The Niger State Government in North Central Nigeria is to construct a new permanent site for the Teacher Professional Development Institute in Minna.
The new site known as Legacy Centre will cost N1 billion.
The Governor of the State Abubakar Sani Bello stated this at the combined graduation of 513 students of the institute in Minna the State Capital on Tuesday.
Governor Sani Bello explained that the establishment of the Institute was necessitated by the poor quality of teaching and learning in the State.
The Governor said that “the Institute was established to address the shortfall of Professionally trained teachers and to improve quality of teaching in schools.”
He said; “The sum of 1 billion Naira has been approved for the construction of the Teacher Professional Development Centre known as Legacy Centre at the premises of Government Girls Secondary School (former WTC), Minna, which will commence soon.”
“We were very clear about what we wanted to achieved from the Institute right from the inception and that is -to prepare quality students for entry into the teaching workforce and continuous capacity development of serving teachers in the state,” Governor Sani Bello said.
He further said the government in Niger State has addressed the critical challenges of infrastructure and other educational services in the State using the Whole School Development Approach which has greatly and positively impacted the capacity of schools to deliver quality and functional education to students across the state.
Governor Bello said; “Due to Insecurity, we had to relocate the Dandaudu and Kuta Centres of the Institute after haven put in place state-of-the-art facilities to aid teaching and learning.”
The Governor commended the management and staff of the institute, as well as congratulated the graduands, who already have secured admissions into tertiary institutions in the state.
Governor Sani Bello who also urged the graduants to reciprocate the gesture of tuition-free education, by giving back to the society the knowledge they have acquired.
He added that an endowment board of trustees for the institute would soon be inaugurated to reduce over reliance on government for funding.
The State Commissioner for Education, Hannatu Salihu Jibrin said the teachers institute has engaged in capacity building of serving teachers and quality assurance officers, apart from preparing the students to take-on teaching as a profession.
He said; “We’ve trained 37 serving teachers with professional diplomas in education which qualify them as teachers, as well as graduated 27 students with diplomas in various education programmes.”
The Chairperson and Chief Executive of the Teachers training Insititute, Hajiya Dije Bala, said that the institute apart from developing serving teachers, also prepares prospective teachers by equipping them with skills to serve as quality inputs for Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE) and Education Degree programmes.
“The 513 students passed all their West African Examination Council (WAEC), National Examination Council (NECO), NABTEB, and in addition, the prescribed Basic Certificate in Education (BCEE) as awarded by the institute,” Hajia Dije explained.
The institute according to Dije Bala has created partnership with other organisations and institutions such as the Ahmadu Bello University, ABU, Zaria, Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria, (TRCN), African Federation of Teaching Regulatory Authorities (AFTRA) among others.
The highlights of the event included the presentation of prizes to best-performing students for 2019-2020, 2020-2021, and 2021-2022 graduands and the presentation of basic principles and practice of education curriculum developed by the institute.
Mercy Chukwudiebere
