The issue of training and re-training of teachers has always occupied a front burner in the nation’s basic education sector. A veteran teacher and administrator, Mr. Vincent Inwezerua, has inaugurated a project to re-equip his colleagues in the teaching profession, stressing that the quality of teachers will ultimately reflect in the pupils under those teachers’ tutelage. The project, which he says, is aimed at restoring the dignity of the teaching profession, is called Support and Promote Educational Excellence and Development. The project is a leadership and empowerment training for teachers, to make them relevant in their profession and improve their delivery. Inwezerua has supported the project with a book he wrote, entitled, Teachers on the Go. In it, he X-rays the making and qualities of a good teacher. In an interview with our correspondent, he says his motivation is simply to promote excellence and development in education. “I want to see a new Nigeria transformed by teachers. I was also a teacher for over 20 years and I understand the challenges my colleagues face in this profession. But we can all join hands to deliver the future called a new Nigeria. I am passionate about this project because I want a change, and I can see it coming,” Inwezerua says. The handbook lays out in the opening chapter the common fear teachers have and how they can overcome this. It identifies fear such as feeling of insecurity about the future, daily frustration due to society’s ingratitude, and embarrassment of being looked upon. In the subsequent chapters, he discusses the essentials of a teacher which include being an architect, hope giver and role model. An excerpt reads, “It is very important that we are aware as teachers that our job is unique. Though we may lead many pupils at a time, each of them is unique and special in their own ways. Every child is intelligent, with high level of capacity to unleash their latent potentials, but how much this becomes a reality is a function of what we do with the young people we deal with.” According to him, the SPEED project will involve teachers, school leaders, pupils, parents, government and other relevant institutions. He explains that the project has already begun to yield positive results. “There have been phenomenal responses. I just came back from the national conference of the National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools where I was invited on the platform of the book. “Many people have made new commitments to the teaching profession courtesy of the challenge they got reading this blueprint,” he says. With a mission to reach more teachers in schools across the country, Inwezerua has continued to conduct trainings and programmes in education, leadership and management within and outside Nigeria. He adds, “Education is indispensable to national development and teachers are critical to driving it. The quality of teachers we have will determine the quality of products we release from our schools in to the larger society.”
Posted on: Fri, 31 Jan 2014 14:23:09 +0000
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