FG, institutions urged to ensure contemporary teaching strategies for teachers

…as Anglican Church trains 120 teachers on contemporary teaching competencies

Sam Nzeh

Worried about dearth of professionalism and competency skills in education sector in the country, the Federal Government and educational institutions have been called to scale up training for the “21st century educator who must use contemporary teaching strategies to ensure quality preparation for today’s children for the future”. Venerable Adelowo Adesina, Vicar of St. Augustine Anglican Church, Anthony Village, Diocese of Lagos West, made the call at a one day teachers’ workshop organised by St. Augustine Anglican Church on the theme ‘Contemporary Teaching Competencies’ (C. T. C.) Speaking at the event, Ven. Adesina, who is also the organiser of the workshop, stated that “Teachers are indispensable in human capital development efforts of any nation as they are charged with the responsibility of transmitting organised learning experiences to learners. ‘’Generally, if Nigeria must move forward, we need value re-orientation, value has completely eroded and lost in Nigeria and the best way to start is from the schools. Those who will be value drivers are the teachers; they can’t give what they don’t have. So if we invest on our teachers, the reward and value it will yield will be unimaginable’’. According to him, one of the greatest area of deficiency in Nigeria is human capital and ‘’there are skills and competencies gaps and we felt that if we hold a workshop that will enhance teachers performance, we will be contributing and enhancing competencies of the teachers, as well as doing missions, community relations, corporate social responsibility. Those are our underlying reasons for the programme’’. He said: ‘’In every church we serve as vicar, we always do community relations which we consider as part of our missions and outreaches, it is a form of evangelism, when we got to Anthony village, we noticed that the church is located in front of a state school, there are other mission schools in our immediate community. So, we are training about 120 teachers from various schools”. Adesina stated that the programme was entirely free, with the great support of the parish council of the church, individual friends and associates. He appreciated Corona Secondary School for their support to the workshop in providing facilitators who have received international exposures in the areas being addressed. In her own remarks, Mrs. Adeyoyin Adesina, CEO of Corona Schools in Lagos and coordinator of the workshop, said that the programme was primarily organised to enhance teachers’ professionalism. She said: ‘’Teachers hold, shape, and make the future and we believe it is expedient for us to contribute our quota in building and developing the teaching workforce around us. We noticed some private, missionary and public schools within our community and we felt this is the list we can do in developing the teaching workforce”. She affirmed that the workshop addressed core competencies in teaching like Lesson Planning and Methodologies which is the core of the teacher. “We also looking at Character and Competence which has eroded in our community, we are looking at value system, Effective Classroom Management, Professionalism, Ethics & Etiquettes. We want the teachers to understand that they are professionals’’. Mrs. Adesina stressed that ‘’Today people don’t see teachers as professional; they only talk about law, medicine, and engineering as professionals while they see teaching as what one can manage to do. ‘’For us, Teaching is a profession and I always challenge people that whatever height you have attained, you have been thought by a teacher’’. She advocated that teaching profession should be the given the first position in the list of professions. ‘’We need to help teachers understand their place and role in the society and ensure they become real processionals,” she stated. She called on governments, organisations, institutions and families to place a high priority on teaching. ‘’For government, they need to go back to the basics, looking at our policies on education, ensure proper funding of the educational institutions and ensure that crop of teachers that comes out have a standard pedigree that prepares them for teaching profession’’. Also speaking, Mr. Opeyemi Adeyemi, one of the facilitators in the workshop and deputy head teacher at Corona Secondary School, who spoke on professionalism, Ethics & Etiquettes, said that teachers contribute greatly to building students’ characters to become ideal citizens. He said that the training will help teachers imbibe the culture of true professionalism and integrity in lines of duty. According to him, ethics and etiquette will help a teacher to grow but character will sustain the teacher to stay in the teaching profession as a core professional. He said that government and school authorities should make training and retraining of teachers a culture. For Mrs. Ronke Shonuga, a teacher with Corona Secondary School, who spoke on character and competence of teachers, she lamented on the poor character exhibition of teachers and dearth of competency skill among public and private school teachers. She stressed that empowerment of teachers was critical to career success, noting that new teaching techniques and methods needed to be continuously updated. “Today’s teachers must use teaching strategies to ensure that the focus in education is on preparing today’s children for the challenges of the times,” she added. A participant, Mr. Adeolu Olutumbo from Babington Macaulay Secondary School, Lagos, thanked the organisers of the programme for empowering the teachers. ’’ Today my take home is that am not limited to only competency as a teacher, I have learnt to add character to my teaching to be a complete professional. I have also leant how to have effective management of class room. Am a better person today’’.