Longman, Pearson Train 400 Teachers

No fewer than 400 teachers were trained in Nigeria by Longman Nigeria Plc and Pearson Foundation in their professional development programme for teachers between 2008 and 2009.

The Coordinator of the programme in Nigeria, Ronel Eloff, disclosed this at a four- day workshop in Lagos and Ibadan for public primary schools on literacy skill, numeracy skill and Early Childhood Development (E.C.D.).

He stated that facilitators for the workshops were drawn from a pool of renowned experts in English Language teaching, Numeracy and Early Childhood Development.

According to the Coordinator of the programme, 59 teachers underwent the training in Lagos for Early Childhood Development and 30 for Literacy/Numeracy Skill while in Ibadan, 87 teachers participated in the early childhood Development and 30 took part in Literacy/Numeracy session.

It was understood that the programme is a corporate social responsibility initiative of Longman Nigerian Plc and Pearson Foundation to enhance the performance of Nigerian pupils by upgrading the skills of their teachers.

The coordinator of the programme further stated that to participate in the programme, teachers are usually nominated by the state Ministry of Education through the state Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB).

The Weekend Tide gathered that 118 teachers were trained in Lagos and 100 in Abuja last year, bringing the number of teachers already trained in the country under the scheme to 400.

Ronel Eloff said that objective of the programme is to impact positively on teachers by enhancing their influence in the classroom and offer them innovative ways of impacting knowledge such that the learning achievement of pupils would greatly improve.

Also speaking, the Vice-President, Alliance Programmes of Pearson Foundation, Mr. Erik Gregory noted that the workshops would help develop teacher beyond their initial training while bringing best practices and innovative teaching method to teachers across the country.

Addressing the participants, the head of Marketing of Longman Nigeria Plc, Allwell Nwankwo urged the teachers to put into use the knowledge acquired during the workshop as to make difference in the lives of the pupils under their charge.

Pearson Foundation is the charitable arm of Pearson Education, the world’s largest education services business and the parent company of Longman Nigeria Plc.

Isaac Nwankwo