18th October, 2018
Kaduna State Government has conducted a training exercise for 5, 834 primary school teachers on improving reading and writing ability of pupils within the last two months.
Hajiya Halima Jumare, Component Lead, Global Partnership for Education (GPE) on Teacher Professional Development (TPD), stated this, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigerian (NAN) in Kaduna on Wednesday.
Jumare explained that the teachers were trained on Joly Phonics, a child-centered participatory method that include singing and dancing
She added that the method has been adjudged as very effective means of teaching pupils how to read and write.
She explained that the training which was supported with funds from GPE under the TPD complaint, had school support officers and other school managers as participants.
She added that 1, 092 teachers and officials had in September participated in the training, with 4, 742 currently undergoing the training programme.
“In collaboration with Universal Learning Solutions (ULS), we have trained 1,000 teachers and 92 officials, with support from the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) in September.
“Recognising the effectiveness of the teaching method, the Kaduna state government as part of its efforts to improve teaching and learning in public schools decided to expand the scope of training to accommodate more teachers.
“The state’s Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Malam Ja’afaru Sani, therefore, approved the training of additional 3,000 teachers, 1,500 head teachers and 242 officials.
“This brought the total number of teachers trained in two months to 5,834,” she said.
Jumare noted that government had invested a lot of resources in conducting the training, stressing the need for the teachers to put to practice what they had learned to improve the reading and writing ability of pupils.
According to her, effective monitoring would be carried out after the training by school support officers and other school managers to ensure that the effort put in yields the desired result.
On his part, Mr Richard Turnbull, Senior Project Manager, ULS, said that Jolly Phonics approach was widely recognised as the most effective way of teaching children how to read and write.
Turnbull described the approach as a special teaching method designed to equip teachers with the expertise and tools required to improve reading and writing among primary school pupils in public schools.
“We are delighted to be partnering with Kaduna state government to conduct this intensive training to teachers and other key officials in the sector,” he said.
One of the participants, Mrs Hauwa Sherika, commended the state government for the initiative which she described as a fun-filled teaching method.