By Nsan Ndoma-Neji, Calabar
The Chairman of the Cross River State Universal Basic Education Board, CRSUBEB, Senator Stephen Odey, has advanced reason why the board embarked on training and retraining of primary school teachers in the state, notwithstanding the economic hard times faced by the nation.
The teachers training/retraining exercise began on Thursday in the Southern senatorial zone, with a flag off ceremony at Monty Suites Hotel and Leisure Resort, Calabar.
At the flag-off ceremony, Senator Odey stated that for any nation to have quality education, it must have qualified teachers.
Speaking in the theme: “Training of Basic Education Teachers To Meet 21st Century Minimum Teachers Standard,” Odey insisted that the training was well thought out and packaged to equip participants with emerging trends in the education sector.
The SUBEB Chairman charged participants to make good use of the opportunity to learn from seasoned resource persons and extended gratitude to the state governor, Prof. Ben Ayade, for providing the resources for the training despite the econmic hard times.
According to one of the resource persons, Dr John Inoka, who spoke on modern classroom management skills, the teaching profession is not for the dregs of the society, even as he called for respect for teachers, given the kind of contributions they make in the development of the society.
In his remarks, anothet facilitator of the programme, Dr Eni Alobo, who spoke on the need for the training objectives, which is basically to boost capacity of teachers and ensure that such is reflected in the productivity of pupils, he lauded the Board for organising the training, insisting that the training and retraining is a focal objective of every effective education system; charging the Board to continue training teachers in order to achieve optimal educational development in the state.
The training exercise was rounded off in the Southern senatorial district of the state, with the presentation of certificates of participation to participants.
The exercise will however continue for teachers in the Central and Northern senatorial zones from Tuesday, 20th to Wednesday 22nd, February.
