By Marcus Ikechukwu
Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) says it will be training over 45,000 teachers on digital literacy and remote learning in the contemporary world.
Prof. Josiah Ajiboye, Registrar/Chief Executive of TRCN, made the information public on Thursday in Abuja, where he noted that the 45,000 teachers will be drawn from 24 states.
He said efforts are on to cover the remaining states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Ajiboye explained that the overall objective of the programme is to bridge the gap created by the outbreak of the pandemic that adversely affected the education system. It is also aimed at providing capacity development opportunities to teachers in the deployment of technology, among others.
His words: ” The Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria as a lead agency in the Teacher Training Sub-Committee of the Global Partnership for Education COVID-19 response programme through the support of UNICEF, is embarking on digital literacy training and remote learning for 30,000 teachers across 16 focal states namely Benue, Bauchi, Ebonyi, Enugu, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kebbi, Kastina, Plateau, Taraba and Zamfara.
“The training is designed to take place in four tranches in Benue, Enugu Kaduna and Sokoto states simultaneously at the first phase.
“Each tranche of the training involves 7,500 teachers. The first stage of this project was the training of 480 master trainers who be serving as facilitators in the upcoming training across these locations. The master trainers were trained in November 2021 across the selected states.
“Furthermore, at the completion of the circle of 16 focal states, the Honourable Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu had graciously extended the training to additional 15000 teachers who will be trained in eight focal states namely, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo, Ekiti, Lagos, Osun, Oyo and Rivers.
“These additional states will be the 4th phase of the GPE teacher training programme.”
“The minister of Education added 8more states to the already selected 16states making it 24, that means 45000 teachers will now be trained over all, this will be the first phase of the GPE teachers training programme,” he said.
He said that at the completion of the circle of 16 focal states, 15000 more teachers would be trained in eight focal states of Bayelsa, Delta, Edo, Ekiti, Lagos, Osun, Oyo and Rivers States. “These additional states will be the 4th phase of the GPE teacher training programme.”
“The major objective of the training is to provide 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,” he said.
Speaking on the one teacher one laptop initiative of the federal government, Professor Josiah said that the project is at the conclusive stage with the appraisal of the Nigerian Union of Teachers and a submitted document to the full adoption of the project.
According to him, “the one teacher one laptop initiative of 2021 is aliving project , two laptop vendors already made proposals on this and a document has been presented to the minister of state for education on this, an appraisal of the programme has also been done by the NUT ,we are waiting for further directives on the programme.”
“The idea is that you cannot train people with digital literacy and not empower them,” he adds.
This is to enable teachers pay for the laptop at a subsidised rate.
