denounced by state media as an allegedly CIA-backed “well-known counterrevolutionary leader”, was an accident. State media commentators have also attacked his daughter as a “liar”.

In 1988, Oswaldo Payá founded what became one of Cuba’s largest opposition groups, the Christian Liberation Movement.

He also created the Varela Project, a campaign aimed at gathering the 10,000 signatures needed under the Cuban constitution to petition the National Assembly for a referendum.

His plan was to bring about change in Cuba, which had been led by Fidel Castro since 1959, from the bottom up.

In the referendum, Cubans would have been asked if they backed changes to the law to guarantee freedom of expression and association, free and fair elections, and an amnesty for political prisoners.

Payá and his fellow activists went door to door asking for support and, in May 2002, they carried cardboard boxes bearing the signatures of 11,020 Cubans to the National Assembly.

But even though it had met the target, the Varela Project was not widely known at this point.

Cuba’s tightly controlled state media had ignored the petition, so many Cubans hadn’t heard of it.

That changed when former US President Jimmy Carter praised the