Yomi Kazeem There’s an easy way to check how much of a priority education is to the Nigerian government: look at the national budget. Last year, the allocation for education stood at less than 10% of the entire $29 billion budget—much less than the 26% recommendation for developing countries by United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). Years of perennial under-funding of education has seen infrastructure whittle while teaching standards and quality continue to fall short, especially at government-owned schools. Wise to the shortcomings of the national education system and the lagging teacher to pupil ratio in high schools,…

Google said on Monday that it is winding down Google Station, a program as part of which it worked with a number of partners to roll out free Wi-Fi in more than 400 railway stations in India and "thousands" of other public places in several additional pockets of the world. Caesar Sengupta, VP of Payments and Next Billion Users at Google, said the program, launched in 2015, helped millions of users surf the internet -- first time for many -- and not worry about the amount of data they consumed. But as mobile data prices got cheaper in many markets…

Genes can tell tales about you, from who your ancestors were to how likely you are to develop a range of diseases. And it seems probable that in the future they will tell more: your personality type, perhaps, or your intelligence. For these reasons, many countries have laws limiting what use employers and insurance companies can make of such information. America, for example, has the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, which makes it illegal for health insurers and employers to use genetic information to discriminate against customers and employees. There is much, however, that genes cannot reveal. They are blind to…

Predicting the lifespan of people, or their “Personal Life Expectancy” (PLE), would greatly alter our lives. When will I die? This question has endured across cultures and civilizations. It has given rise to a plethora of religions and spiritual paths over thousands of years, and more recently, some highly amusing apps. But this question now prompts a different response, as technology slowly brings us closer to accurately predicting the answer. Predicting the lifespan of people, or their “Personal Life Expectancy” (PLE), would greatly alter our lives. On one hand, it may have benefits for policymaking, and help optimize an individual’s…