- The Nigeria Union of Teachers has commended Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State for training more than 8,000 primary school teachers in the state.
The Nigeria Union of Teachers has commended Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State for training more than 8,000 primary school teachers in the state.
The Chairman of the NUT in the state, Pius Okhueleigbe, in an interview with our correspondent in Lagos on Thursday, said the administration’s interventions at the basic education level had led to an increase in the number of pupils enrolled in public primary schools in the state.
Okhueleigbe noted that public schools were in a bad shape when Obaseki assumed office. He warned that the governor might not be able to complete the transformations of the education sector in Edo State in four years.
The NUT boss said the transformation of primary schools in the state would reposition education sector in the state and make school leavers to be good ambassadors of the state wherever they go.
He said, “So far so good. I see the governor as a leader who is focused. He said from the outset that if he had N1,000 to spend , he would spend N600 on education. That shows the importance he attaches to the sector.
“The governor also said that in order to give pupils in the state good education, the primary school, which is the foundation, must be very solid and that is why he started to revamp the sector right from that level.
“To achieve this, his administration introduced what we call the Edo BEST. The governor brought in experts to train primary school teachers in the state. The experts are currently teaching the teachers technical ways of imparting knowledge to pupils. Over 8,000 teachers have been trained since Edo Best started.
“After the training, the teachers were given electronic mobile devices, which they now use to teach the pupils. What they teach in all the schools are centrally transmitted to the devices given to them. Teachers know the next subject to teach because it will come up on the tablets.
“The devices have helped to check absenteeism and lateness to school on the part of the pupils and the teachers. Nowadays if a teachers comes to school after 7.30am, it means that he is late and the time of his arrival will be transmitted to the central portal, which the governor monitors. This is possible because teachers have to log in right there in their schools and it is not possible to log in from anywhere else outside the school premises.
“The state government is also renovating classrooms and other structures in schools, in addition to the provision of water, toilets, play grounds and other facilities to make the environment friendly to pupils and teachers. I know that enrollment in public schools has increased. This may be due to the governor’s intervention in the education sector.”
