The three-month training for the 13,000
new teachers that have been employed by the Rivers State Ministry of
Education is part of an induction recommended during the education
summit in Port Harcourt, March this year. Read more
Drawn from a template recommended by one
of the summit speakers, Prof Joshua Aisiku and others, the induction
was part of the continuous teacher development pro-gramme they will
undergo while in the employ of the Rivers State government.
Prof Aisiku said the training will
prepare them for classroom management and fill gaps in their pedagogical
and knowledge skills such that when they are distributed to the over
100 model primary and secondary schools the state government has built
and equipped in September, they will be able to offer the pupils quality
education.
“New teachers must know how to meet the varying needs of students in their classrooms,” Aisiku said.
He added that though all the
newly-employed teachers may not be First Class graduates, they can be
groomed to become very good teachers.
Mr Charles Magbe of PriceWaterCoopers,
the firm that handled the recruitment for the state, said the grooming
is necessary for the teachers to deliver on the state’s objective of
providing access to quality education for all school-aged pupils
irrespective of socio-economic background.
“Post recruitment, government must
continue to invest heavily in developing the teaching capacity of
teachers. A rigorous programme of induction must be pu in place for the
new hands; and close monitoring and appraisal of performance is
important,” he said.
The United Nations Educational
Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) Country Director, Prof
Hassana Alidou, Rivers State Commissioner for Education, Dame Alice
Lawrence-Nemi said the recruiting was in recognition of the important
roles teachers play in the school system.
Since Governor Chibuike Amaechi declared
a state of emergency in the education sector in 2008, the government
has completed 264 of the 750 model primary schools it plans to build,
100 of which have been equipped and now in use.
However, Dame Lawrence-Nemi said the
government recognises that infrastructural development alone will not
automatically translate to good performance, hence the decision to
recruit and train teachers to meet this important need.
With their employment, she added that
the teachers will be filling a shortfall numbering tens of thousands as
the rehabilitation of infrastructure had led to increased enrolment.
She said: “The recruitment of 13,000
teachers will reduce the burden of teachers teaching several subjects at
a time, when in actual sense, they are meant to teach only one subject
each. The 13,000 teachers will be distributed to the primary, junior
secondary and senior secondary schools.
“The plan is aimed at boosting the
manpower in the educational sector and reversing the poor performance of
students in external examinations like WAEC and NECO.”
Mrs Lawrence-Nemi noted that this
recruitment marks the end of the era of cutting of corners in terms of
quality. She noted that the government wants to instill professionalism
in the teaching profession.
Of the 13,000 teachers recruited, 90 per
cent (11,700) are indigenes of the state, while 10 per cent of 1,300
are from other states.
The Commissioner said teachers already
in the teaching force are not left out of professional development as
the state has organised programmes for their training.
“The Ministry of Education is devoted to
continuous teacher training and re-training in order to enhance
specialisation and efficiency. The Ministry in partnership with the
British Council and Cambridge University introduced the TKT Essentials
training and certification. Today, well over 9,000 teachers across the
23 Local Government Areas of Rivers State, 75 per cent of who are in
primary and junior secondary schools, have received in-service training.
“We also embarked on the
re-certification and verification of teachers’ credentials in order to
ascertain the current numerical strength of teachers in the state to
ensure that only qualified teachers are allowed to teach in the
Schools,” she said.
Culled from The Nation newspaper
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