UBE: Longman, Pearson Foundation train 400 teachers

As part of its efforts to assist the Federal Government in implementing the universal basic education programme, Longman Nigeria Plc and Pearson Foundation have trained 400 teachers in Lagos and Oyo states .

The coordinator of the programme, Mr. Ronel Eloff, told Nigerian Tribune, on Monday, that the organisation trained the teachers in its 2009 edition of the professional development project.

According to him, 59 teachers underwent the training in Lagos with 29 of them trained for early childhood development and 30 for literacy/numeracy skills.

“In Ibadan , 87 teachers participated in the ECD sessions while 30 took part in the literacy/numeracy sessions,” he said.

Using a series of four-day workshops in Lagos and Ibadan, the organisations trained teachers in public primary schools on literacy skills, numeracy skills and early childhood development (ECD). The workshop facilitators were drawn from a pool of renowned experts in English Language Teaching (ELT), Numeracy and ECD.

He explained that the programme was put in place as part of the organisation’s corporate social responsibility initiative, adding, “this is an effort to enhance the performance of Nigerian students by upgrading the skills of their teachers.”

According to him, teachers were usually nominated by the state Ministry of Education through the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) to participate in the programme.

“Last year, the organisations trained 118 teachers in Lagos and 100 teachers in Abuja bringing the number of teachers already trained in the country under the scheme to almost 400,” he said.