Teachers training key to attainment of MDGs —NTI boss

From Mohmmed Ibrahim, Kaduna
Posted: Tuesday, July 26, 2011

To attain the Education for All Project in Nigeria by 2015, Director General of National Teachers Institute, Dr Aminu Ladan Sharehu said government at all levels must pay attention to teachers training in the country.
Speaking at the meeting with commissioners of education, chairmen of SUBEBs, Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) officials and other stakeholders in education held in Kaduna, he said teachers training is vital for the development of education in Nigeria.
"Yes, we can attain MDGs if teachers training will continue from now to the year 2015 and the number of teachers training is increased. With such training I can assure you that we can achieve the MDGS BY 2015. Some state governments are doing well in this regards while some are not. Those that do train their teachers you can not compare their teachers with the ones who are not trained," he said.
"It is sad to note that in some states, people that have no business with education are the ones being nominated to attend the workshops. This is quite unfortunate and should be resisted by any well-meaning Nigerian that is desirous of promoting education to the next level," Aminu said.
The Director General stated that although such behaviour has been drastically reduced since the involvement of NUT state braches in the screening of teachers expected to participate in the training.
According to him, it's important to emphasize the need for all to spare no efforts in ensuring the attainment of Mr. President's transformation agenda by exploiting all resources at their disposal to rejuvenate the education sector.
He said that this year NTI would include the junior secondary school teachers for its training due to their importance in schools, adding that they wanted the federal government to know that there is the need for teachers to attend training at least three times in their educational career, saying if a teacher receives three trainings the best is expected of him.
In her remarks, the representative of the MDGs, Hajiya Fatima Ahmad said to raise the standard of education in Nigeria teachers training must be improved, saying teachers are the most vital tools for educational development.