The Executive Chairman of the Plateau State Universal Basic Education Board( P-SUBEB),Prof. Matthew Sule, says the state has recorded a gender gap decrease of 0.27 per cent in the 2017/2018 school year, from the 1.30 per cent recorded in the 2015/ 2016 school year .
Sule disclosed this on Monday in Jos, during a training workshop organised by The Girls Education Mission International in collaboration with the Plateau State Universal Basic Education Board.
The workshop was held with support from the TY Danjuma Foundation and was organised for teachers drawn from the Northern zone of the state comprising the headship of primary and junior secondary school teachers.
He said that the training was a public private partnership programme which supported government’s efforts at ensuring qualitative education.
He said that there a cultural stereotype working against the girl child and that teachers and other stakeholders in the educational sector needed to work hard to ensure that the girl child was not seen as a second person but was given equal opportunity as the boy child.
The chairman described the theme of the training workshop:”Linking Teachers Welfare With Quality and Standards ” as apt and called on participants to ensure that they practiced what they learnt during the raining and in turn retrained their colleagues.
The Executive Director of the Girls Education Mission International, an NGO, Mrs Keturah Shammah, in her remarks, said that the objective of the training was to improve the quality of teachers in the six local government areas of the northern zone of Plateau.
Shammah said teacher training shouldn’t be neglected as teachers had a greater influence on children.
Similarly, the programme officer,monitoring and evaluation, TY Danjuma Foundation, Mr Terso Akula, said that the foundation was founded in 2010 with the sole aim of giving back to the society.
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Girls Education Mission International and the TY Danjuma foundation donated 600 texts books for primary six and JSS 3 pupils and students to the State Government for learning and improvement of quality of education in the state.
The State Commissioner for Education (Secondary) Mrs Elizabeth Wapmuk, commended the NGO for donating the text books to the state government and for training teachers from the northern zone of the state.
Wapmuk said that it was only when teachers were trained that we could have qualitative education and quality human capital development.
According to her,it is only when we have good teachers , that there can be sound pupils and students.
A participant at the training, Mrs Katherine Katgurum, said she was optimistic that the training would impact on her career and promised go back to retrain her colleagues.
Similarly, a teacher , Mr Joel Amahar, told NAN he was sure that he would achieve a lot in the 5-day programme.
