National
Teachers Institute: Strengthening Mathematics and Science Education for Solid
Technology Foundation in Nigeria
The famous Scientist of the late 1500s,
Galileo Galilei was reported as saying “the universe cannot be read until we
have learned the language and become familiar with characters in which it is
written. It is written in mathematical language and the letters are triangles,
circles and other geometric figures…” Since then, mathematics has become
essential in many fields of human endeavor. It is the queen of sciences, the
pillar upon which technology is built. Thus, the knowledge of mathematics and
science subjects is necessary for understanding the basic principles of
technology. Generally, technology is referred as the knowledge of how to
combine resources to produce desired products, to solve problems, fulfill needs
or satisfy wants through technical methods, skills, processes, tools and raw
materials. Therefore, all the developed nations became what they are as a
result of their technological advancement. Consequently, the technological
development of a nation has a direct bearing with the progress of the citizens
in acquiring basic knowledge of mathematics and science subjects. It is
therefore necessary for Nigeria to have the young ones being effectively
groomed in these important subjects at lower level. To do this, a strategy must
be made for developing the capacity of the teachers of this lower level.
The saying “You cannot give what you don’t
have” is more aptly applicable to teaching profession – you can’t teach what
you don’t know. So, Teacher is the foundation of knowledge and when he/she is
fully trained and equipped with necessary tools, he/she can impart knowledge to
the students who may later become another set of teachers. Continuous capacity
building of teachers permits the practitioners of this noble profession to
withstand the challenges of twenty-first century and it is one of the reasons
why National Teachers Institute (NTI) Kaduna was established. The National
Teachers' Institute, Kaduna was established in 1976 primarily because of the
pressing need in the country for trained, qualified teaching staff at all
levels of the educational system. The Institute's enabling Law charged it among
others with the responsibility of "providing courses of instruction
leading to the development, upgrading and certification of teachers as
specified in the relevant syllabus using Distance Education Techniques. The mission
of NTI is to upgrade teachers’ knowledge and skills in
curriculum implementation, while instilling in them the virtues of dedication,
loyalty, commitment, discipline and resourcefulness. Similarly, the vision of
the Institute is to enhance the professional skills of serving teachers for
high quality education delivery at primary and secondary levels with a view to
uplifting the standard of the educational system in the country.
In the last four
decades, NTI has vigorously pursue its mission, made tremendous achievements with
tangible records to show and expanded to squarely face other challenges – like
poor performance of primary and secondary schools students in mathematics and
science subjects. In the early 2000s,
many public schools recorded poor performance with more than 50 % failures in Mathematics
and many science subjects at ordinary levels of NECO and WAEC. Indeed, this
appalling performance became a national embarrassment especially when the
slogan of “2020-20”
became the target for Nigeria to be among the top 20 economically developed
nations. Addressing this problem became
a national concern; solutions were sought at various fora by stakeholders and
NTI devised a means of quickly attending to the problem through creation of a
special project; code named “Strengthening Mathematics and Science Education (SMASE)”
Although, SMASE project is not
new in Africa, Kenya was the first country to implement such project with both
financial and technical supports of Japanese government. The project started in
Kenya in 1998 after the signing of bilateral agreement between Kenyan and Japanese
governments. The project was initiated due to the poor students’ performance in
Mathematics and Science subjects and the need to strengthen the teaching and
learning of Science and Mathematics by providing in-service education and
training to teachers of the subjects. Nigeria through NTI was able to secure similar supports
from Japanese government for SMASE project. The successes recorded made
the project to spread to 12 additional African countries. The countries are
Uganda, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Malawi, Ghana, Senegal, Niger, Burkina Faso, Zambia,
Mozambique, Southern Sudan and Botswana.
Thus, NTI started the SMASE
project in 2006 with three pilot states of Kaduna, Plateau and Niger,
respectively. An outstanding result was recorded in these three pilot states
that led to the up scaling of the project to cover 32 states between the year
2010 and 2013.
What is the modus operandi of
SMASE project? SMASE project involves intensive capacity building of education
administrators, teachers and supervisors at different levels with modern tools
and experience sharing. The teacher must acquire good knowledge before he/she
passes it on to the students. Thus, SMASE through Japan International
Cooperation Agency (JICA) provides customized international training
opportunities related to the selected subjects in Japan, Malaysia and Kenya.
The categories of personnel for these international trainings are SMASE
administrators from State Universal Basic Education Boards (SUBEBs), Federal
Ministry Education, Universal Basic Education
Commission , Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria, National
Education Research Development Centre, NTI and National Mathematics Centre. These opportunities were also extended to
the National, State trainers and core teachers from NTI and SUBEBs.
At the national level, NTI on
annual basis provides National SMASE customized intensive trainings to 416
primary Mathematics and Science teachers (State trainers) from SUBEBs of 32
states and FCT. Similarly, at the state level, under the supervision of NTI,
State SUBEBs provides SMASE trainings to carefully selected 200 primary core
teachers from their respective states (Core teachers) 6600 across the 32 states
and FCT. The trainings continue to trickle down to the local government area,
Zonal and Cluster levels where SUBEBs, using the 200 core teachers, provides
cluster SMASE trainings to remaining teachers that did not benefit from the
SMASE trainings. The trainings do not end at the cluster level, they are
extended to the school level to cover majority of the teachers of mathematics
and science subjects and thus, SMASE primary school provides SMASE trainings to
the rest of the teachers that have not benefited from the SMASE cluster
trainings. These trainings are annually reviewed, redesigned and repeated to
all the personnel at different levels while recording the impacts and new challenges
in respect of the target – better performance in mathematics and science
subjects,
What are the training contents
with a magic wand for performance enhancement in the subject areas? SMASE training is divided into three cycles of
trainings. Each cycle is conducted within a year. The first classification
called cycle 1. The training contents of this cycle deal with enhancing
positive attitude of teachers and pupils towards the teaching and learning of
Mathematics and Science subjects. Sensitization, practical demonstrations, film
shows and experience sharing form part of this training cycle. The second
classification deals with enhancing classroom activities for effective teaching
and learning of Mathematics and Science subjects. The third classification
deals the actualization of combined ASEI
and PDSI approaches in the teaching and learning of Mathematics and Science
subjects. ASEI approach means to actively
involve students (pupils) through experiments and demonstrations, improvising by utilising locally available materials in
the classroom. PDSI stand for Plan, Do, See and Improve cycle of
teachers’ actively. These approaches are practically demonstrated by highly
skillful trainers for better understanding of the trainees who should use the
knowledge in their classrooms. For efficient use of resources, SMASE trainings
are organized in a cascading order from National to state level, local level
and school level.
So far, the SMASE project has recorded a number of
breakthroughs since its inception in 2006 (phase 1). Some of the recent recorded feats
from January, 2010 includes:
(1)
Establishment
of a cascading system in which 13 trainees each from 35 states including FCT
train 200 core teachers of mathematics and
science subjects
every year in cycles 1, 2 & 3 in the month of August during long vacation, phase 2.
(2) Introduction of PDSI
(Plan, Do, See & Improve) as an approach that is widely adopted in the
country as a medium for disseminating ASEI (Activity, Students-centred,
Experimentation & Improvisation) principles.
(3) Utilization of
International trainings sponsored by JICA by sending trainers to countries like
Japan, Kenya for capacity building in learner-centred approach from 2010
to date.
(4) Encourage most states in
establishing state In-service Training centre across the country
(2011).
(5) Mobilization of funds
through SUBEBs to conduct the training at various levels (National, State and
Local) (2013).
(6) Ability to sustain the
programme even after the exit of Japan Government through JICA in February,
2014.
(7) Being able to develop new
training materials and modules as well as improvisation of skills
to continue with new cycles 4 and 5
for further capacity development of the trainees. This feat was achieved in
this year, 2016.
(8) Commissioning of
E-learning centre, Basic Science Laboratory and ICT Laboratory in the SMASE
complex so as to upgrade the centre to a regional
In-service Training .(INSET) centre. This was done in
January, 2016.
The impacts of SMASE project are clearly exhibited in
the improved performance of secondary schools graduates across the country in
recent years. Nowadays, it is common to find a public school with record of
more than 50 percent of her candidates obtaining five credits and above in NECO
and WAEC. Although, the reason for this improved performance may be combination
of many factors but there is no doubt that SMASE project has significantly
contributed to the outstanding performance. In conclusion, NTI has demonstrated
her capability to sustain SMASE project after expiration of the support of
Japanese government that ended in 2014.
In Nigeria, most of the developmental projects with foreign financial
supports cease to exit when the financial supports are exhausted. Instead, NTI
has not only sustained the project but expanded it to higher level. This is
quite commendable but other stakeholders must rally round to share costs and
responsibilities in order to sustain this laudable project. All hands must be
on deck to build the solid foundation for the technological development in
Nigeria
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