By DAYO ADESULU

As part of its efforts to improve the standard of education in the country, the Federal Government said that it has concluded plans to commence the training of teachers nationwide.

The latest move was the exercise in Ogun State when senior teachers in secondary schools from all the local government areas of  the state turned out  for the capacity building workshop on the effective implementation of the new Senior Secondary School (SSS) curriculum which held recently at Abeokuta Grammar School.

The training programme was put together by the South-West Zonal Office of the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC), following the commencement of implementation of the curriculum from September 2011, beginning with SS1 across the nation.

Head of NERDC South-West Zonal Office, Dr. Moses Salau told the teachers and the state’s top government functionaries present at the event that the programme was necessary because an excellent curriculum does not make an effective implementation, adding that priority attention and enough resources must be devoted to the training of teachers before the goal of ensuring an effective implementation of the curriculum can be achieved.

Salau, who spoke on behalf of NERDC’s Executive Secretary, Prof. Godswill Obioma, said: “The greatest challenge to be faced in realising this noble goal is to train or re-train the adequate number of teachers who would effectively implement the curriculum and to create an enabling environment for the teachers to operate. Teachers, on their part, must seek all avenues that will make them well prepared for their job with confidence and competence.”

Stressing the strategic position which senior secondary school teachers occupy, Dr. Salau said: “Teachers at this level are the link between basic and tertiary education levels. If you do your job well, it will be easier for your students to pass their Senior School Certificate Examinations and to gain admission to tertiary institutions.

“You must do everything within your power to prevent the re-enactment of the scenario at Gombe State where only 27per cent of their senior secondary school students were qualified to proceed to higher institutions.

He counselled the teachers to key into the philosophy of the curriculum which, among others, emphasizes the need for the students to become ICT literate on graduation, reiterating that teachers should strive to be ICT literate.

“Teachers who are ICT literate will be in a position to adopt the use of software in implementing the curriculum, and these teachers can even become superstars in terms of generating additional income though the teaching of ICT education.