By Philip Yatai
The Kaduna State Government has trained 8,180 teachers in the last two months, as part of efforts to improve the quality of teaching and learning in the state’s public primary schools.
Hajiya Halima Jumare, a Director in the state’s Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, made this known on Friday, at a two-day training on Jolly phonics, organized for another group of 180 teacher leaders in Kaduna.
Jumare, who is the Component Lead, Global Partnership for Education (GPE)/Nigerian Partnership for Education Project (NIPEP) on teacher professional development in the state, said that the 8,180 teachers were trained from December 2018, to date.
She explained that the teachers were trained with funding from GPE/NIPEP on reading and writing skills, using jolly phonics method, a teaching technique that focus on sounds.
Jumare added that the technique focusses on how letters could be pronounced, blended and grouped to form sound.
She said that the 180 teachers being trained currently, were to monitor the 4,500 teachers trained this month to ensure that the teachers put the skills acquired to good use.
“The training was part of the current government effort to improve the quality of teaching and learning in public schools to be at par or above private schools.
“We adopted the Jolly phonics techniques because of its effectiveness in helping young ones with literacy and numeracy skills, because children learn fast when stimulated with singing dancing and drama,” she said.
She added that a strong monitoring and evaluation mechanism was in place to ensure that teachers delivered as expected.
Some of the teachers commended GPE and the state government for the concerted effort towards improving the capacity of public school teachers for effective teaching and learning.
One of them, Abubakar Abdullahi, said: “I have participated in four different trainings so far and more are underway to increase our knowledge, teaching skills and strengthen our capacity to deliver quality teaching and guide to the pupils.
“The trainings have completely changed my perspective about teaching and learning, and I can tell you that I am now a better teacher, loaded with new skills and capacity to make a difference in the lives of children.”
Another teacher, Sekina Ibrahim of Model Primary School, GRA Zaria, also said that the trainings have equipped teachers with the needed skills to effectively carry out their duties.
“The series of trainings have improved teacher’s ability to effectively to teach pupils how to read and write.
“I thank GPE and Kaduna State Government for the effort, because as teachers, we can only be good at what we do when we are trained and retrained to be equipped with fresh ideas,” she said. (NAN)
