UBEC partners British Council on STEP training for teachers

The Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) in partnership with the British Council, held a four-day capacity building workshop in Lagos, aimed at training the Trainers of the Strengthening Teacher English Proficiency (STEP) programme.

 This 17-week programme seeks to transform the teachers’ performance in the classroom as well as improve learning outcomes through effective communication skills in the classroom. Participants of this training include four public school teachers each from the 36 states of the federation, including the FCT.

 Executive Secretary, UBEC, Dr Hamid Boboyi, represented by the Director, Teachers’ Development, UBEC, Aleshin Olumayowa, in his remarks applauded the British Council for keying into such initiative for the greater good of the Nigerian education system.

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Country Director for Programmes, UBEC, Chikodi Onyemerela, described the capacity building programme as a step in the right direction in enhancing the English proficiency of Nigerian teachers.

Dr Boboyi restated the commission’s mandate to support the capacity of teachers and education managers as enshrined in the UBE Act 2004. He stated further that UBEC explores and adopts TPD programmes that have been successfully pilot tested and have also significantly improved teacher’s performance and learning outcomes, especially for scaling up and sustainability.

He said, “One of these programmes is Strengthening Teacher English Proficiency (STEP). STEP is one of the capacity-building programmes initiated by the British Council and is aimed at improving effective classroom delivery of all subjects (specifically Mathematics, Science, and English) through the development of the teacher’s classroom and instructional language Communicative Language is one of the keys 21st Century Skills being explored in the programme.

“It has been pilot tested in States like Jigawa, Kano, Katsina, Kaduna, Zamfara and Plateau”.

He added that reports have shown that one of the challenges in the classroom is not being able to effectively communicate the content to the Learners. He opined that the ability to effectively transmit knowledge and skills to the learners is one variable that can ensure Learner’s comprehension and improve Learning outcomes.

Country Director for Programmes, UBEC, Chikodi Onyemerela, described the capacity building programme as a step in the right direction in enhancing the English proficiency of Nigerian teachers.

He said, “The event today is part of our English portfolio, where we are supporting teachers of English language and other subjects to improve their proficiency in the use of the English language. We know that for teachers to be able to teach other subjects, they need to be well grounded in the English language”