16th November, 2016
Mr Bankola Sadipe, Coordinator, Early Child Educational Foundation (an NGO), on Wednesday said it would train teachers in all the 12 public primary schools in Coker-Aguda Local Council Development Area.
Sadipe said in Lagos that the training would focus on new teaching techniques, research and use of instructional materials to improve performance of pupils in primary schools.
He said that the six course programme training would be certified by a reputable academy in February 2017.
“It is always very easy to overlook the teachers; whereas, we realise that even the quality of the teachers will affect the quality of the students.
“Training and retraining of teachers is very important to improve academic performance because what you do not have, you cannot give.
“Over the years, we have organised quiz and debate competitions for pupils in the LCDAs and now we want to assist the teachers because they are important stakeholders. What we want to do next year is to organise teacher’s conference for them.
“We are concentrating on Coker-Aguda LCDA for now because we do not have the capacity to go much larger.
“We want to use what we are doing as a template; if we can do all of this in one local government and we are getting result, that means we have something we can sell to every other LGA that they will appreciate.
“We have sent letters to the education department on a suitable date and we are waiting for the response,’’ he said.
Sadipe urged the Lagos State Government to invest more in library and reading materials to improve performance of pupils in elementary schools.
He said that research has shown that children who have access to educational and instructional materials in elementary schools perform better than their peers without access to reading materials.
The coordinator said it did not matter if a child attends a private or public school, adding that every child has the capacity to perform if government and stakeholders can encourage them by providing the basic facilities that would help them excel.