Sarah Sosan

The United Kingdom-Nigeria Teacher Training Project (UNITET) produced its first crop of 25 graduands on February, 24 2011 after 18-month intensive programme at the Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education(AOCOED) Otto/Ijanikin, Lagos State.

The graduating students who bagged the collaborative effort’s Advanced Certificate in Innovative Teaching (APCIT) were drawn from the core teaching staff of AOCOED, experienced teachers each from the six Education Districts in Lagos State and one from the Nigerian Navy Secondary School, Apapa, Lagos.

The new APCIT products were taken through active learning theories, assessment theories and methods, effective practices and Innovative Teaching Techniques during the September 2009 to February, 2011 programme.

The project, designed to hone the lecturers/Professional TeachersSkills, also exposed the students to result-Oriented session planning embedding core skills of Literacy, numeracy, and ICT in special curricular.

The objectives was to enable the graduates develop a template for successful lessons to meet the individual needs of students in teaching and thus equipped them with the ability to cope with the individual learning barriers using the existing theories of learning styles.

Speaking at the graduating ceremony the Chairman, AOCOED Governing Council, Mrs. Victoria Adedamola Akran, said the collaboration project, with AOCOED as the first place of birth, would take teaching and learning to the greatest height possible.

She described Lagos State as having the largest number of teachers in Nigeria adding the birth of the scheme was most welcome since the College is a foremost institution in the country. Mrs. Akran said the scheme was a welcome development at an era when students were no longer interested in learning.

The AOCOED Governing Council boss said the new turn of event would ginger the students to look forward to the coming session since they (students) were the primary focus.

She urged the granduands and the teaching force to give their students the very best adding that their products would accord them honorable recognition later in life. Mrs. Akran urged teachers to move away from the era of chalk-board to an innovative and proactive teaching session.