By Nsan Ndoma-Neji, Calabar
The Chairman, Cross River State Universal Basic Education Board, CRSSUBEB, Senator Stephen Odey, has advocated the regular training and retraining of teachers to enable them sharpen their skills, update their knowledge, which would assist them catch up with current trends in the profession.
The SUBEB boss stated that it is only when their knowledge is broaden that they can excel in the profesion and contribute their quota towards national development.
Odey made the advocacy at the presentation of an induction lecture at the fourth induction of the Teachers’ Registration Council of Nigerian, TRCN, held at the University of Calabar, Unical.
The SUBEB Chairman, who spoke on the theme: ‘Professional Knowledge: Essential Vitamin to Unlock Quality Education,’ charged teachers to keep their profession alive, stressing that it is only when they engaged in training and retraining exercise at regular intervals that the noble profession can be sustained and allowed to take it pride of place.
Odey maintained that it’s one of the reasons why the administiion of Prof. Ben Ayade became conscious of the essence of retraining teachers to enhance quality education.
He averred that this was the major reason behind the establishment of the Teachers Continuous Training Institute, TCTI, in Biase by the Ayade administration, with a mandate of training teachers on a continuous basis to improve teachers quality in all ramifications.
On the need to rid off the education system of quackery, Odey called on the TRCN to step up their regulatory role by finding new ways of regulating the teaching profession in the country.
Also speaking, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Calabar, Prof. Florence Obi, expressed her delight on the induction of over 80 teachers, all trained by Unical’s Institute of Education.
Represented by the Deputy VC, Academic, Prof. Angela Oyo-Ita, the VC advised the inductees to hold their profession in high esteem, pointing out that without the teaching profession no other profession can exist.
Also in his remarks also, the Registrar, TRCN, Prof. Josiah Olusegun Ajiboye, who was represented by Dr Bimbo Okunola, urged the inductees to embrace new technologies to enable them navigate this digital era and enhance teaching and learning.
Earlier, the Director of the Institute of Education, UNICAL, Prof. Paul Itari, averred that the induction is one of the most important academic rituals, where graduates of education get initiated into their chosen profession, adding that quality education can only be a reality if teachers are trained professionally.
