Education
Genesis of Facebook – Confession of Mark Zuckerberg
AOL Instant Messenger was a defining part of my childhood. As part of the first generation to grow up with the internet, it helped me understand internet communication intuitively and emotionally in a way that people just a few years older may have only considered intellectually.
Growing up, I lived in a different town from most of the kids I went to school with. I lived in Dobbs Ferry, but went to school in Ardsley — a town small enough it imported students from nearby towns. There was a bridge separating Dobbs Ferry and Ardsley, and every day I took a bus across that bridge to school and back home.
That meant every day after school all of my friends were on the other side of this bridge. A lot of my interaction with them was through AIM. I developed a lot of empathy for the nuances of how people expressed emotions and ideas online, and I became very focused on improving how this worked.
For example, I didn’t like that I had no control of whether AIM told my friends I was active online, because sometimes I just wanted to code without being interrupted unless someone I really wanted to chat with signed on. This may have seemed like a small detail to whoever designed it, but it was my social life and I really felt it. So I hacked together a tool that let me set myself as if I’d been idle for a long time, even if I was actually at my computer. (Because of this, Facebook chat today always lets you turn off your online activity indicator.)
My friends and I spent a lot of time curating our online identities. We spent hours finding quotes for our AIM profiles that expressed how we felt, and we picked just the right font and color for our messages to signal what we wanted about ourselves. I built a tool that let me send messages with the letters fading between any colors I wanted. It was simple, but it was fun to build and it made my messages look different.
One day my dad saw me using AIM and asked if I could set it up in his office so he could communicate with the other dentists and hygienists. I told him I didn’t think AIM was ideal and since he controlled the network in his office I could make him something better.
I built him a system I called ZuckNet that he used for many years afterwards. In addition to chatting one-on-one, he could broadcast an update to everyone in the office at the same time. It also saved every message you received so you wouldn’t lose them when you closed your chat window, and it queued up messages to be delivered later if a person wasn’t online at the time. Everything was encrypted so sensitive information could be secure. These were all features that solved pain I felt using AIM. ZuckNet improved how the dentists communicated and changed how they worked.
As a child, many people will tell you that you don’t have the skills or experience to build something that matters. I was certainly told that many times. But these days I wonder if children actually have a unique perspective to build some of the most important things. The world is changing quickly, and only a child has a full emotional understanding of what it’s like to grow up today, with say, mobile phones or AI you’ve been able to talk to your whole conscious life. If you grew up before this, you can intellectually reason about what this might be like, but you can only understand all the emotional nuances and develop a world view based on how it feels if you grew up with it yourself.
I always loved coding. I vividly remember riding home on the bus across that bridge after school thinking to myself that now I had the whole evening to build things on my computer. Fridays were the best, and I remember being even more excited because I had the whole weekend to build things.
Those early projects and experiences had a lot of the seeds of what would become Facebook. Since early on, AIM shaped a deep aesthetic sense that the world works better when we can all connect and share. I’ve lived these ideas since I was a child, and I still believe them deeply today. Thanks for everything, AIM.
The Ogun State Government has inaugurated a multi-sectoral Safe Schools Steering Committee as part of renewed efforts to strengthen security architecture across schools in the state amid rising concerns over the safety of pupils, students, and teachers.
The committee is expected to drive the formulation and implementation of policies, strategies, and intervention programmes aimed at preventing security breaches, enhancing emergency preparedness, and ensuring that schools remain safe, stable, and conducive for learning.
Inaugurating the committee in Abeokuta, the state capital, the Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Prof. Abayomi Arigbabu, described the initiative as a deliberate and strategic response to emerging security challenges in the education sector.
He said the composition of the committee reflected a careful selection of professionals drawn from relevant sectors, based on competence, experience, and institutional responsibility.
According to him, the government recognises that schools can no longer be treated as isolated institutions, but must be protected through coordinated action involving government agencies, security operatives, communities, and development partners.
“The inauguration of the Ogun State Safe Schools Steering Committee is a strategic response aimed at strengthening collaboration among government agencies, security services, communities, development partners and all stakeholders in the education sector,” Arigbabu said.
He stressed that the task before the committee was urgent and non-negotiable, warning that the future of children in the state depended on the quality and timeliness of their decisions.
“As members of this committee, your selection was based on expertise, experience, and institutional responsibilities. This task is both important and urgent. The future of our children depends on the effectiveness of the decisions and actions we take today,” he said.
Arigbabu urged members to discharge their duties with “dedication, professionalism, integrity and a strong sense of purpose,” adding that every school in Ogun State must remain a place of safety, hope, and opportunity rather than fear.
“I therefore charge you to approach this assignment with dedication, professionalism, integrity, and a strong sense of purpose. Let us work together to ensure that every school in Ogun State remains a place of safety, learning, hope, and opportunity,” he added.
Other stakeholders at the inauguration reinforced the need for collective responsibility, stressing that school safety cannot rest on government alone but requires sustained collaboration from all segments of society.
They noted that communities, parents, security agencies, and development partners must work in synergy to safeguard learning environments and protect the future of children.
“As we inaugurate this committee today, let us recognise that school safety is not the responsibility of government alone. It is a shared responsibility requiring partnership, vigilance, innovation, and collective action,” one of the stakeholders said.
“The decisions we take and the commitment we make here today will contribute significantly to shaping the future of thousands of learners across our state,” the stakeholder added.
The Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Oyo State Wing, has directed all public primary and secondary school teachers in the state to embark on an indefinite strike over the continued abduction of teachers and pupils.
The strike, which takes effect from Monday, June 1, 2026, is expected to ground academic activities across public schools in the state.
The union said the action became imperative following what it described as growing insecurity in schools and the prolonged captivity of abducted teachers and pupils whose whereabouts remain unknown.
In a statement jointly signed by the Chairman of the Oyo State Wing of the NUT, Hassan Fatai, and the Secretary, Salami Olukayode, the union expressed concerns over the psychological impact of the incidents on teachers, learners and parents.
According to the union, the lingering abduction cases have created fear and anxiety among teachers, weakened confidence in the safety of schools and discouraged many parents from sending their children to school.
The statement read in part, “The Nigeria Union of Teachers, Oyo State Wing, hereby directs all public primary and secondary school teachers across the state to commence an indefinite strike action effective from Monday, June 1, 2026, pending urgent and decisive action by relevant authorities on the abduction of teachers and pupils.”
The union explained that the industrial action was aimed at compelling the government and security agencies to intensify efforts toward the immediate and unconditional release of the victims.
It urged teachers across the state to comply fully with the directive, remain peaceful and law-abiding, and prioritise their safety while staying away from classrooms during the strike.
The NUT also expressed solidarity with the abducted victims and their families, assuring that it would continue to engage relevant authorities until the victims were safely rescued.
The union reaffirmed its commitment to the welfare, safety and security of teachers and pupils, stressing that the protection of school communities remained non-negotiable.
No fewer than 2,243,816 candidates on Thursday commenced the 2026 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination conducted by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board across accredited Computer-Based Test centres nationwide.
The figure represents a 10.5 per cent increase from the 2.03 million candidates recorded in 2025.
The examination, which began on April 16, is being conducted in about 1,000 CBT centres nationwide, with candidates scheduled in four daily sessions to reduce congestion and improve verification processes.
The board said it had deployed biometric verification and real-time monitoring systems to safeguard the integrity of the exercise, noting that candidates whose biometric details could not be authenticated would be rescheduled.
Candidates were advised to print their examination slips from the JAMB portal to confirm their schedules and arrive at least one hour before their examination time.
Under the revised timetable, first-session candidates are expected at 7:00 a.m., followed by 9:00 a.m. for the second session, 11:00 a.m. for the third session, and 2:00 p.m. for the final session.
JAMB disclosed that Lagos State recorded the highest number of registered candidates with 381,814, followed by Ogun with 137,156 and Oyo with 122,662. Kaduna recorded 103,498 candidates, while the Federal Capital Territory had 102,961.
Other states include Rivers with 105,584 candidates and Kano with 83,167, while Borno and Zamfara recorded the lowest figures with 13,483 and 14,861 candidates respectively.
Outside Nigeria, participation remained low, with Côte d’Ivoire recording 32 candidates, followed by Equatorial Guinea with 16, Burkina Faso with 14, and the United Kingdom with 12 candidates.
As part of efforts to enhance efficiency, the board increased the number of CBT centres but delisted 23 centres across several states, including Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Delta, Edo, Plateau and the Federal Capital Territory, over technical deficiencies observed during the mock examination.
The board said the action was necessary to maintain operational standards and ensure the credibility of the examination process.
Meanwhile, the Nigeria Police Force dismissed reports of insecurity at some centres, describing such claims as unfounded.
The police said it had deployed additional personnel, including patrol teams, perimeter surveillance units and rapid response squads, to ensure the safety of candidates nationwide.
The force added that it was collaborating with other security agencies to monitor the exercise and respond swiftly to any threats.
It assured parents and candidates of adequate security, urging candidates to comply with examination guidelines, arrive early and report suspicious activities.
The police also advised the public to disregard unverified information on social media and rely on official communication channels.
JAMB reiterated its commitment to transparency, warning candidates against accepting admissions outside its Central Admissions Processing System.
It stressed that any admission conducted outside CAPS would be considered illegal and would not be recognised.
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