Abuja – Dr Folasade Yemi-Esan, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education,has called on development partners, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and the private sector to support the training of new teachers in the country.
Yemi-Esan, who made the call at the ongoing 76th Joint Consultative Committee on Education (JCCE) Plenary meeting on Wednesday in Abuja, said the support would help address the qualitative and quantitative aspects of teacher deficit.
“With the great number of children out of school in the world, we will need to allocate an extra 1.8 billion dollars per year to address teacher deficit.
“We need to devise innovative approaches and explore new partnerships while engaging the private sector, development partners and Civil Society Organisations to support the training of new and established teachers.
“This should be in a more structured manner to address the qualitative and quantitative aspects of teacher deficit.”
Yemi-Esan said that status and motivation of teachers needed to be improved to ensure success in facilitating learning outcomes, adding that both intrinsic and extrinsic factors of motivation should be addressed.
She said that improving the conditions of service and provision of incentives for teachers particularly those in the rural areas, would improve the overall quality of the educational system for national development.
Commenting on the Education Quality Assurance Service, Yemi-Esan said it was an evaluation process aimed at ensuring that teaching and learning were carried out according to set standards.
She also said that the recently launched quality assurance handbook designed as a tool to achieving quality service in education should be properly utilised to improve teacher quality.
The permanent secretary explained that low investment in education, poor access to education, poorly motivated teachers and over – stretched facilities were the major factors contributing to low human capital development.
“It is clear that the role of the teacher in human capital development cannot be quantified especially in training personnel in various areas of the workforce.
“We must, therefore, encourage both state and non-state participation in education delivery, especially in quality teacher provision, to meet the need for human capital development of our dear country.
“Thus teacher education has become one of the most powerful weapons known for reducing poverty and inequality in modern societies,” Yemi-Esan said.
She noted that the change agenda of the present administration would be successful with the production of quality teachers in the country. (NAN)