The North-East Development Commission (NEDC) has empowered no fewer than 400 secondary school teachers from across the northeast geo-political zone of the country.
The commission trained the teachers under its Accelerated Senior Secondary Education Program (ASSEP) in collaboration with the 1 Million Teachers (1MT), which is an international non-governmental organisation focusing on human capital development.
The teachers were trained in no fewer than 50 modules and courses organised into 10 belts according to a belting system in education.
The self-paced modules included modern pedagogies, meta-cognition, leadership skills, classroom management, teaching strategies, the ethical use of ICT tools and Artificial Intelligence and so forth.
Their graduation ceremonies were held between February 3rd and 8th, in each of the training locations in Borno, Yobe, Gombe, Bauchi, Adamawa, and Taraba states.
The event attracted many top government functionaries in the education sector including commissioners, permanent secretaries, teachers’ union leadership, parents as well as students across the geo-political zone.
Speaking at Maiduguri’s event in Borno State, the state’s commissioner for education, Mr Lawan Abba Wakilbe, lauded the initiative, describing it as a pathway to improving performance and learning outcomes.
He promised to distribute mini laptops (tablets) with learning materials to every teacher, who participated in and completed the training (christened 1 Million Teachers Black Belt Course) to further support them in discharging their duties more effectively.
The commissioner noted that the programme is to sharpen the knowledge and skills of teachers, stressing that the training would also indirectly improve students’ academic outcomes in the state.
In their separate remarks, the states’ commissioners for education in Gombe (Prof Aishatu Umar Maigar), Bauchi (Dr Lawal Mohammed Rimin Zayam ) and Taraba (Dr Augustina Godwin) as well as the Permanent Secretary of Education, Adamawa(Hajiya Aisha Umar) and the Chairman of NUT, Yobe State(Mr. Ado Idrissa) also praised the initiative, commending both NEDC and the 1 Million Teachers for thinking in this direction of investing in teachers for optimal performance.
In a statement made available to Nigerian Tribune, they pledged to support not only the graduating teachers but the training programme as a whole for other educators in their respective states to benefit from.
For example, both Gombe and Bauchi commissioners announced their state governments’ plans to enrol more of its teachers on the training while Yobe’s NUT Chairman promised to sponsor internet subscriptions for participating teachers who completed the course,
Similarly, the Per Sec in Adamawa state declared that the “Black Belt” course would now be integrated into the teacher promotion process in the state since NUT has keyed into the capacity development programme while Taraba equally indicated interest in incorporating the course into its teacher training program.
Giving insight into the training, project lead and CEO of IMillion Teachers, Mr Hakeem Subair, who was represented by the 2020 Global Teacher Prize finalist and 1MT-ASSEP project lead, Mr Olasunkanmi Opeifa, highlighted the importance of educators consistently honing their knowledge and skills.
According to him, it’s important for teachers who want to remain relevant and competitive in the evolving classroom reality to continue to learn new things that will help them to be more impactful in their service delivery.
Subair commended the set and urged them to make use of their knowledge to reposition education in the entire northeast region.
He equally advised them to encourage their colleagues who are yet to go through the specialised training to enrol for the course as the success of any nation greatly depends on the quality of its teachers.
In her remarks, Dr Mariam Masha, who is the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Regional Development Programs expressed enthusiasm, applauding the 1Million Teachers team for their commitment and dedication to the training programme, emphasising how highly important the current government attaches to teachers’ capacity development in the country.
She congratulated the trainees, urging them to make good use of their new knowledge as they go back to class.
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