Second Home, Second Mother: Life Inside an Early Years Classroom

By Ohore Emmanuel Ufuoma



The Early Years classrooms have effectively become surrogate homes where educators now tie shoelaces, calm separation anxiety, supervise naps, enforce discipline, and provide comfort after minor injuries, which ought to be duties that should be performed by parents.

The extended work hours from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. for 6 days in a week, economic realities, and the proliferation of all-day, weekend-inclusive early learning programs have repositioned schools as the primary environment for early childhood development.

For a typical four-year-old, 9.5 hours in school accounts for about 75% of waking weekday time. With Saturday sessions added, the home is reduced to a space for meals, sleep, and brief routines.

The mandate of Early Years teachers has expanded far beyond academics. Current practice requires them to handle physical care, emotional regulation, and behavioral guidance concurrently.

Daily responsibilities include toileting assistance, feeding, conflict mediation, fatigue monitoring, and maintaining individual routines for 15–20 pupils.

Youth and State Actors: No Nation K1lls Its Future

Prior to the 2020 ENDSARS protest, at least 7 out of 10 Nigerian Youth aged between 17 and 35, would have faced one form of brutality, a wanton violation of human rights and or a total disdain for the rule of law from state actors, and the protest was the last straw that broke the camel’s back. Intended to be the first in the series of good governance demands from the Youth, it was not only slain, but several Nigerian Youth were also murdered in their prime. The few that survived, fled the country for safety, hence the now popular migration parlance, Japa. Japa is a combination of two Yoruba expressions, já | pa, meaning “to flee”. However, it’s more than an expression for migration as it reflects the desperations, hopelessness, and fears of the Youth. Better put, japa means to “flee to safety”.

From pre-colonial era, protests have continued to be a significant aspect of our civil life with different movements and groups addressing inflations, bad governance, unemployment, and insecurity in Nigeria. In 1929, a protest was staged by women in Southeastern Nigeria Abia State labelled Aba women riot against several colonial administration policies. Many years after in 2017, the Nigerian Army clashed with Youth in Abia State after setting up an operation code-named Operation Python Dance ll (Egwu Eke ll) in five states of the Southeastern region. Typical of state actors, actions don’t often march intentions. The military said the operation was to address kidnapping, armed robbery, among other crises in the region. Unfortunately, it only delivered anguish and gnashing of teeth to the people of Abia state.

Leaders had disregarded their criticisms, and, for some youth, it seemed futile to continue struggling for a Nation that seeks to destroy them.

This goes to prove to the international community that the ENDSARS protest of 2020 was not the first time state actors are violating human rights and frustrating the Youth. A writer, Ademolawa Michael Adedipe, in his Play published by Research Gate in 2021 had put it better. Adedipe said; “Python Dance was a brutal Military mission against those they were supposed to protect”. The situation in Nigeria is very scary as participating in any protest against the government is almost tantamount to a criminal offence for which some protesters have spent years in prison, tortured, maimed, killed or forced into exile, especially Youth leaders, protest sponsors or human rights activists.

URGENT: Vacancy for Lawyer

The service of a Legal Practitioner is urgently required in Lagos.

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When and How Often To Post on Social Media

Follow @davidblawal

I stumbled on this post and thought it useful for everyone who has a thing or two with the Social media space;; managing accounts or marketing brands and products.

One of the most challenging aspects of social media marketing is knowing when and how often to post. Organic posts are most challenging because you are relying on the algorithms to show your content to the right people. If your post isn’t relevant or appealing, people won’t interact with it and it will get pushed down in the news feed.

How To Create GIFs For Use in Journalism

This is a guide to making smoothly looped GIF, or cinemagraph. The process is a combination of two disciplines: making the loop and making the GIF.

It’s important to note up front that in this guide, both of these steps are accomplished with software in the Adobe Creative Suite. Any prosumer-level-or-better video editing software should be able to make the loop with the logic presented here. I’ll use Photoshop to make the GIF since it’s the most comprehensive tool I’ve seen. Other GIF outputters give less control over similar options, so you might still get something out of checking that section out if you don’t have this software.

Poem on Nigeria

 Oh! My Fatherland, I pledged to be faithful, loyal & honest

These I have achieved above average despite circumstances

Why watch me treated as a slave on your soil

Why am I not valued by those steering your wheels

I am like Leah Sharibu before insurgency

What shall happen if my faithfulness is faced with bandit's AK47

What if my daughter is among the 39 from Oyo still in the forest