GOV EMMANUEL COMMENCES STATEWIDE RETRAINING PROGRAMME FOR AKWA IBOM TEACHERS

 

In an unrelenting effort towards ensuring that students in the state are given quality and sound education, the state Governor, Mr Udom Emmanuel, has inaugurated a retraining programme for public secondary school teachers across the three senatorial districts of the state.

Setting the tone, the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Education Monitoring, Mrs Idongesit Etiebet noted that the exercise was to equip the teachers with the spirit, confidence and modern teaching methods needed to function as professional teachers, adding that no teacher can give what he/she does not have.

She informed the teachers that Gov Emmanuel believes in their capacity to perform creditably if given the necessary and needed support, that is why he is investing in them through the programme, knowing that if teachers give quality impartation of knowledge to the youths, then a brighter future is guaranteed for Akwa Ibom State.

Mrs Etiebiet pointed out some of the worrisome areas that some teachers indulge in, which are causes for concern to parents, citizens, the Governor, and state government in general. Some of the areas include lateness to work, dereliction of duties, absenteeism, cultism among teachers and recruiting/initiating students into cult group, improper dressing, and turning schools into mini market among others.

While describing teaching as a noble profession where teachers are believed and reckoned worldwide to be people of integrity, she reminded the teachers of the zero tolerance of the state government on examination malpractices, stating that teachers have been found to be accomplices in the act. “I know that you might have witnessed the remarkable improvement and innovations that the Governor, Mr Udom Emmanuel, has brought to the education sector. Never in the history of our state have so many schools been renovated and rehabilitated, and salaries and allowances of teachers paid as at when due.

The Governor’s Aide made a clarion call to all teachers in the state to make judicious use of their voting power, and charged them to participate in the ongoing voters card registration exercise so that they can be eligible to return the Governor to office come 2019 in order to continue and sustain what he has achieved so far.

In his speech, the Commissioner for Education, Mr Victor Inoka, represented by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Elder Wisdom Ekpo, commended Governor Emmanuel for conducting the training exercise for teachers across the three senatorial districts in the state.

He noted that the essence of the training exercise was to update and upgrade the teaching skills of the teachers, and to produce highly motivated and contentious efficient teachers for secondary schools in the state, with a view of not only meeting the national requirement but also meeting the requirement set up by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) on education.

Elder Ekpo said that the retraining exercise is significant to reverse the train in the fooling standards of education by providing our teachers with relevant standard of skill that will enhance effective classroom delivery. So teachers need to be updated with the latest best practices in the methods and techniques as well as classroom management scheme, to make broad look at the teaching methodology, teacher’s language communication, ethics and how I.C.T can be best contributed to the best knowledge in teaching effectiveness.

He urged the teachers to constantly update their teaching, knowledge and skills to meet the yearning and aspiration of the 21st century, and called on them to pay undivided attention throughout the training exercise to justify the resources expended by the Government, and pledged the commitment of the Ministry of Education in partnering with all sectors towards providing quality education for school children, youth with the view of strengthening the education system.

In his goodwill messages, the Special Assistant to the Governor on Social and Ethical Reorientation, Mr Ime Bishop Umoh, thanked the Governor and Mrs Etiebiet for the decision to retrain teachers in the state, and urged the teachers to make good use of the opportunity for the benefit of the state and the society.

On her part, Special Assistant to the Governor on New Media, Mrs Meflyn Anwana, commended Akwa Ibom teachers for imparting good knowledge on the students who are exposed, adding that the Governor has been consistent in his free, compulsory and qualitative education policy. She said that to match up with the digital age, it is essential to inculcate technological aspect of education so that the student can meet up with what is happening digitally across the globe.

The opening ceremony for the 3-day programme started on Wednesday, 16 May, 2018 at the Civic Centre, Idongesit Nkanga Secretariat, for Uyo Senatorial District, and continues till Thursday, 18.

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