Federal government and the World Bank have collaborated to improve the knowledge of teachers in the federal technical colleges in the country with 21st Century skills that will equip the student with digital skills.
The permanent secretary in the Ministry of Education, Andrew David Adeno who was represented by the director of technology and science education, Mrs Grace Jakko, said this while declaring open a workshop on the development of a structure for the in-service training of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) teachers and instructors yesterday in Abuja.
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She said there is the utmost need to strengthen the technical schools with the aim to increase the availability of competent and motivated technical teachers and instructors.
Jakko explained that the workshop comes on the heels of the realisation that the 21st Century presents a radically different economy and society, which is having profound implications generally on education and more specifically on skills development in technical and vocational education.
She said that the skills development system in Nigeria must therefore adapt to the emerging trends of globalisation for economic viability especially in our relevant skills for the formal and informal sectors of the economy.
“All the federal technical teachers in the 27 technical schools across the federation will be trained and captured in this component and the five states that are participating in the IDEAS Project, each of the state has three technical colleges and all the teachers in these technical colleges will be captured,” she said.
The national project coordinator, IDEAS Project, Mrs Blessing Ehi Ogwu said the purpose of the project is to develop a comprehensive structure for training technical teachers in Nigeria.
Mrs Ogwu expressed confidence that collective knowledge and expertise of the participants will help create a framework that can effectively prepare technical teachers to meet the challenges of the future.
She also disclosed that they target to equip about 5000 people with technical skills to meet up with the market demand, adding that technical education plays a crucial role in shaping the future of our society.
On her part, a World Bank consultant, Dr Mistura Rufai, disclosed that the entire IDEAS Project is about $200 million and that teachers training is one of the components of the project with about $25 million to $30 million to be spent on training teachers in Nigeria.