FOCUS By Fela Bank-Olemoh (FBO)
In my maiden piece, I opined that the singular most important factor for improving the educational outcomes in any nation are the teachers. We must acknowledge that the Teacher Challenge in Nigeria is multifaceted. In fact, the issues around Teacher Effectiveness, Quality and Development remain major concerns worldwide. To effectively engage them, we need well-thought-through large scale interventions that bring together all critical stakeholders.
According to the Teachers’ Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN), there are about 2 million registered teachers in the country. The question is; How can we immediately deploy a nationwide, multi-level programme(s) that would effectively train and improve the competency level of at least 500,000 teachers in the short term while we train the rest over a mid to long term period? As I mentioned previously, Nigerian governments at federal and state levels as well as many private organizations are already engaging these challenges. However, these efforts appear to be implemented in silos.