By

Sagiru Ado Abubakar

As part of its contribution to support the school system to effectively guide and counsel
students, the Center for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) has on Tuesday,
April 19, 22 organized one-day workshop for Guiding and Counseling (G&C) officers of Science
and Technical Schools Board, Kano State. CITAD noted that the world is becoming complex and
advising young people for career prospects and trajectory is no longer easy. This is why career
counseling has to also change, become more heuristic and take into cognizance of the change
in work itself as well as the dynamics of the labor market at both micro and macro levels.
Giving his welcome remarks, Malam Yunusa Ya’u, Executive Director Center for Information
Technology and Development (CITAD) said that there is need guidance and counseling officers
of schools to continually be upgrading their skills in order to cope with the demand of their
tasks. He said that the workshop was organized to achieve the following objectives:
1. To introduce Guiding and Counseling (G&C) Officers to new developments in the area of
guidance and counseling
2. To update their skills and enhance their capacity in advising young students
3. To expose the participants to the use of technology for guidance and counseling that
will help them to carry out their task of guiding students better
The workshop took place at Hall B, CITAD Office, Kano and covered the following topics:
1. Labor Market Dynamics and Career Counseling of Young Students
2. Use of Technology in Career Counseling
3. Nurturing Creativity and Innovation in Young People

4. Pathways to Promoting Reading Culture among Students of Secondary Schools
Malam Kamaluddeen Umar, CITAD Technical Officer, said that his paper will look at some ICT
tools and platforms that can be used for guidance and cancelling for officers and students. He
explained that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has become global tools in
solving almost all aspect of human activities in an efficient way, guidance and cancelling is not
left out in leveraging this ICT and its tools. In education sectors, lots of applications and
platforms have been used both by teachers and students to disseminate and acquire knowledge.
Guidance and Counselors Officers can conduct surveys to learn more about what students need
or expect when it comes to educational guidance. A school counselor can distributes surveys to
students at the beginning of the school year to learn how things are going at home, at school,
and with friends. He then gave the following Digital Survey Tools:
 Send surveys, review your results and analyse charts and individual responses seamlessly
across your desktop, tablet, and phone.
 JotForm : online form builder and survey builder that lets you create and fill forms &
surveys for data collection even when you are offline.
 Nearpod: is instructional software that engages students with interactive learning
experiences. With Nearpod, students have the ability to participate in lessons that contain
virtual reality, 3D objects, PhET simulations and so much more. Interactive software
features empower student voice through activities like open ended questions within their
presentations, obtaining real-time data quickly.
While commenting on his paper, participants commented that when talking about technology
especially internet, teachers must seek for consent from both parent and ministry before they
allow their students to use internet. In rural areas where there is no internet connections to
use technology in guidance and counseling does not even arise. That’s the issue of access while
talking about affordability and availability of technological tools is another problem. They
forwarded their aforementioned challenges to the Science and Technical School Board, Kano
State.

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On Tuesday 1st March, 2022 the Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) organized a virtual dialogue to deliberate issues around slow uptake of the COVID19 vaccine. The dialogue which took place via the Zoom platform hosted two public health experts-Dr. Hassan Shuaibu Musa, Principal Medical Officer and Lecturer at Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi and Dr. Ma’awuya Aliu as speakers, Hon. Jafar Mohammed Zuru, Commissioner, Kebbi State Ministry of Health gave a keynote address while Dr. Mainasara Yakubu Kurfi, the Head, Department of Mass Communications, Bayero University Kano served as moderator. 

The one hour thirty minutes virtual event titled “Discussing COVID19 Vaccine Uptake Series 2.0” began with goodwill message from Hon. Jafar  Muhammed Zuru, Commissioner of Health Kebbi State who was represented by Haruna Abdullahi, Director Immunization and Disease Control in the Ministry, in the message he commended CITAD for organizing the dialogue adding that it is a timely effort as it brought qualified stakeholders to deliberate on the vaccination issue, he urged participants from various states to listen to the speakers with interest and make use of the strategies they will share during the dialogue. 

Hindrances and factors responsible for slow uptake of the vaccine, hesitancy or non acceptance of the vaccine shared by the speakers during the dialogue included the following:

1. Fear of side of adverse effect of the vaccine
2. Healthcare workers vaccine hesitancy 
3. Lack of national policy on vaccine administration
4. Lack of targeted communication strategy 
5. Lack of risk communication assessment mechanism and response strategy 
6. Unavailability of vaccines in some locations 
7. Lack of sufficient credible information on vaccine efficacy 
8. Societal perception on the virus and vaccine
9. Circulation of false narratives on the vaccine on social media 
10. Cultural and traditional beliefs on the vaccine
11. Poor vaccine administration and delivery 
12. Poor public knowledge COVID19 asymptomatic patients  

 It noted was during the dialogue that hesitancy of the vaccine by healthcare workers is heavily and negatively impacting the vaccination exercise, it was also learned that for example in Bauchi state only 11% of the state’s healthcare workers took the vaccine, the concern therefore was how would the public have trust and confidence in the vaccine if healthcare workers are also reluctant to take it? Another issue raised during the dialogue was that many people COVID19 patients are asymptomatic and the public justify their misconception on the virus, for example again in Bauchi state 78% of COVID19 patients were asymptomatic. After intense deliberation on the above areas, questions and comments by the dialogue participants, the speakers recommended the following:

1. Taking the vaccine should be made mandatory for all healthcare workers in order to boost confidence of the public on the vaccine. 
2. States should develop information dissemination and communication strategy to constantly engage the public on the vaccine. By extension it was recommended that live phone-in radio programmes should consistently be aired to provide detailed and sufficient information to listeners in local languages, respond to questions they have as well as use the programme to restrategize the information and communication chain. 
3. There is the need to have a national and state policy on vaccination, the policy should take into cognizance the contexts and peculiarities of different communities. 
4. Vaccination authorities should leverage mass gatherings-social, religious, traditional, etc with COVID19 vaccine.
5. There is the need to amplify positive testimonies on the vaccine particularly testimonies of people the public will believe and trust. 
6. There is the need to have a functional risk communication strategy
7. States should embark on mass campaign on the mainstream media, social media and local or traditional gatherings.   
8. Information and communication approach should target behavioural change

The Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) invited a former Nigerian diplomat, Ambassador Habu Ibrahim Gwani, to its monthly discussion on leadership and youth development titled ‘Inspiring Leadership Reflection Interactive Series (ILERIS)’.

ILERIS is an initiative of the Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) aimed at enriching the lives of young people through mentorship and inspiration.

Accomplished personalities from different backgrounds and professions are invited on monthly basis to speak to the participating youth about their lives, challenges, obstacles, successes, careers, etc with a view to unpacking some hints for the participating youth to copy and apply in order for them to also succeed in their endeavours and careers.

The discussion, which took place in the National Library of Nigeria, Gombe State, on 30th March 2022, was attended by youth and elders, who were opportune to be inspired by Ambassador Gwani through his speech about life experience and struggles, Today Post NG learned.

Ambassador Gwani took the audience back to his early life, from a tender age to studies, his vast years of experience in Nigeria and abroad, and his broad contribution to the community in and outside the country.

He opened up to the youth on the steps to success in life, saying any visionary youth must be focused and determined to make a difference in society.

In his speech, he described the struggles, challenges and rejections he went through before standing where he is today and achieving his goals was just the result.

The main secret of his life, he said, was being honest and trustworthy. Similarly, he attributes his behaviours to having parents who do not tolerate dishonesty and idleness in life.

He also called on the youth to look at his life and build upon their destiny, believing that only “a good boy becomes a good man”.

He also called on the youth to embrace technology in making their daily activities lives more manageable, especially in research and writing.

He finally called for massive writing, lamenting the scarcity of books and writings on the history of Gombe and Nigeria at large.

Confirming Ambassador Gwani’s speech, Professor Saleh Abdu described how he attended the same secondary school as Gwani, saying his life was truly inspiring since then.

After the discussion, the special guest of honour, and the Director of CITAD, President Dr Y Z Ya’u donated many books to the Nigerian Library, Gombe for the benefit of the people of Gombe State.

The Coordinator of the National Library, Gombe and the Host of the event, Mr Abubakar Yakubu received the books and expressed his gratitude to CITAD. He also explained how the library would distribute the books to 26 other National libraries around the country.