Stakeholders Call For Regular Training Of Teachers

Panelists at the ongoing 20th Nigerian Economic Summit have called on the Federal Government to develop training programmes for teachers in public schools for better and quality performance.
Mrs. Grace Laoye-Tomori, Osun Deputy Governor and Commissioner for Education, said the solution to the national education crisis was retraining of teachers for better performance.
Tomori said that the Osun State government had trained about 8,000 teachers between 2010 and 2013 through the state’s in-service training programme.
According to her, the state made arrangement with the state university to retrain teachers during the long vacation.
She also said that the purpose of education was to produce a total man who would be self reliant and contribute to national development
Dr Victor Koh, Senior Leadership Consultant, International Leadership Foundation, said that Singapore developed her education sector through quality training for teachers.
Koh said that the dependant on human capital compelled the Singapore to make education a priority in the nation’s economic development policy.
“If we don’t spend to teach our people how to make a living, we end up creating criminals and cowboys,” he said.
Koh also said that the purpose of education was not just to create a living for the citizens, but to teach them how to make a living for themselves.
He said that the government of Singapore was concerned that its citizens needed the necessary skills and knowledge to be productive in a knowledge-based economy.
Babs Omotowa, Managing Director, Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Ltd, said that the quality of output from Nigeria’s education system had impact on the process of employment.
Omotowa said that the poor quality of students from schools often made organisations to spend more in hiring them for jobs.
He also said that most organisations spent more to send Nigerian graduates who eventually got employed for overseas training before they could perform.
Mr. Wale Goodluck, Corporate Services Executive, MTN Nigeria, said that there was misalignment between what was being taught in schools and what was required in the work place.
He stressed the need for alignment of what government wanted teachers to teach and the expectation of government and the needs.
NATIONAL OBSERVER