UK-NIGERIA TEACHER TRAINING BEGINS IN LAGOS

By NBF News

• Alhaji Idris congratulating Ibeto, with them is Prof Rufa'i

There has been frantic search for solutions to the poor standard of teaching schools in the country. Some stakeholders have continued to blame teachers for the appalling performance of students in examinations. Across some states federation where education summits were organized, experts strongly recommended re-training programmes for both public and private school teachers.

But in its desire to improve standard of teaching, the British Council's Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) took up the funding of a partnership project between Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education (AOCOED), Otto-Ijanikin, Lagos and Havering College of Further and Higher Education in the United Kingdom, through its Education Partnership in Africa (EPA) project.

The project, UK-Nigeria Teacher Training (UNITET), was to be delivered at Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education. The Provost of the College, Hakeem Ajose-Adeogun, said the programme would raise professional teachers that would groom young scholars in the country.Aside that aside the rich programme module structured to include lectures, teaching practice, observation and assessment, successful applicants could also progress to a full-time post-graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) in the UK subject to validating universities admission criteria.

The organizers said the programme would increase the employability of teachers and students alike through a customized work-based learning delivery in schools and other educational organizations. The project began with a six-month pilot programme launched in September 2009 and specifically designed to give Nigerian teachers quality training and professional development.

On Thursday, penultimate week, 25 pilot students that participated in the programme were awarded Certificates of Recognition for having achieved merit in the Advanced Professional Certificate in Innovative Teaching (APCIT) course held at AOCOED between October 2010 and last month.

The planned outcome of the pilot programme was that at least 25 professional teachers would successfully achieve the APCIT enabling them to pass on their skills, underpinning knowledge and examples of best practice to further train other students embarking on their teaching career. Also, successful graduates would be awarded the new teaching qualification, Advanced Professional Certificate in Innovative Teaching (APCIT) by Havering College.

The curriculum manager of the programme, Julie Old, said the APCIT exposes the teacher to result-orientated session planning embedding core skills of literacy, numeracy and ICT in specialist curricula.

'This helps the teacher to develop a template for successful lessons to meet the individual needs of students in teaching the area of specialisation. The teacher is equipped to cope with the individual learning barriers using the existing theories of learning styles to enhance understanding of how students learn and more effective ways to teach,' she said.

The organizers of the programme told Daily Sun that full time academic programme would commence in September. It was gathered that visiting lecturers from Havering College of Further and Higher Education, UK would assess the students during the progamme ans subsequently award certificates.