Teachers in Lagos State have been assured more commitments by the state government especially in the area of capacity building.
This assurance was made by the Permanent Secretary, Teachers’ Establishment and Pensions Office, TEPO, Mrs Sewanu Amosu, at a 3-day capacity building workshop tagged “Emerging Trends in Methodologies of Teaching the Sciences” such as physics, chemistry and biology at the Teachers’ Resource Centre, Owutu, Ikorodu.
According to Mrs Amosu, “this training session is a direct response to the obvious challenges observed from the performance of the students and the need to raise the level of our teachers’ ability to react accordingly.”
“The current situation of the teaching profession has highlighted the urgent requirement of constant training and development of interest in the subject areas in line with government goals of raising a very well educated and capable workforce in Lagos State and the country in general,” she added.
The Permanent Secretary opined that the role of teachers must continue to be an issue on the front burner of nation building, adding that training, mentoring and motivation is to drive the interest of teachers to adequately respond to the needs of society.
She also noted that no one could transfer knowledge without a committed teaching policy, saying that “this training tallies with well-defined government goals and objectives because all other succession plans begin with the teachers.”
The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Establishment, Training and Pensions, Mrs Folashade Ogunnaike, urged teachers to seek new information as it would enhance their ability to teach well.
“There are no rights without corresponding obligations. We have a right to receive salaries, just as we also have an obligation to teach well. We are here to brainstorm on how to help our pupils perform better. As we strive for excellence, we also need training.
You are here to learn new applications so that you can benchmark your methodology against that of others. You must be like a clean slate ready to learn new things,” she added.
Two representatives of the participants, Oyeniyi Francis and Mrs Ashiru Adebukola both Physics and Biology teachers respectively remarked that the development of training and re-training to update teachers’ skills and knowledge in their various areas of specialization is a right step in the right direction.
They expressed the teachers gratitude to the Akinwunmi Ambode led administration for its magnanimity in making their dream a reality and promised to impact positively on their students.
