The North East Development Commission (NEDC) is to train 1,500 primary and junior secondary school teachers as part of measures to enhanced basic education in the region.
The Managing Director of NEDC, Mr Mohammed Alkali, made this known on Thursday while flagging-off the training in Maiduguri for 200 teachers from Borno North and Central Senatorial Zones.
Alkali said the involvement of the commission in education, particularly in areas of building teachers capacity, rehabilitation and reconstruction of destroyed schools remain critical in the recovery process in north east.
“The state of education in the North East (NE) region has been in regression even before the insurgency and has declined further following the Boko Haram attacks on educational infrastructure in the region.
“Over 2,295 teachers have been killed and 19,000 others displaced in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states in the last eleven years.
“An estimated 1,500 schools have been destroyed since 2014, with over 1,280 casualties among teachers and students. The crisis has further devastated the education system as children, teachers and schools were on the front line of conflict.
“The consequences of attacks on education include high student drop-out rates, reduced enrollment, lower rates of transition to higher education levels, overcrowding, and loss of instructional hours.
“Adolescent girls and boys are at higher risk of joining armed groups or criminal gangs and levels of exploitation and abuse, including trafficking and sexual violence also increase.
“As a matter of fact, the North East Region has the lowest literacy rates as well as poorest performance in examinations,” Alkali said
He noted that the commission under its Education Revitalization Programme which included such training and other education support hoped to address the challenges.
In his speech, Alhaji Lawan Bukar, the Chairman of Limo Holdings Nigeria Limited who are implementing the training programme said the training would be in areas of psych-social support, teaching methodology, lesson plans, classroom management, record keeping and evaluation techniques among others.
Bukar said the training in Borno is commencing with 200 teacher from Central and Northern zones, while that of 100 teachers from Southern Borno would later hold in Biu town.
In his remarks, Gov. Babagana Zulum lauded NEDC for the interventions in complimenting his administration effort to revived education in the state.
Zulum who was represented by the Commissioner for Education, Alhaji Lawan Wakilbe said over 16 mega schools and 438 class rooms where so far constructed by his administration which has commenced verification exercise to identify qualified teachers.
Zulum said the qualified teachers would be remunerated to encourage them offer thier best, while those not unqualified would be given the opportunity to get the necessary training or be redeployed.
In thier respective remarks, the Head of Education in NEDC, Hajiya Fatima Chiroma, and Borno State Direcgor of Schools, Alhaji Ali Bukar who spoke of uniqueness of the training, urged participants to make good use of the opportunity provided them to improve themselves in thier career.
