Government to Spend N5.5billion on Training Teachers in 2012

The Federal Government has declared that it would spend N5.5 billion to train and develop about 150,000 teachers and education managers nationwide in 2012. This was revealed by the Minister of State for Education, Mr Nyesom Wike, in Bauchi at the launch of the “2012 Capacity Building Workshop’’ for basic education teachers and managers.
The workshop, which was aimed at ensuring that teachers and education managers, who were directly involved in education delivery were exposed to current trends in education policies, was organised by the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) in collaboration with Bauchi State Universal Basic Education Board.
At the workshop, the minister said, that teachers and managers of education would be exposed to management systems and teaching methodologies. “It is also to ensure that the training needs of each state are met irrespective of their peculiar nature… More importantly, it is to ensure judicious utilisation of the Federal Government intervention funds meant for teachers professional development programme and value for money”, the minister said.
According to him, the training and retraining of teachers have become imperative because the exercise will go a long way in improving deteriorating standards of education, especially at the basic level. “The Federal Government has spent N16.036 billion for the training of 512,675 teachers and education managers between 2009 and 2011,” the minister said.