Cross River State Governor, Ben Ayade, yesterday, said the combination of ambience and learning at the teachers continuous training institute located in Biase Local Government Area is to create an atmosphere that is academic but yet very inspiring and welcoming.
Ayade, who spoke while inspecting ongoing furnishing work at the institute, commended the speed and quality of equipment so far installed.
“I am really excited about the possibility of having a world class teaching environment in Cross River State because we understand the influence of environment on quality of teaching and quality of learning.
“I am very very impressed with the quality and the speed of furnishing. My hope is that will have the urgency and need to enrol en masse. We can beam with satisfaction that the Nigerian Teachers Training Institute will now take place here and I am sure at the fullness of time, Nigerians will recognise the value of quality education.
“Education is the basis for more societal transformation and that is why Cross River is being ruled by two professors. And, as a government, we place emphasis on the quality of teaching and quality of research, hence this school,” he said.
Speaking further on the reason for establishing the Institute, Ayade maintained that “the teachers continuous training institute, the first of its kind, is intended to train teachers and continuously retrain teachers because the quality of students is determined by the quality of teaching and the quality of teaching is a reflection of the quality of the training.
“Traditionally, when teachers are out of the university and get employed as teachers, they have no opportunity for further training, and no continuous training. So, the teachers themselves are sometimes not up to date, even with the subjects they teach.
“This is because trends and research keep throwing up new findings, but, unfortunately, a teacher has no opportunity to update his knowledge on the subject matter, particularly when you are teaching in a village setting and away from the city centre like the capital of the state.
“The institute is therefore, set up specifically to attend to the teaching needs of West Africa, to drive home the message of quality teaching because only through quality teaching that you can have quality learning which also translates to quality outcome.”