The Office of the Vice President, through the North East Development Commission (NEDC), has commenced a two-day training for 100 teachers of science, technology, agriculture, and engineering in Taraba State.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Jalingo reports that the training is under the Accelerated Senior Secondary School Education Programme (ASSEP), an initiative by the Office of Vice President Kashim Shettima.
NAN also reports that the initiative, which is anchored by the North East Development Commission (NEDC), is aimed at improving the quality of education in six states in the Northeast with a particular focus on science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and agriculture.
The initiative further seeks to train one million teachers with a basic emphasis on teacher training, classroom modernization, student competition, and virtual reality content development to enhance educational outcomes.
Dr. Augusta Godwin, Commissioner for Education expressed her support for the initiative, noting that it aligned with the State Government’s ‘free education policy’.
Godwin noted that ASSEP, which was intended to enhance and improve teaching and learning in the state, was one of the components in the blueprint of the free education policy of Gov. Agbu Kefas’s administration.
She, however, gave assurance that all teachers would be trained in fields other than science technology, agriculture, and engineering, especially in the area of Artificial intelligence (AI).
She commended the Federal Government for the initiative, adding that the trained teachers would replicate their experiences with other colleagues after the training.
Also speaking, Mr. Idris Goje, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, said that 100 teachers were carefully selected out of the 500 ASSAP teachers in the state for the training.
Goje further said that there were 100 designated schools under Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Agriculture (ASTEMA) with a total of over 5000 students in the state.
He said that the program would go a long way in enhancing science and technology innovation for teachers.
.Mr Musa Bulama, Team lead of trainers, said that the in-person teacher training program was a follow-up to the online version where several hundred across the North East states were exposed to several modern techniques.
Bulama expressed determination to equip the teachers with skills to meet the 21st-century teacher’s requirements.
“The initiative aims to improve student learning, foster healthy competition, and promote excellence in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) subjects.
“The ASSEP intervention project is an initiative of the Federal Government and the North East Development Commission focusing on STEMA towards driving future development and human empowerment in Nigeria’s North East region.
“We have trained teachers in the other five states in the region and we will be rounding it up here in Taraba,” he said.
Some of the participants who spoke to NAN expressed delight in the training.
Mrs. Agnes Musa, one of the participants said that the training would boost and enhance their capacity in teaching sciences and technology subjects.
Mr. Samuel Audu, a teacher from Government Day Secondary School Sabongida also said that the training would equip them with vital skills and motivate them to be innovative.
