SDGs 2030: UNICEF Tasks Nigeria On Structural Training For Teachers

BY TEMI OHAKWE, ABUJA – For Nigeria to achieve Sustainable Development Goals 2030, it needs to invest hugely in structural training programmes for teachers.

UNICEF Education Specialist, Manar Ahmed, who stated this during a virtual Media dialogue in Kano on SDGs as Child Rights, said the investment must be in time and back with financial resources.

Manar noted that Nigeria is facing staggering crisis with learning outcomes being one of the lowest of the basic education sub sector.

According to her; “In sub Saharan Africa, 87 percent of children are in learning poverty as they do not have basic literacy by age 10. It is not that Nigeria lacks the right policy but Nigeria is facing staggering crisis with learning outcomes being one of the lowest as 70 percent of the children in school are not achieving basic foundational skills”.

She identified low public spending on education and under prepared workforce as factors mostly responsible for the poor learning outcomes.

The UNICEF Education Expert further said that 69 percent of teachers at the basic school mostly in private schools are unqualified, (2017 National Personnel Audit).

In her words; “Between the time of carrying out the 2017 Personnel Audit by Nigeria’s Universal Basic Education and now there has been huge changes as regards the national assessment on learning outcomes”.

She advocated that teachers should drive the process of training thereby placing them at the heart of the schemes.

Manar said; “It is not about teacher training but about action,improving teaching in the classroom is key under the right environment to enable this change huge investment is required in time and finances,” adding that it was time for Nigeria to move beyond training in theories to on the job training thereby creating opportunity for feedback .

She said that action plan is crucial in getting result oriented teacher professional development systems and stressed the need to learn to read in order to read to learn in meeting the set goals of SDGs 2030.

Manar identified enabling environment, self-assessment, re-assessment and supervisory assessment as crucial to achieving scaled up foundational literacy and numeracy skills in Nigeria basic schools.

In his own remarks, the Training Coordinator, Dr. Uche Anunne of the News Agency of Nigeria, said that strong institutions was required to ensure the quality of teachers in the country.

Anunne noted that most SDG goals had impact on the child rights, adding that all hands must be on deck to get things right to ensure SDGs 2030.