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Bauchi gov approves recruitment of 3,000 teachers
By Francesca Hangeior
Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed, has approved the recruitment of 3,000 teachers to be deployed to Junior and Senior secondary schools across the state.
The Project Coordinator, Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment in the state, Ali Gar, stated this on Thursday during a sensitisation meeting on the Girls Scholarship Programme with stakeholders from the Bauchi Local Government.
According to Gar, the move was part of the conditions for the implementation of the AGILE project in the state.
He explained that 2,000 teachers out of the figure would be deployed to Junior secondary schools while the remaining 1,000 would go to Senior secondary schools.
He said the move is to breach the pupils and students-teacher ratio gap across the benefitting schools under the project.
Gar emphasised “The teachers would be under the payroll of the state government and not AGILE Project.
“They would be recruited from the benefitting communities and this would ensure maximum participation on the side of the teachers, ease access, monitoring, and ensure ownership.”
The AGILE Project Coordinator equally revealed that the project would commence the payment of Conditional Cash Transfers to about 9,000 girls selected and registered as beneficiaries under the project in the next two weeks.
He explained that the conditional cash transfer scheme involved the payment of N15,000 as a registration fee to each of the beneficiaries and N20,000 as a stipend for the first term session.
He added that N10,000 would be paid to them for second and third term sessions respectively with the condition that each beneficiary must have 75 per cent attendance.
Gar, who said all ICT facilities, and skills acquisition tools for the project implementation have been procured, added that officials deployed to various communities were able to capture only 9,000 out of the 20,250 targeted beneficiaries in the past ten weeks.
He appealed to all stakeholders to monitor activities in their respective wards and communities to ensure that teachers perform their duties diligently.
On his part, while reacting to the development, the Executive Chairman, Bauchi Local Government, Mahmood Babama’aji commended the AGILE technical team for its effort toward the implementation of the project.
He expressed optimism in the capacity of all the School Based Management Committee members in delivering on their mandate.
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Israeli Reportedly AKilled 80 In Gaza Few Hours After Ceasefire Deal
The health ministry in Gaza says dozens of Palestinians have been killed by Israeli strikes ahead of a ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel.
Meanwhile, Israel has accused Hamas of backtracking on the agreement, with a planned cabinet vote on the deal pushed back.
Hamas says it is committed to a deal, but the BBC’s Rushdi Abualouf hears the group is attempting a last-minute push for the release of one or two symbolic prisoners from its movement.
One attack on a house near the Engineers Union Building in Gaza City in the north of the Gaza Strip on Wednesday night killed at least 18 people, Al Jazeera Arabic’s correspondent reported.
The Palestinian Civil Defence also said it retrieved the bodies of 12 people from Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood.
In central Gaza, five people were killed in an Israeli drone strike that targeted a gathering of people in the Karaj area in the Bureij camp.
The death toll, which was counted from dawn on Wednesday, continued to rise as Palestinians returned to shelter in their tents after briefly celebrating news of a ceasefire deal that was reached between Israel and Hamas on Wednesday evening.
“For a couple of hours, people turned this whole area into a stage of celebration, something we are not used to seeing here as this area used to be a stage for funerals for the victims of the war and a space filled with agony and sadness,” said Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza.
But the ceasefire does not start until Sunday and people in Gaza fear worse is to come before the Israeli bombing stops, Mahmoud said.
“We are expecting a surge in attacks by drones and heavy artillery, and that’s what caused people to end the celebrations after two hours,” he said.
Al Jazeera’s Anas al-Sharif, reporting from Gaza City, said intense Israeli attacks there had “extinguished” the joy people felt at the initial announcement of the ceasefire.
“Just hours ago there was an atmosphere of joy and relief among residents here when the ceasefire announcement was made from Doha, stating that it would take effect in the coming days,” al-Sharif said.
“However, immediately after the announcement, Israeli warplanes extinguished that joy for the people – striking hospitals, shelters, and homes with direct air strikes.”
Both Israel and Hamas have publicly acknowledged a ceasefire and captive exchange deal has been reached, although Israel has said some final details are still to be hashed out before the agreement is sealed.
In a statement, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had spoken with Israel’s negotiating team in Doha at dawn on Thursday, who briefed him on disagreements with Hamas related to which Palestinian prisoners will be released in exchange for captives during the first phase of the deal.
As of January 1, 2025, there are at least 10, 221 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, excluding the unknown numbers of Palestinians taken from Gaza and detained by the military, including Dr Hussam Abu Safia, the director of north Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital, which was destroyed by Israeli forces.
Izzat al-Risheq, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, earlier said the ceasefire deal met all of the Palestinian group’s conditions including the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, the return of displaced people to their homes, and a permanent end to war in the enclave.
The exact time the ceasefire is due to start on Sunday is not yet known, though the entire process will be implemented in three phases.
Recall that Hamas attacked southern Israel on 7 October 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 back to Gaza as hostages
The attack triggered a massive Israeli offensive on Gaza, during which more than 46,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
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