‘Why Gombe set up teacher training centre’

Growing concerns over academic underachievement of students and the need to send high quality teachers into classrooms in Gombe State have led to the establishment of a Teacher Training Centre (TTC) in Kwami Local Government Area of the state.

Governor Muhammad Inuwa Yahaya is said to have approved the centre, mainly to improve teacher effectiveness through the use of new concepts.

Following the declaration of a state of emergency in the education sector in the state, authorities resolved to improve teacher attributes through training; hence an abandoned Almajiri school in Kwami town was renovated and upgraded to serve as the training centre. The school was initially set up by the Federal Government to integrate basic primary education and Almajiri qur’anic education before it was neglected.

Checks revealed that the centre is equipped with lodgings to accommodate over 600 teachers at a time, in addition to instructors’ quarters, a big lecture hall and rooms that will contain small class sizes.

There are also laboratories for biology, physics, chemistry and agricultural science fully equipped with modern tools and gadgets to train public primary and secondary school teachers.

A state official who revealed that the TTC was meant to educate teachers who hitherto failed to deliver, explained that the teachers, with little or no training, who filled public schools led to steady decline in students’ performance in all examinations over the years.

The official said teachers would be chosen from public schools across the state and sent to the centre during school vacations to be trained in the subjects they were deficient at; explaining that the essence was to upgrade performance in examinations.

In the meantime, there are plans to recruit instructors from the Faculties of Education of the Gombe State University (GSU), Federal University of Kashere (FUK), College of Education (COE), Billiri, and the Federal College of Education (Technical), Gombe, for the centre.

At the end of the training which is expected to last for weeks, the participating teachers will be provided with certificates, after which another batch will be selected in other subjects in the subsequent school vacation for similar exercise.

The Permanent Secretary of the Teachers’ Service Commission (TSC), Alhaji Umar Abubakar Malala, said the centre, which is first of its kind in the North East, was essentially established to improve on the quality of teachers.

Alhaji Umar said the establishment of the centre after the declaration of a state of emergency in the education sector in the state was meant to restore the lost glory of public schools across the state.

He said the TTC sought to train both primary and secondary school teachers in modern techniques and methodologies of teaching.

He added that the teachers would be trained in batches on different areas of specialisation “depending on the need of particular teachers or areas in our public schools across the 11 LGAs of the state.”

Commenting on the development, a public affairs analyst in the state, Dr. Abdulkadir Saleh, said TTC was a welcome development considering the rot in the school system, and that it was the first of its kind in the state since its creation 24 years ago.  According to him, apart from enhancing the teaching profession, the centre will also reduce the money government is spending on teacher training outside the state and on consultants.

He further said, “The training centre will definitely impact on the quality of teachers in the state, because one of the problems we have is that once a teacher acquires an NCE or a degree; that is the end of his training. But with the establishment of the TTC, it means that the teachers will be trained further at relatively lower costs.

“Although that alone cannot be the solution, but if you look at the condition of the education sector in the country, you will find out that quackery in the teaching profession has contributed immensely to the decline in the quality of education, as such, this centre will greatly improve school outcome.”

He, however, added that the state government must also deal with the other challenges that affected quality teaching and the efficiency of teachers in public schools.

A lecturer with FUK, Malam Abubakar Uba, said the centre was another white elephant project and waste of public funds.

Malam Uba said, “I do not think the proposed TTC would solve the decay being experienced in the education sector because most of our teachers here in Gombe are adequately trained; what they are lacking is proper reinforcement and motivation, and I doubt much if that centre can provide them with that.

“I really do not think we need that centre, as it will simply be duplicating the duties of the education colleges in Billiri and Gombe, as well as the Faculties of Education in the two universities located in the state.”

According to him, what the centre will be doing is part of the mandate of the COEs and Faculties of Education in the universities, as well as the National Teachers Institute (NTI).

He further said such institutions could train the teachers without attracting additional burden on the lean resources of the state government. Malam Uba added that most of the teachers in private schools performed better not because they were better than those in public schools “but because over there they are given proper motivation, reinforcement and supervision.”