News Editor
The Enugu State Government has trained 250 school principals on contemporary skills to build their capacity and improve the quality of education in the state.
In a speech at the workshop in Enugu on Tuesday, the Commissioner for Education, Prof. Uche Eze, gave assurance that government would continue to build the capacity of principals and teachers.
The workshop is organised by the Post-Primary Schools Management Board (PPSM) in partnership with the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru, Plateau.
Eze said that the workshop was part of the government’s efforts to ensure that school administrators acquired modern skills in teaching.
According to him, this will in turn improve the quality of education in the state.
He urged the participants to put into practice what they learnt in order to enhance their competences.
“Because we cannot bring all the teachers in the state together in a place, we have decided to bring the principals, who are leaders in their various schools.
“By the time we equip them and come up with relevant skills and strategies that will help for efficiency, it will be their responsibilities to take that back to their schools.
“And those of us at the headquarters, who are supervisors of what is happening, will from time to time visit the schools to see if the principals are actually implementing the things they learnt,” Eze said.
One of the facilitators, AVM Uche Nwagwu, said he was satisfied with the number of participants and their interest in the training, describing it as incredible.
He said the training showed that the state government was giving education due attention, adding that it should be sustained.
Nwagwu, however, appealed to the government to extend the training to teachers in primary schools, considering their role in formative years of the children.
“Start this kind of training for teachers in primary schools, get to those in secondary schools before addressing the proprietors,” he said.
Also, the NIPSS Director of Studies, Mrs Oluwafunmilayo Para-Mallam, said that the workshop was key to sustaining the quality of education in the state.
In one of the contributions, Mr Sylvanus Onoyima, the Senior Special Adviser to Gov. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi on Due Process and SERVICOM, commended PPSMB for organising the workshop.
Onoyima urged PPSMB to intensify efforts in monitoring the schools to ensure that they complied with the set standards.
Earlier, the Permanent Secretary, PPSMB, Mrs Favour Ugwuanyi, applauded the state government for providing necessary logistics for the training.
Ugwuanyi also said that the principals should replicate the training in their schools when they return from vacation.
My advice to the principals is that they should go back after the vacation to replicate the workshop in their schools for three to four days.
“The participants have all the details of this workshop and you will see that teachers will improve in their teacher.
“Also, the children, by the grace of God, will change and we will have quality youths in the state,” Ugwuanyi said.
The Principal, Idaw River Girls’ Secondary School, Mrs Ethel Onoh, said the training had exposed them to becoming better and effective leaders in their schools.
