ABUJA– IN its drive to upgrade the standard of teaching in the nation’s schools in line with modern teaching realities, the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria, TRCN, has begun a partnership with the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, to train teachers across the country.
The Registrar and Chief Executive Officer of TRCN, Prof. Josiah Ajiboye, who addressed a media conference to this effect, Thursday, in Abuja, said his organisation with the assistance of the United Nations humanitarian agency will train a total of 45,000 teachers across 24 states of Nigeria on digital literacy.
The disclosure came as Ajiboye hinted of his plans to move against teachers in private schools across the country for being unqualified to be in classrooms.
According to him, a high percentage of teachers in private schools across the country had been found to be incompetent to teach.
“There are no qualified teachers in private schools, teachers in private schools are not teachers. They did not register with us”, he said.
The programme,he disclosed, would be in batches, beginning with 30,000 teachers in the first instance, from 16 states.
According to him, “The 16 focal states are Benue, Bauchi, Ebonyi, Enugu, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kebbi, Katsina, Plateau, Taraba and Zamfara and four others.”
He said the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu had “graciously extended” the programme to eight more states of Bayelsa, Delta, Edo, Ekiti, Lagos, Osun, Oyo, and Rivers, upon completion of the circle of 16 states.
The overall objectives of the training, he explained, included the bridging of the gap created by the outbreak of the pandemic that severely affected the education system of the country.
“He explained further that the programme was aimed at providing “capacity development opportunities to teachers and school leaders in the deployment of technology in classrooms, distance learning methods using both online and offline to continue learning.”
“Again, it is to train teachers and school leaders in emergency preparedness and response to provide safe school practice including COVID-19 and build resilience in learners against future shocks,” he further said.