Participants Lament Poor Arrangement As Teacher Capacity Training Kicks Off in Jigawa
By Tahir Mohammed, Dutse
Teachers in more than 2,000 Primary and post primary schools across Jigawa state have been called for competency enhancing training, according to the Jigawa State Universal Basic Eduction Board (SUBEB) Chairman, Professor Musa Haruna.
However the participants have lamented poor poor arrangement for the training.
Most of the teachers have queried why SUBEB would call for such a training without adequate provision in terms of feeding, accommodation, and training allowances for teachers coming from far places.
Some of the teachers who spoke to DAYLIGHT REPORTERS on condition of anonymity complain of lack of accommodation, feeding, and allowances, saying “most of us are family people. How do you expect a teacher coming from far Birniwa or Gwiwa or Guri, or Kiri-Kasamma Local Go rrnment Areas (LGAs) to Dutse for training to do so without proper training arrangements.
SUBEB Chairman, Professor Haruna Musa while addressing a press conference in his office said the training test modules were not meant to witch-hunt any teacher, nor to tied down his or her salary or promotion, but to update their skills, knowledge and competency in line with the global teaching practices for teacher’s to update their skill acquire in raising teaching standard.
“This training Initiated by the state government was aimed to bridge the gap in teachers competency at the foundation level.
According to SUBEB Chairman, teachers would be subjected to examinations designed to assess their knowledge, and skills of their basic school curriculums.
He stated the motives was to identify teachers who were not adequately equipped to teach at various levels and give them the requisite teaching skills to update their competency in both teaching methodology and school management.
He said even though the resources available could not go round to train all the teachers in the state, hence the board decided to come up with a training strategy that is computer-based needs assessment. He allayed their fears by assuring that no teacher would be sacked or demoted after the competency test.
“The training will enable us to know the needs of the teachers in terms of training; is not a punitive measure, or to creates an inconvenient situation for the teachers, we are not sacking anybody, instead capacity building to update our teacher’s the requisite competency expected of them”
“After the needs assessment, we are coming up with three outcomes. The first is to identify teachers with strong with relevant skills to teach. We will group them as competent teachers, and they will be used as master trainers in the state in future”
“The second group is for those who had quantum knowledge but lack relevant teaching skills, we make the teacher’s improve in terms of the skills they require for them to be able to teach effectively in their respective school’s”
“The last category is for those who don’t have knowledge and skills. We will enrol them in the colleges of education in the state and give them a special remediation programmes so that they can improve and teach well.
“We will migrate them from the situation they are to semi-competent teachers. This is the strategy we are bringing on board. The compency test is not meant to sack any teacher or tied to his/her promotion or salary.