The North East Development Commission (NEDC) has commenced a two-day training programme for 100 teachers in science, technology, agriculture, and engineering in Taraba State.
The training is under the Accelerated Senior Secondary School Education Programme (ASSEP), an initiative by the Office of the Vice President Kashim Shettima.
The initiative, which is anchored by the NEDC, is aimed at improving the quality of education in six states in the region with a focus on science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and agriculture.
The NEDC team lead of trainers, Mr Musa Bulama, said that the in-person teacher training programme followed the online version, where several hundred across the North East states were exposed to modern techniques.
He also said he will further seek to train one million teachers nationwide, with a basic emphasis on teacher training, classroom modernisation, student competition, and virtual reality content development to enhance educational outcomes.
Commissioner for Education, Dr Augusta Godwin, expressed support for the initiative, noting that it aligned with the state government’s ‘free education policy’.
Godwin noted that ASSEP, which was intended to enhance and improve teaching and learning in the state was one of the components in the blue print of the free education policy of Governor Agbu Kefas administration.
She, however, gave assurance that all teachers would be trained in fields other than science, technology, agriculture and engineering, especially in the area of Artificial intelligence (AI).
She commended the federal government for the initiative, adding that the trained teachers would replicate their experiences to other colleagues after the training.