NEDC trains100 technology, agriculture, engineering teachers in Taraba
By Saidu Adamu, Jalingo
Office of the Vice President, through the North East Development Commission (NEDC) has on Thursday inaugurated a two- day training session for about 100 teachers of science, technology, agriculture and engineering in Taraba state.
A NEXTER correspondent in Jalingo reports that the training is under Accelerated Senior Secondary School Education Programme (ASSEP), an initiative put together by the Office of the Vice President, Kashim Shettima.
NEXTER also reports that the initiative, which is anchored by the North East Development Commission (NEDC) is aimed at improving the quality of education in the six states of the North-East geopolitical zone with a particular focus on science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and agriculture.
Dr. Augusta Godwin, the Taraba State Commissioner of Education said that the initiative seeks to train one million teachers nationwide with basic emphasis on teacher training, classroom modernisation, students’ competition, and virtual reality content development to enhance educational outcomes.
The commissioner expressed the commitment of the Taraba state government towards supporting the initiative, noting that it aligned with the its free education policy.
She noted that ASSEP, which was intended to enhance and improve teaching and learning in the state was one of the components in the blueprint of the free education policy of the Governor Agbu Kefas administration.
Godwin similarly gave the assurance that, in the near future, all teachers in the state would be trained in other fields apart from science, technology, agriculture and engineering with particular focus on emerging areas such as Artificial intelligence (AI).
She commended the federal government for the bold initiative, adding that the trained teachers would cascade their experiences to their colleagues after this initial exercise.
In a good will message, Mr. Idris Goje, the permanent secretary in the ministry of education said that the 100 beneficiaries were carefully selected out of about 500 ASSAP teachers in the state for the training.
Goje explained that there were 100 schools across the state designated for the Science, Technology, Engineering Mathematics and Agriculture (ASTEMA) with a total population of about 5000 students.
He said that the programme would go a long way in enhancing science and technology innovation for teachers.
Meanwhile, Mr. Musa Bulama, Team lead of trainers who were deployed to Taraba for the exercise, said that the in-person teacher training programme was a follow up to the online version where hundreds of teachers across the North East states were exposed to several modern techniques of teaching the specified subjects.
Bulama expressed the determination of the federal government to equip the teachers with skills with the view of meeting the 21st century teaching requirements.
“The initiative aims to improve student learning, foster healthy competition, and promote excellence in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) subjects.
“The ASSEP intervention project is an initiative by Office of the Vice President and the North East Development Commission focussing on STEMA towards driving future development and human empowerment in Nigeria’s North East region.
“We have trained teachers in the other five states in the region and we will be rounding it up here in Taraba,” he said.
Some of the participants who spoke to our Correspondent expressed delight with the training.
Mrs Agnes Musa, one of the participants said that the training would enhance their capacity in teaching science and technology subjects.
Also, Mr. Samuel Audu, a teacher from Government Day Secondary School Sabongida said that the training would equip them with vital skills and motivate them to be innovative.
