From Laide Raheem, Abeokuta
No fewer than 250 teachers drawn from primary and junior secondary schools across Ogun State have been selected to undergo training in reading and comprehension skills.
The workshop being organised by the Reading Awareness Society for Development in Africa (RASDA) in collaboration with the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) is aimed at improving the capacity building of the teachers on reading and comprehension skills which will enable them to teach their pupils better.
Speaking at the opening of the workshop in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, the president of (RASDA) Mrs. Bukola Ladoja, said the training had become imperative in the face of dwindling reading and comprehending abilities of pupils in public schools.
Apart from training the teachers in reading and comprehension skills, the workshop according to Mrs. Ladoja, would also train the teachers on how to teach and impart knowledge on pupils in overcrowded classes.
“There are many challenges in the education sector, and this programme will solve a larger percentage of these problems. We go to the level of teaching them how to assess the students, because through assessment you will know that these children are not learning anything.
“We are bringing in every measure that will eradicate the problem we are passing through at least to a large extent”, she stated.
The Ogun State Commissioner of Education, Science and Technology, Professor Abayomi Arigbabu, represented by the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Mrs Bosede Ogunleye, urged the trainees to focus and imbibe the methodology during training, noting their roles in the society are key to national development.
The Chairman of Ogun State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) Femi Majekodunmi, in his remarks, lauded RASDA for organizing the training, adding it was a good step for the development of education in Ogun State.