Over 300 teachers in Edo State public schools were recently trained by a non-governmental organisation, the Josemaria Escriva Foundation (JOSEF), to improve their teaching, technical, and personal skills.
The training, which is under the teachers’ skills enhancement project (TSEP), is funded by TY Danjuma Foundation.
In his remarks at the closing session of the programme, the Chief Responsibility Officer (CRO), Dr Jude Obasanmi, said areas covered include how to improve subject content, time, and stress management; issues around gender-based violence, innovative curriculum design, as well as technology-enhanced learning and delivery (blending technology and learning using teachers’ computers, among others.
Obasanmi said: “We started this project courtesy of TY Danjuma Foundation in 2023. So far, a total of 120 teachers have benefited from the initiative, while 60 teachers will subsequently be captured yearly before the end of the project in 2027.
He explained that the training enabled teachers and learners to benefit maximally from the teaching process.
He pointed out that before now, individuals, organisations and governments were only interested in building schools, providing tables, chairs, and books, without looking at the delivery process.
But during the training, Obasanmi said the teachers were taught classroom, time and stress management, which in most cases, can negatively affect teaching delivery if not properly managed.
While thanking Edo State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) for approving the project, and the TY Danjuma Foundation for making funds available for the training, Obasanmi commended the teachers for their enthusiasm and the facilitators for their effectiveness in the delivery of the different modules.
Representative of TY Danjuma Foundation, Ms Oluwatomi Ajayi, urged beneficiaries to take the training seriously, to meet the challenges of teaching 21st century learners.
“It is our hope that the teachers would effectively deploy what they have learnt, and the knowledge gained for quality delivery to students. Also, it is believed that these individuals would, in turn, train other teachers who were not captured in the training programme,” she said.
In her presentation, Mrs Clementina Omosimua, a learning and development officer, emphasised the need for teachers to build their competence, saying this is the only way to remain relevant.
