The three-month training for the 13,000 new teachers that have been employed by the Rivers State Ministry of Education is part of an induction recommended during the education summit in Port Harcourt, March this year.
Drawn from a template recommended by one of the summit speakers, Prof Joshua Aisiku and others, the induction was part of the continuous teacher development pro-gramme they will undergo while in the employ of the Rivers State government.
Prof Aisiku said the training will prepare them for classroom management and fill gaps in their pedagogical and knowledge skills such that when they are distributed to the over 100 model primary and secondary schools the state government has built and equipped in September, they will be able to offer the pupils quality education.
“New teachers must know how to meet the varying needs of students in their classrooms,” Aisiku said.
He added that though all the newly-employed teachers may not be First Class graduates, they can be groomed to become very good teachers.
Mr Charles Magbe of PriceWaterCoopers, the firm that handled the recruitment for the state, said the grooming is necessary for the teachers to deliver on the state’s objective of providing access to quality education for all school-aged pupils irrespective of socio-economic background.
“Post recruitment, government must continue to invest heavily in developing the teaching capacity of teachers. A rigorous programme of induction must be pu in place for the new hands; and close monitoring and appraisal of performance is important,” he said.
The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) Country Director, Prof Hassana Alidou, Rivers State Commissioner for Education, Dame Alice Lawrence-Nemi said the recruiting was in recognition of the important roles teachers play in the school system.
Since Governor Chibuike Amaechi declared a state of emergency in the education sector in 2008, the government has completed 264 of the 750 model primary schools it plans to build, 100 of which have been equipped and now in use.
However, Dame Lawrence-Nemi said the government recognises that infrastructural development alone will not automatically translate to good performance, hence the decision to recruit and train teachers to meet this important need.
With their employment, she added that the teachers will be filling a shortfall numbering tens of thousands as the rehabilitation of infrastructure had led to increased enrolment.
She said: “The recruitment of 13,000 teachers will reduce the burden of teachers teaching several subjects at a time, when in actual sense, they are meant to teach only one subject each. The 13,000 teachers will be distributed to the primary, junior secondary and senior secondary schools.
“The plan is aimed at boosting the manpower in the educational sector and reversing the poor performance of students in external examinations like WAEC and NECO.”
Mrs Lawrence-Nemi noted that this recruitment marks the end of the era of cutting of corners in terms of quality. She noted that the government wants to instill professionalism in the teaching profession.
Of the 13,000 teachers recruited, 90 per cent (11,700) are indigenes of the state, while 10 per cent of 1,300 are from other states.
The Commissioner said teachers already in the teaching force are not left out of professional development as the state has organised programmes for their training.
“The Ministry of Education is devoted to continuous teacher training and re-training in order to enhance specialisation and efficiency. The Ministry in partnership with the British Council and Cambridge University introduced the TKT Essentials training and certification. Today, well over 9,000 teachers across the 23 Local Government Areas of Rivers State, 75 per cent of who are in primary and junior secondary schools, have received in-service training.
“We also embarked on the re-certification and verification of teachers’ credentials in order to ascertain the current numerical strength of teachers in the state to ensure that only qualified teachers are allowed to teach in the Schools,” she said.
