By Stephen Adeleye.
The Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, has said that the Federal Government, under President Muhammadu Buhari was committed to providing quality leadership through the provision of functional education.
Adamu gave the assurance at the closing ceremony of the 2018 Nationawide Capacity-Building Workshops for Teachers at the Basic Level, on Friday in Lokoja.
Adamu, who was represented by Minister for State for Education, Prof. Anthony Anwukah, said the government had ranked teachers’ continuing professional development and training as paramount.
“This is why the present administration is giving all the necessary support to build the capacity of teachers through initiatives such as the SDGs project.
“Teacher output level is expected to be enhanced after participation in seminars and workshops.
“We are hoping that the participants will help to share their experiences with their colleagues back in their work stations,” Adamu said.
He said that the federal government was planning to support states to generate accurate data of their teachers in terms of quality and quantity.
“This will assist in determining the skill gaps and the corresponding training needs of teachers across all states of the federation.
“We are ready to give the institute all the needed support to discharge her statutory mandate,” he said.
In his remarks, Gov. Yahaya Bello of Kogi, appreciated the privilege of hosting the occasion, saying it was a very great honour for him and the good people of Kogi.
The governor was represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Dr Folashade Arike.
Bello said that the continuing professional development of teachers was key to ensuring the much-needed solution to the problems bedeviling the education sector.
“On our part, we are working to transform education sector in Kogi by providing all the necessary supports and logistics to schools and other educational agencies.
“We are commtting a lot resources to provide infrastructural facilities in our schools as well as enhance the take-home package of our teachers to help them improve on their classroom performance,” Bello said.
The governor restated his commitment to partner with the National Teachers’ Institute (NTD), Kaduna, in the upgrade of teachers in Kogi state.
Earlier, Mrs Rosemary Osikoya, the state’s Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, thanked the governor for partnering with NTI and other stakeholders to train 700 Kogi teachers and principals.
“It is first of its kind in Kogi and it is a well packaged training, as it serves as the building blocks to revive Kogi education sector.
“We are grateful that today, we have 700 people that had been given quality training, and we are hopeful that after this programme, Kogi will record more support,” Osikoya said.
Prof. Garba Azare, Director General, National Teachers’ Institute (NTI), said about 3,700 teachers had been trained on four thematic areas for the past five days.
According to Azare, the thematic areas include: Language Communication Skills, Effective Classroom Managemetnt Skills, Basic Classroom Teaching Methods and Techniques, and ICT.
“It is our hope that the participants will do the needful by stepping down the training to the teachers that were not nominated.
“Knowledge shared is knowledge gaine,” Azare said.
Other partners who spoke at the workahop included: National Productivity Centre (NPC), Teachers’ Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) and Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC).
The five-day workshops was flagged-off on Monday in Calabar, Cross River State, while the closing ceremony was held on Friday in Lokoja, Kogi State.
