NSSEC Organises Capacity Building Workshop For Language, Mathematics Teachers In Kwara

The National Senior Secondary Education Commission (NSSEC) recently commenced a five- day capacity building for selected English language and Mathematics Teachers in secondary schools within North Central Zone in Ilorin the Kwara State Capital

The executive secretary of the National Senior Secondary Education Commission (NSSEC) Prof. Benjamin Abakpa, who spoke spoke at the capacity building workshop, said that it was to improve the performance of students of senior secondary schools in English Language and Mathematics.

He said the commission was kicking off the first edition of reskilling of teachers after pilot testing of the manuals on difficult concepts in English Language and Mathematics with teachers from selected public and private schools at FCT.

“This workshop becomes imperative because of the poor performance of learners, most especially in the two core subjects.

“The essence of the workshop is to identify the difficult concept in English Language and Mathematics and proffer possible pedagogical skills to tackle the menace facing the learners and take them from not knowing to solving equations and putting tenses together correctly,” he said.

“Mathematics as we all know is a branch of human enquiry involving the study of numbers, quantities, data, shape, space and their applications to situations in the real world.

“Learners’ performance in Mathematics is one of the main concerns in Mathematics education because many of them perceive it as one of the most difficult subjects to learn.

Over time, Mathematicians come up with new
formulas and methods to teach different branches of mathematics with litte or no positive outcome.

“Language, teachers find some areas difficult and try to dodge teaching learners the concept thereby not being able to attempt the questions relating to topic during examination, thus affecting their performance. The same goes for English.

“The National Senior Secondary Education Commission realized from inception the constant failure of learners in the two core subjects – English language and Mathematics, thereof, hindering them to
transit to tertiary institutions.

“The unpleasant failure necessitated
the Commission to develop a training Manual and its Guide for qualitative teaching and learning of difficult concepts and better
understanding of the curriculum.

This training workshop is to determine which topics in English language and Mathematics Curriculum for Senior Secondary School are perceived by learners and teachers as difficult.

“It is hoped that the knowledge gained during this training will trickle down to relevant teachers in the classroom for effective teaching and excellent performance in the two core subjects.

“The purpose of the training is to help learners acquire practical Command of English language both in speaking and writing skill as well as develop logical and problem-solving ability through their
trained teachers.” He added.

Speaking further, the chairman of National Senior Secondary Education Commission NSSEC, Ambassador Nimota Akanbi, noted that the performance of students in English Language and Mathematics in the external examinations has been consistently poor.

She charged the resource persons at the training programme to simplify the teaching methods of the two core subjects for the teachers who will in turn do the same for their students.

Akanbi praised Governor AbdulRazaq for his commitment to training and retraining of teachers in the state.

She said “As you are already aware, the requirement for graduating learners from
senior secondary school transiting to tertiary institutions is five (5)
credits and above including English language and Mathematics in senior secondary Certificate Examination and National Examination Certificate (SSCE and NECO).

It is a well-known fact that the
percentage pass of learners at the external examination results has been consistently poor especially in English Language and Mathematics, and this has affected some learners at this level to further their education.

Based on experience and analysis of examiners’ marking scheme, it was discovered that teachers often skip some perceived difficult topics in the syllabi and often time, learners are faced with such questions at the external examinations.

The National Senior Secondary Education Commission in collaboration with professionals in the classroom identified difficult concept, proffer solution and developed manuals in English Language and Mathematics to train and retrain teachers on the core subjects which will in turn improve the performance of graduands of senior secondary schools.

Kwara State governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, who was represented by the commissioner for Education and Human Capital Development, Hajiya Saadatu Modibbo-Kawu, who declared the training programme open, thanked the commission for choosing Kwara as the host of the training programme.

He said the state had invested a lot of resources on the education sector in the state, especially on training and retraining of teachers.

The governor noted that the novel KwaraLEARN scheme has impacted greatly on teaching and learning in schools in the state.

In his remark, the NUT chairman Comrade Oyewo Bashir, who commended the the capacity building workshop for selected English and Mathematics Teachers in senior secondary schools within North Central Zone, said the 116 selected is relatively low called for increase in subsequent programmes

The 116 participants at the training programme were drawn from the north- central states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
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