|
8 Journalists bag DevComs Education
Reporting Awards
Newsdiaryonline Sat Oct 22,2011
Anthony Forson of NTA, Kaduna (left) recieving the award for
best in broadcast (Television) from Diron Onifade
Development Communications (DevComs) Network through its
Journalism Development Programme (JDP) on Education Sector in
Nigeria has awarded eight journalists from six states of the
federation and the FCT, for effectively reporting the status of
the Nigerian Education Sector. The award presentation held at
Bolingo Hotel and Towers, Abuja on Wednesday, was the completion
of the Journalism Development Programme on the Education Sector
which span between August 2010 and September 2011 to build broad
based understanding and action towards the acceptance and
support for initiatives on reform in the education sector in
Nigeria,
The awardees were selected from the 18 journalists who were
nominated from the 60 education reporters that were selected to
participate in the Lagos and Kaduna capacity building, out of
the 130 education reporters initially sensitized in Kwara,
Lagos, Jigawa, Kano, Kaduna, Enugu and Abuja.
The eight winners have shown a high degree of commitment, and
outstanding contributions to national development through their
various reports on the state of the Nigerian Education Sector.
These reports were selected out of the pool of media reports
(from print, radio and television) submitted by the 18 nominated
journalists at the final stage, based on richness of content,
accuracy, relevance and logical sequence. The eight awardees
comprise seven winners
from the six states and the FCT, as well as the national winner.
In
his keynote address, the Policy Advisor, Civil Society Action
Coalition on Education for All (CSACEFA), Mr. Wale Samuel urged
the media to further deepen efforts at ensuring transparency and
accountability in the education sector. “The media’s active
engagement with the FOIA will undoubtedly shed more light on
incidence of corruption in the education sector and also enhance
accountability”, he said.
While speaking during
the Award presentation, the Programme Director of Development
Communications Network (DevComs) said journalism need to take
its pride of place in Nigeria’s development and education is a
key sector in this regard.
Meanwhile, the award presentation had in attendance
members of the Civil Society Organisations on education,
journalists and Media experts and other stakeholder.
Tony Akowe, the Kaduna state Correspondent of The Nation
newspaper won the award for the overall best report as well as
the best report in the print category. Anthony Forson of NTA,
Kaduna won the prize for the best report for Television while
Kikelomo Ifekoya of FRCN, Lagos National station won the prize
for the best report in Radio.
About Journalism Development Programme (JDP)
The Journalism Development Programme (JDP) began in August 2010
with a desk review of 5 national dailies, followed by
sensitizations of about 130 education reporters drawn from
Lagos, Enugu, Kwara, Kaduna, Kano, Jigawa and the Federal
Capital Territory. These sensitizations set the pace for
engagement with the media on
education and generated a mass of stories from the print and
broadcast media in the JDP States.
According to a statement by Ayodele Adesanmi on behalf
DevComs Network the goal
of the project was to build broad based understanding and action
towards the acceptance and support for initiatives on reform in
the education sector in Nigeria, and Increase public awareness
on the necessity of good education to improved living standards
and better quality of live. The programme also established
linkages between development experts from different fields of
specialization and the education journalists.
Out of the 130 (about 20 from each state) journalists that
attended the sensitizations in respective States and the FCT,
about 60 of them who did stories resonating issues of basic
education were selected for the State capacity buildings in
Lagos and Kaduna State. These 60 were divided into two groups,
the successful journalists from Lagos, Enugu and Kwara attended
the capacity building in Lagos State. While those from Kano,
Kaduna, Jigawa and FCT attended theirs in Kaduna State.
The state capacity building served as a way of deepening the
knowledge of the journalists in reporting unreported
developments and issues in the education sector. More so, this
served as a way of charging the journalists to hold their
various state governments accountable for issues on education
and other linkages.
The best 18 committed journalists were selected for the national
capacity building in Abuja, where media experts, education
professionals and stakeholders in the education sector further
equipped them with necessary details, facts and figures relating
to the education sector in Nigeria. This workshop provided an
opportunity for the participants to be linked with four
experienced media experts who were introduced as mentors to the
participants as their mentors.
Mentoring of the journalists started immediately after the
national capacity building, and individual journalists have been
guided and directed on how to go about their various stories.
|
