School proprietress urges motivation, retraining of teachers

Determined to enhance effectiveness in the teaching and learning process, a school proprietress has urged governments and school owners in Nigeria to ensure that teachers are well motivated, trained and re-trained.

Saying that no nation can rise above its level of education, the Proprietress, King’s Nursery and Primary School and Merc-King Scholars’ College, Lagos, Mrs. Mercy Inyang, suggested that the three-tiers of government and private school owners should embark on annual training and retraining of teachers so that they can be informed about new ideas and compete favourably with their counterparts in other climes.

While calling for the motivation of teachers through provision of grants, awards and improved salaries, Mrs. Inyang, who spoke at the school’s 24th valedictory service and prize giving day, noted that effective teaching and learning is enhanced when teachers are better remunerated, thereby helping them to concentrate fully on their jobs.

Principal, Merc-Kings Scholars’ College, Mr. Israel Adeyemi, urged school owners to run their programmes in compliance with the Federal Government’s policy on education.

Adeyemi, who suggested that schools should abide by the quality assurance control laws, added that academic discipline should be incorporated into the school programmes.

Mrs. Inyang, while noting that teachers cannot rely only on what they learnt in the past, as education is a dynamic system, added that they should be given enabling environment to work. She said that when this is done, the commitment of teachers and students to learning would greatly improve.

While condemning some private schools for having the idea that no child should repeat a class irrespective of his performance, Adeyemi suggested that any student, who does not meet the required standard, should not be allowed to move to the next level.

He urged schools to be transparent and not set up anything that is not a reality.Pointing out the non-recognition of teachers as a factor affecting their performances in schools, Mrs. Inyang urged governments and Nigerians to value the noble profession, adding that every successful person in the society has been taught by committed teachers.

While advising government to recognize teachers and pay them well, the proprietress lamented that in some public schools, many teachers engage in one form of business or another to make ends meet because they are not properly paid.