According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), about 29 per cent of schools in the three states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe States have teachers with minimum required qualifications to teach.
Recall that since 2009 the zone has been characterized with incidents of armed conflict which no doubt affected civilians already living in precarious conditions as well as undermined poverty reductions efforts and development.
As expected, Education is one of the worst hit sectors as hundreds of children were kidnapped and recruited by Terrorists, scores of teachers killed and over 1,400 schools damaged and destroyed by Terrorists.
The situation was further worsen by the devastating impact of poverty and COVID-19 pandemic resulting in deteriorating access to quality education in the region.
Hope to remedy the situation however, seems not lost, all thanks to the teachers training programme of the Global Partnership for Education accelerated funding project implemented by the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states.
Speaking at a one day media dialogue to amplify the achievements of the GPE in Northeast Nigeria held Maiduguri, Borno state, the UNICEF chief of Maiduguri field office, Phuong Nguyen said the project has supported over 18,000 unqualified teachers in the north east.
She said the target is for over 1 million boys and girls to benefit from the experience of the teachers who are expected to have the classroom equipped with modern teaching methods.
Breaking down the objective of the GPE funded teachers training programme, Dr Armiyau Yabo of the National Teachers Institute Kaduna said it is already improving school enrolment on the 3 states.
Amina Yusuf is one of the 18,000 teachers that benefitted from the 12 month GPE teachers course.
The GPE project also renovated and provided basic facilities in some of the schools in the states of implementation.
The GPE funded teachers training programme is an initiative of the federal government of Nigeria, through the federal Ministry of Education, the National Teachers’ Institute (NTI) and the Teachers’ Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN).
