Assoc. Prof Hyginus Okibe, who stated this while addressing a one-day sensitization meeting with the 68 Education Secretaries in the state on 2023/2024 Teacher Professional Development programs in the state, announced that the government has demonstrated unmatched commitment to everything concerning education to add unparalleled value to that sector.
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The Executive Chairman said that Education Secretaries as field officers are very important allies in the implementation of the UBEC/ ENSUBEB education programs and were invited to the meeting to brief them on some training programs approved by the Commission for the state to carry them along and explain to them their expected roles and task ahead.
He used the forum to inform the participants that going forward, training programs will no longer be business as usual, where teachers attend training for the sake of monetary value attachment to it. He made it clear that from now on, anybody who attends training and fails to give a full account or show signs of improvement based on the outcome of the training will not only be made to pay for the cost of the exercise but will also be penalized.
Assoc Prof Okibe, therefore, charged the Education Secretaries to brace up with the task ahead, ready to participate in the training, internalize it, and put into practice all they could learn and, equally deliver quality services in the discharge of their duties.
He disclosed that plans are on to re-evaluate activities/operations of the School Support Officers (SSO) in the Board to sieve out those that are found wanting in their service delivery and called on the participants to monitor them following all the adopted teaching methodology to improve literacy, numeracy, and writing competence of our children in public schools.
The Chairman also spoke on the introduced E-governance by Governor Peter Mbah’s administration in the state and charged the Education Secretaries to begin to improve themselves in ICT and key into the emerging system or risk being abandoned by the inevitable change in the way things are done.
He commended them for their impressive performance in the past year in the discharge of their duties and charged them to continue to respond to calls to duty and engage in cluster training, knowledge, and information sharing; hence, collaborating to maximize knowledge of better education services delivery for common good.
Also speaking at the occasion, Permanent Member 3 of the Board, Dr. Ego Ajah, reminded the participants of the communication book that has enabled the learners to follow up while the teachers use them to assess the learner’s impartation level for enhanced knowledge transfer and adjustment for improvement.
The Head of the Department of Teachers Professional Development (TPD) in ENSUBEB, Barr Andrew Nwani, said that the meeting was organized to inform participants of the teacher’s professional development training by UBEC for 2023/2024 and to ensure maximum impact.
According to Barr Nwani, the training programs that will commence this January include school-based model training designed to allow continued professional development to all teachers, training on Jolly Phonics, Early Child Care Development Education (ECCDE), and Strengthening Mathematics and Science Education (SMASE). Others are Mandatory Leadership and Management training for Head Teachers and their Assistants and the teaching of fundamental skills such as literacy, and numeracy, Strengthening Teacher’s English Proficiency (STEP), Instructional Technology and Digital Literacy, including Effective School Teachers Training, and State Initiative.
Under the state initiative training, Barr Nwani explained that the Enugu State Government has concluded the need assessment and discovered areas that teachers could be assisting and they include Early Grade English, Literacy (teaching of phonics/phonemics awareness), Information, Communication Technology, the teaching of Igbo language and science classes, integrating ICT into the classroom, and teaching foundational topics of mathematics to Primary 1-3 and others.
He disclosed that already ESUT and the Federal College of Education, Eha-Amufu, have developed a training manual for the state for the 2023/2024 teachers’ professional development workshop based on the UBEC guidelines and ENSUBEB training office.
Barr Nnani stated that the two institutions have also trained facilitators/resource persons to be used for the proposed training and called on Education Secretaries to permit their teachers who will be selected for the training to attend whenever they are invited.
The Head of the Department – Advisory Services Unit (ASU) in the Board, Mrs Benedette Ezeugwu, reminded participants of their role in achieving the overall UBEC mandate.
She emphasized the need to improve teaching/learning and encourage their teachers to attend training/workshops to be professionals, develop their capacity, and be abreast with the global best practices.
According to Mrs Ezugwu, Education Secretaries should lead instructions in their LGEA by ensuring that goals and mandate of UBEC and ENSUBEB are implemented, and thereby serve as a link between the LGEA, ENSUBEB, and their host communities. In addition, they need to always be abreast with the modern pedagogical approach to teaching and learning and communicate the same to their teachers.
She explained that they are not inspectors or supervisors of the school or fault-finders but senior school management whose duty is to support the school to achieve literacy, numeracy, and self-reliance of the pupils and engage in visits to schools to monitor the progress of instruction, encourage their teachers and build the strength of the struggling ones.
She spoke on the relationship between Education Secretaries and the School Support Officers and advised that Education Secretaries should ensure that teachers trained for a level are allocated to that level and should remain there for at least four years even if transferred to another school to implement that training received effectively.
In a vote of thanks, the Education Secretary for Ugwunye LGEA, Dr. Ernest Chime, thanked the Executive Chairman for the opportunity given to them to attend the meeting and promised that they would make full use of what they learned, since to whom much is given, much is also expected.
