FG, World Bank partner to train 5,000 technical teachers on innovative skills

From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja

The Federal Government and the World Bank to train 5,000 teachers in the federal technical colleges in the country with the 21st century digital skills.

The Permanent Secretary Ministry of Education, Andrew Adejo, said this while declaring open a workshop on the development of a Structure for the in-service training of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) teachers and instructors on Wednesday in Abuja.

The Permanent Secretary, represented by the Director of Technology and Science Education, Grace Jakko, stressed  the importance to strengthen the technical schools with digital skills so as to increase the number of competent and motivated teachers.

He explained that the workshop is important as the ministry has come to the realisation that the 21st century presents a radically different economy and society, with profound implications on education and more specifically on skills development in Technical and Vocational Education.

Adejo stressed that  skills development in Nigeria must  adapt to the emerging trends of globalisation for economic viability especially in our relevant skills for the formal and informal sectors of the economy.

According to him, all the federal technical teachers in the 27 technical schools across the federation will be trained and captured and the five states that are participating in the IDEAS Project, each of them with three technical colleges will be captured.

National Project Coordinator, IDEAS Project, Blessing

Ogwu said the purpose of the project is to development a comprehensive structure for training technical teachers in Nigeria.

She expressed confidence that collective knowledge and expertise of the participants will help create a framework that would effectively prepare technical teachers to meet the challenges of the future.

She also disclosed that the target is equip about 5000 teachers with technical skills to meet the market demand, adding that technical education plays a crucial role in shaping the future of the society.

According to Ogwu, “it’s imperative that we have well-trained teachers who can effectively impart technical knowledge to our students.”

However, she noted that designing an effective training programme for technical teachers was not an easy task, saying it requires careful planning, coordination and collaboration among various stakeholders.

A World Bank consultant, Dr Mistura Rufai, on her part explained that the entire IDEAS Project is about $200 million and that teachers training is one of the components of the project  where about $25 million to $30 million will be spent on training teachers in Nigeria.

She explained that the  structure for the training is currently being put in place to ensure it starts off later in the year.

“Already we have 38 technical colleges that have been equipped with workshops across the country this is one of the things we are going to leverage on.

“These schools are going to be used as training centres for teachers, we are also looking at boosting the capacity of tertiary institutions that are already providing training for teachers, look at how we can up skill and digitalize their training. There is also plan to up skilled these tertiary institutions providing training to teachers.

“We work with the institution to ensure that the equipment they are getting are 21st century equipment that are market relevant so that the graduates they will be producing will have the relevant skills that the market wants.”

Ben Akpan, a facilitator at the workshop, said the essence of the collaboration was to enable the government to take ownership of the project and continue with the project thereafter.