FG Trains 40,000 Teachers

The federal government has moved to adopt current innovative strategies and techniques of teaching to train and re-train 40,000 basic education teachers in the country.

Addressing journalists recently in Lagos while declaring the workshop open, the Minister of Education, Professor Ruqayyatu Ahmed Rufa’i , said that the move, which? was? geared? towards? meeting the 2015 Millennium Development Goals would hold at 109 centres nationwide.

According to her, Junior Secondary School (JSS) teachers will receive training on the four core subjects- English, Mathematics, Social Studies and Basic Science and Technology while primary school teachers would be trained on Language Communication Skills, Effective Classroom Management Skills, Basic Teaching Methods and Information and Communication Technology.

Rufa’i noted that countries that have made progress in recent decades were those that combined “effective and equitable investment in education with sound economic policies.”

She said federal government would continue to support the National Teachers Institute (NTI) to undertake programmes tailored towards teacher education development.

Also in his remarks, the Director General, National Teachers Institute (NTI), Dr. Aminu Ladan Sharehu, said the initial arrangement was to train 120,000 teachers but funds available to the institute could only accommodate 40,000 teachers.

Sharehu said the teachers would also receive training on Special Educational Needs and Disabilities and faith based HIV/AIDS initiative which would take place at three designated centres in each state including FCT.

He said that the institute, being a member of Teacher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa (TESSA), has developed a manual that is self-instructional and enriching.

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