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Tag: NTI

  • Hyat to KDSG: Sacking 22,000 teachers will create chaos in educational system

    Hyat to KDSG: Sacking 22,000 teachers will create chaos in educational system

    Mr Hassan Hyat, former aviation minister and PDP Chairman in Kaduna State, has cautioned the Kaduna government against sacking 22,000 primary school teachers said to have failed a competence test.

    “Sacking 22,000 teachers in one swoop will create chaos in the entire educational system of the state; government’s insistence on doing that is wrong-headed,” Hyat told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Jos.

    NAN reports that the state government has begun the recruitment of 25,000 teachers to replace 22,000 others that failed a competence test it carried out recently.

    Gov. Nasir El-Rufai has declared that the decision to sack them was based on government’s commitment to entrenching quality, arguing that most of those in the system were not competent and lacked basic teaching requirements.

    But Hyat, who declared government’s position as “brash and too hasty”, said that government had no moral right to sack teachers it had never trained to improve their quality.

    “Teachers require constant training and retraining to meet rising and changing demands, but there is no record to show that Kaduna State primary school teachers were ever trained.

    “A lot of them have not been promoted for decades, while some do not receive salaries regularly. That has affected morale and should worry government. Sacking them will further destroy an already bad system,” he said.

    Hyat also faulted the process through which the competence test was conducted.

    Read Also: NUT warns El-Rufai not to sack teachers

    “The integrity of the process is still being questioned. Some people have suggested that government officials that conducted the test may have been instructed on what to do.

    “I feel that the exercise would have been more credible if it was conducted by the National Teachers Institute (NTI) and supervised by the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN), to ensure fairness to the teachers,” he said.

    The PDP chairman said that government should have taken advantage of the presence of NTI in Kaduna to train teachers found to be incompetent, so as to improve their capacities.

    “Those said to be incompetent should be trained and not sacked because the new ones being recruited are products of those being sacked.

    “Government should have carried out a thorough assessment to determine the kind of training required by each teacher.

    “Efforts should have also been made to help those with deficiencies because there is provision for such in-service courses during holidays. A massive sack of teachers will create a huge imbalance in the system,” he opined.

    The former minister also advised government to investigate the allegations that names of dead and retired teachers were included in the list of those said to have passed the test.

    “The Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) has said that retired and dead teachers, as well as messengers and security personnel were among those that passed the teachers’ test.

    “Government should dig into that allegation because the NUT mentioned names of specific schools in Zaria and Igabi. Government should investigate further to ascertain the truth so as not to ridicule itself,” he said.

    Read: We will continue to support govt’s efforts at strengthening education – Kaduna Assembly

  • NTI to govt: fight ritual killing, child abuse

    The Federal Government has been urged to take up the fight against child abduction for rituals and other violence.

    Director-General/Chief Executive of the National Teachers’ Institute, (NTI) Dr. Aminu Sharehu made the plea during a special Children’s Day programme in commemoration of this year’s Children’s Day celebrations in Kaduna.

    Sharehu said to further curb parents should avoid sending their children/wards on errands at odd hours.

    Represented by the Dean, School of Post graduate Studies Dr. Lanre Maja, the NTI boss said: “Security agents should not be seen aiding or covering those behind such offences, no matter how rich the offenders are in the society. Security agencies must help the media uphold the sacredness of the features of news. In so doing they must ensure that cases of ritual killings are truly and adequately investigated and reported to a logical conclusion.”

    According to him, the theme for this year’s Children’s Day ‘’…is timely’’, saying NTI would continue to sensitise the public even after the event.

    He warned children against resisting gifts from strangers and walking alone to and from school.

    The representative of United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), who is also the Communication Officer of UNICEF Kaduna Office, Mallam Rabiu Musa, emphasised the need for governments to take the Child Rights Acts seriously and domesticate it for efficiency and wellbeing of children across board.

    Highpoints of the event are presentations and testimonies from victims of abduction.

  • NTI distributes monitoring vehicles to state offices

    The National Teachers’ Institute (NTI) has distributed 22 brand new Ford Ranger vehicles some of its zonal and state offices to enhance the productivity of field officers.

    The agency also commissioned seven projects carried out by the Dr. Aminu Ladan -led administration.

    The projects are: Fire service station, permanent convocation square and SMASE multi-purpose hall.

    Others are an e-learning centre, integrated science laboratory, computer laboratory and a new NTI logo.

    Ladan said the vehicles and other projects were provided to ensure the institute continues to provide quality education to teachers.

    He revealed that most vehicles at the zonal and state offices were purchased about 20- 25 years ago and have become unserviceable.

  • NTI boss: teachers need professional training

    NTI boss: teachers need professional training

    National Teachers Institute (NTI) Director-General/Chief Executive Dr. Aminu Ladan Sharehu has called on the Federal Government to include training and re-training of teachers in its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

    He noted that this would ensure good service delivery as well as improve the country’s standard of education.

    Ladan said this at the beginning of a capacity-building workshop for teachers in Minna, Niger State.

    He said the institute has the capacity to train teachers in modern techniques of classroom and outdoor teaching.

    Sharehu noted that the massive workshops embarked upon by the Federal Government through the NTI has had a far-reaching salutary impact on its target to achieve 560, 000 primary school teachers.

    He added that as the nation transits from the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to SDGs, the institute had greater role to play.

    The chief host and special guest of honour at the event, the Niger State Governor, who was represented by his deputy, Alhaji Ahmed Muhammed Ketso, said the NTI was equal to the task of elevating teachers’ morale through capacity building workshops.

    The Director, Field Operations and Student Services, Dr. Dele Yaya, said the second leg of the 2014 workshops was aimed at retraining about 4,070 primary school teachers on four thematic areas of language communication skills, effective classroom management skills, basic Teaching Methods and Techniques and Information and communication technologies (ICTs).

     

  • NTI boss to govts: train Mathematics and Science teachers

    NTI boss to govts: train Mathematics and Science teachers

    Director General and Chief Executive of the National Teachers’ Institute (NTI), Dr. Aminu Ladan Sharehu, yesterday called on governments at all levels to be proactive to the issues of training and retraining of Mathematics and Science teachers.

    He also urged stakeholders to support the training and re-training of the Mathematics and Science teachers, rather than complain about their quality.

    Sharehu made the call, while declaring open a two-week training for Mathematics and Science teachers drawn from four states of the country.

    The training, which is the first Cohort of the third Cycle under the Strengthening Mathematics and Science Education (SMASE) project, drew participants from Nasarawa, Enugu, Osun and Ondo states.

    He said teachers had always been at the receiving end, whenever students performed woefully in Mathematics, stressing that he had not seen much efforts from stakeholders in supporting the teachers to improve in their profession.

    The NTI DG, while commending the Universal Basic Education Boards across the country, advocated for stronger collaboration for the sustenance of the SMASE project.

    He said state governments had not taken advantage of the professionalism and expertise of the NTI in the development of their teachers, saying “the institute is always and ever ready to partner states for the benefit of the country’s education sector.”

    The representative of the Federal Ministry of Education, Mr. Joseph Aguiyi, challenged states to adhere strictly to SMASE guidelines in conducting their local trainings.

    Aguiyi, who is the SMASE National Coordinator, lauded the efforts of the NTI under the leadership of Dr. Sharehu in sustaining the project, after the Japan government had pulled out.

    He said the NTI DG’s effort at rapidly propelling the wheels of the SMASE training qualifies him to be honoured with what he called “SMASE Fellowship.”

    Similarly, NTI SMASE adviser, Prof. Emmanuel Odubunmi, lamented stakeholders’ failure to utilize opportunity given by the SMASE project to improve the quality of teaching and learning Science and Mathematics in Nigerian schools.

    He said the country would remain a dependant of finished products, if it could not develop its production sector.

    He noted that “it is only when there are good students of Science and Mathematics that the country becomes a producer of finished goods.”

    Chairperson of the Enugu State Universal Basic Education Board, Miss Nneka Onuora, expressed the state readiness to always support the National Teachers’ Institute in the training and retraining of Mathematics and Science teachers.

    She said her state knew the importance of Science and Mathematics in the quest for national development, stressing that the state had taken steps to ensure the success of the SMASE project.

    NTI Principal Consultant on quality assurance, Professor Emeritus Thomas Kolawole Adeyanju, said “the answer to overcoming mass failure of Nigerian students in Mathematics is with the teachers.”

  • School where pupils pay teachers’ salary

    School where pupils pay teachers’ salary

    Have you ever imagined a scenario where pupils of primary schools pay teachers’ salary? That is the situation in a yet-to-be-approved Government Primary School in Ijoko, Ogun State. It is usually interesting to hear government officials say that education is free in Nigeria, especially at the primary level and the most important section as it is. How true is this saying?

    For several reasons ranging from Community Development Association’s (CDA) inability to further maintain facilities (rented building and provision of Chairs and textbooks in some cases) and to manage both teachers’ and pupils’ needs, to their inability to erect a structure suitable for government approval, the school has changed locations for about 4 times.

    What now poses as St. Saviour Primary School Olayemi Annex, Oluke Tuntun, Ijoko, Ogun State, used to be United Community Primary School, established in 2005 by the collective effort of the members of Olorundusin (Fadunsin) CDA, area of Ijoko.

    However, the farther the school goes the more or less accessible it became for some pupils, and some hopes to attend primary school were dashed. At Basic (Primary) 6, the pupils are merged with an approved school for placement into Basic 7 (Junior Secondary School 1) at the nearest Government Secondary School.

    Government at all levels calls it Free Education but Pupils of St. Saviour Primary School, Olayemi pay N600 while their colleagues in the yet-to-be-approved annexe pay N1600. This is because, at the yet-to-be-approved annexe, pupils pay N500 for teachers’ salary and N500 for the school building. The other N600 supposedly paid to the government, is N300 for maintenance and N300 for insurance from the government. What then is free? This is obviously not peculiar to St Saviour; it seems to be the culture in Ogun State.

    For new intakes in an unapproved school like St. Saviour Annex, the story is slightly different. They pay N2200. This is the regular levy of N1600 plus N100 for a chair and N500 for government approval of the school. Only God knows how long this payment for approval will last before nature smiles on them.

    The said N600 supposedly paid to the government is per session since its introduction until early 2014 when pupils now pay every term, which now amounts to N1800 per academic session in an approved school and N4800 for the yet-to-be-approved school pupils. Maybe the cost of insuring and maintaining these pupils has increased.

    Meanwhile, the curriculum at primary school level is expected to provide a permanent literacy for children from ages 3 and 5, including pre-primary. It also extends to the laying of a sound basis for scientific, critical and reflective thinking, inclusive of equipping children with the core life skills to function effectively in the society. It could not have been otherwise, that is what makes it a primary education to human existence anyway.

    St. Saviour Oluke annexe has tried to do just that for about 9 solid years now. This poor to-be-public primary school, in its unapproved form, has continued to produce primary school graduates, laying a questionable foundation.

    After going through hell, the school now has a structure of four classrooms, which is one of government’s requirements to approve a school as fit to offer public primary education. Just as the Basic 6 pupils occupy a classroom that also doubles as office due to the inadequacy of classrooms, the pupils of Basic 1 also occupy a classroom out of the four classrooms available. On the contrary, Basic 2 and 3 share one classroom, while pupils of Basic 4 and 5 also share a classroom. All these are efforts of the children of the masses to acquire education by all means.

    It is, therefore, logical to best describe this kind of education as cheap and not free education. If the government does not know what it is doing, the citizens know.

    It is pertinent for government to want to revive public primary education in Nigeria. If it would remain free as claimed, it does not have to be with bad structures and ill administrative systems. Students of public schools also deserve some dignity and sense of satisfaction for attending government schools. It is expected that whatever government does should be at its best. However, many Nigerians, home and abroad have lost hope in the governmentet, there are few who believe that government can and would attend to the very needs of the citizenry, giving rise to out of school children in the country.

    See infographics below:

     

    Thus, schools should be often rehabilitated and equipped with up-to-date facilities including white boards, markers and library, as well as qualified manpower to mention but few. In the light of that, fresh graduates could be employed in classrooms to both reduce unemployment and rescue government schools. Most of these graduates after National Youth Service often end up teaching in private schools with a stipend in the name of salary. These, undoubtedly will help reposition primary education again in Nigeria.

    As vital as it is to equip and manage schools, it is even more important for government to build enough schools across every settlement to overcome the risk of overpopulated few available schools and or the risks of pupils travelling more than 3 kilometers to school. More so, one of the supposed reasons why private schools seem to do much better is because teachers do not attend to too many students which may bring about a hostile teachers-students relationship. One teacher to 20-25 students is not bad. Also important is the need for re-orientation of teachers about their relationships with students.

    On the whole, rewards and certificates of recognitions or of honours often boost worker’s will-power to do more at work. Teachers should not be left out of such appropriate motivations and reward for extra efforts to improve the learning of pupils. Education is light as knowledge is power. In the voices of the children of Nigerian masses, government should do the needful to boost the ego and will-power of teachers to improve education.

    No sooner than these and many other reforms are effected, education will be revived in the country again and the future can be promising.

  • NTI to graduate 56,235 trained teachers

    THE National Teachers Institute (NTI) is set to graduate 56,235 trained teachers, according to its Director-General, Dr. Aminu Ladan Sharehu.

    Sharehu, who spoke with reporters while unveiling activities marking the institution’s convocation and biannual Teachers’ Summit, said 56235 students of National Teachers Certificate, Advanced Diploma in Education and Post-Graduate Diploma in Education were expected to graduate.

    He added that the students include 37,235 for PGDE, 18,831 with NCE and 146 for Advanced Diploma in Education.

    The NTI Director General absolved teachers, who graduated from the institution, of any blame regarding poor quality of teachers.

    Rather, he said state governments should be blamed for not embracing a Federal Government institution such as NTI.

    He noted that most state governments who are rejecting NTI products are only playing politics because they have established their state colleges of education and preferred to employ their products rather than that of the NTI.

    According to him, “in most third world countries, when somebody is competing with you, he would resort to condemning you rather than showing his expertise so that people would patronise him. But they would not do that, rather they would attack and criticised you.”

    Sharehu said NTI had the same entry criteria with other institutions, and all students admitted into the institutions must have that entry requirement before they are admitted.

    He said NTI’s facilitators were about the best in the country, who are produced by the Nigerian universities and other institutions.

    “We do not import facilitators from Ghana, Cote’d Voire. They are all Nigerian products, who have been produced and hatched by the Nigerian system. So, if the system is wrong somewhere, we should go back and correct the system and not blame NTI,” he said.

  • NTI seeks N1.34b to offset teachers’ training allowances

    NTI seeks N1.34b to offset teachers’ training allowances

    About N1.34 billion is required to settle the outstanding training allowances for teachers which accrued in 2011, the Director General (DG), National Teachers Institute (NTI), Dr. Animu Sharehu has said.

    Sharehu disclosed this in Kaduna during a stakeholders meeting on capacity building workshop for teachers under the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) project.

    He said the institute had written to the Federal Ministry of Education requesting for advice to enable it use the fund for the 2012 MDGs workshop to pay the balance of the allowances.

    “This initiative is to avert any legal implications of using 2012 appropriation to settle 2011 outstanding participants’ allowances,” he said.

    The director-general said the partial payment of the participants’ training allowances was among the problems encountered last year.

    He, however, said the ministry and the NTI had made efforts to ensure the inclusion of the unpaid allowances in the 2013 budget.

    The meeting was attended by key partners from the Federal Ministry of Education, state ministries of education and the universal basic education boards as well as the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), quality assurance assessors, independent monitors and zonal consultants.

    Sharehu expressed hope that the session would offer the NTI the opportunity to examine the lapses in the previous editions of the exercise and map out new strategies for a successful outing.

    The institute also organised a two-day workshop for newly deployed desk officers assigned to the NTI study centres nationwide to enhance their service delivery.

    He said: “This workshop on service delivery and effective management of study centres is the first of its kind in the history of the institute which is part of the strategy of the management of the institute to strengthen the study centre desk officers (CDOs) as part of its five-point agenda. Study centres are integral part of the institute and their roles cannot be over emphasised hence the need to monitor the activities of the centres to ensure the success of the institute’s activities.

    “Part of their responsibilities is to ensure that course materials get to the centres and to the students on schedule at the point of registration; secondly they are to shuttle between the state offices and the centres and warned them against delay in issuing the course materials to the students. Everything that is needed for examinations must be provided and the institute will not accept lapses.”

    He also said they are to keep records of facilitators and students, and warned them against extortion or attempts to take over the jobs of the centre managers.

    “Let me make it clear to you that you are not to take over the affairs of the centre from the centre mangers rather you are to work together to ensure that the goals of the institute are attained.”

    He tasked the officers to work with other officers of the institute and report those found wanting.