Tagged the “National ICT Skills Acquisitions, Summits and Campaigns,” the training programme which is designed for registered teachers at primary, junior secondary and secondary schools as well as teachers in tertiary institutions (universities, colleges of education and polytechnics) will begin in July 2006 and will run through December 2006 in the 12 TRCN zones of Lagos, Minna, Uyo, Kaduna, Owerri, Maiduguri, Benin, Akure, Sokoto, Yola, Enugu and Jos.
Skills acquisition is an intensive practical (hands-on-driven) for basic and secondary school teachers in ICT, using specialised ICT laboratories/studios with internet connectivity. Its sub-themes include: Computer appreciation/use of computer systems, application packages (MS Word, MS Excel, etc), typesetting skills, internet browsing. A to Z of TRCN On-line real time, skills for Industries Inc. TutorsX and other internet resources.
Summits are for tertiary teachers with ICT background who will have a roundtable to brainstorm and produce a blueprint for the Continuous Professional Development (CPD) of teachers in ICT. The sub-themes of the summits are: imperatives of ICT for teachers, compendium of ICT resources for teachers, ICT self-development guide for teachers, challenges of e-teaching profession and ways forward as well as other related issues.
Activities lined up for campaigns will see the TRCN launching aggressive campaigns for the promotion of ICT skills and facilities for teachers. The campaigns will not only be launched in mass media but will also be taken to the doorsteps of teachers’ employers and prominent members of the society.
Ciwar disclosed further that all participants are to be selected by teachers’ employers, and that in the case of basic and secondary schools teachers, the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) is requested to assist their employers in the selection exercise, adding that care should be taken to give opportunities to teachers who did not attend previous TRCN programmes, and who also have little or no ICT skills.
Recently, the TRCN went on-line and real-time like other agencies and it decided to take the teachers along in the ICT revolution. The on-line system is designed and managed by a set of the best players in the ICT sector, that is, the National E-Government Strategies. The registration of teachers and routine transactions with TRCN can now be done on-line, and as part of its on-line services, TRCN has concluded arrangement to link teachers in Nigeria to global resources for teachers which was developed in the United States of America by the Nigerian-born Nosa Eweka, the founder of Skills for Industry USA Inc. The resources are now the point of convergence of teachers around the world from primary to the university level, which are connecting them on real-time basis.
Primarily established to guarantee for Nigeria a teaching force with the appropriate skills, orientations and sound intellectual base, the TRCN has been fulfilling this mandate not only by engineering and pioneering the re-equipment of teachers in modern techniques of their profession but by also mounting pressure on trainers, employers and stakeholders of teachers to assist in the professional development programmes and awareness campaigns for Nigerian teachers.
Last year, there were three regimes of such programmes organised across the country by either TRCN alone or in conjunction with the World Bank, UNESCO, Universal Basic Education Commission, National Commission for Colleges of Education and other sister agencies and development partners.
These past capacity-building programmes exposed teachers to best practices and pedagogical competencies in areas such as Mathematics and Sciences, Technology and Creative arts, teaching in English Language, teaching in mother tongue, learner-friendly strategies, the management of large classes, gender and child rights protection, eradication of examination malpractices, HIV/AIDS prevention and management, drug abuse and cultism and professionalisation of teaching.
Autor/Author: Olubusuyi Adenipekun
Quelle/Source: Vanguard, 01.06.2006
