The National Teachers Institute (NTI), Kaduna, on Saturday inducted no fewer than 1,843 successful candidates who bagged Post-Graduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) into the teaching profession.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)reports that the graduates were drawn from Borno, Adamawa and Yobe (BAY) states.
Speaking at the ceremony in Yola, Adamawa, Prof. Musa Maitafsiri, NTI’s Director and Chief Executive, congratulated the inductees for successfully becoming professional and certified teachers.
He said that the institute under the emergency teaching upgrading programme with the Federal Ministry of Education, TRCN and UNICEF had upgraded 18, 367 teachers to obtain certified teaching qualifications in the three states.
Maitafsir also urged state governments to do more in the training and retraining of teachers for development of education in their respective states.
Prof. Josiah Ajiboye, Registrar and Chief Executive, TRCN congratulated the inductees and urged them to take the exercise with all seriousness it deserves.
“Oath taking is the most important legal basis for admission into a profession and a condition for professional practice
”Please note that any breach of the law particularly on oath, calls for sanctions,” he said.
Ajiboye further appreciated the gesture from the management of NTI and the UNICEF for their efforts in uplifting the education sector in the country.
He also called on the state governments to emulate what UNICEF and Federal Government were doing on training of teachers to be qualified instead of sacking them.
“The best approach is training and retraining of teachers and this accelerated programme had proven to be very effective in getting out teachers upgrade with current knowledge and ideas of teaching”, Ajiboye said.
Dr Armaya’u Yabo, programme Coordinator, Emergency Teacher Upgrading Programme (ETUP) for BAY states said PGDE was designed for the holders of HNDs and degrees, but without teaching qualifications.
According to him, ”the programme was in collaboration with Global Partnership for Education (GPE), UNICEF, TRCN and the Federal Ministry of Education.
”It is aimed at supporting state-driven intervention to address gaps in delivering education in emergency states”.
Mr Joel Jutum, UNICEF Education Consultant in Adamawa, promised sustained partnership on supporting various issues in the country, including education.
He said, ”the teaching career is a life journey, hence the need for the teachers to be upgrading themselves to ensure they are update teachers to record more successes”.
NAN
