The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) has commenced a five-day Teachers’ Training and Welfare Initiative for 50 teachers drawn from Badagry, Epe and Ikorodu in Lagos State, starting learner-centred teaching methods and approaches to improving pupils’ understanding.
The programme, which was officially launched on Monday, is organised under the Board’s Back-to-the-Creek Initiative, and is designed to refresh teachers’ knowledge of the profession and expose them to modern teaching techniques. It also made provision for teachers with disabilities, including sign-language interpretation to support their participation.
Representing the NCDMB, Senior Manager Institutional Relations and Entrepreneur Development at the Board, Engr. James Eyetigha, said education was critical to national growth, noting that NCDMB’s mandate extended to linkage sectors connected to the oil and gas industry.
Eyetigha said the Board’s interventions also covered the development of people, institutions and competencies needed to drive growth that will support the oil and gas sector. He said the training was part of efforts to strengthen local capacity, promote knowledge transfer and create opportunities for educators to realise their full potential.
He encouraged the teachers to participate actively, share their experiences, ask questions and embrace approaches that could improve teaching and positively impact learners.
Managing Director of Prima-Varis Training and Consulting Nigeria limited (PVT & C) Training and Consulting Nigeria, Mr. Dipo Falola, said the initiative was intended to recognise teachers serving rural and creek communities, who could feel neglected because many teachers preferred postings in city centres.
He said the Back-to-the-Creek Initiative was the Board’s way of acknowledging their work and supporting their professional development.
“This initiative is NCDMB telling these teachers, these special teachers that even though others may not see you, we are interested in your growth,” Falola said.
Falola said the Lagos programme had 50 participating teachers drawn particularly from Badagry, Epe and Ikorodu. He put the gender distribution at approximately 60 per cent female and 40 per cent male, adding that about two per cent of the participants were teachers with disabilities.
Falola acknowledged that primary and secondary education fell within the responsibility of state governments, while explaining that the concerns raised by teachers could be documented by the facilitators and communicated to the relevant authorities for consideration.
Edward Romeo Uche, an ICT teacher at Local Government Primary School, Majidun, Ikorodu, described the training as one of the best he had attended. He said he had previously relied on rote chanting and lecture-based teaching but had learnt the importance of engaging pupils in lessons.
Uche called for the programme to be extended to other teachers, saying more educators should benefit from the training.
The Teachers’ Training and Welfare Initiative forms part of NCDMB’s Back-to-the-Creek Initiative, through which the Board seeks to recognise and support teachers working in rural and creek communities
