Japan Trains Nigerian Teachers in Science

[Richard Akindele]

The Japanese Government has offered to sponsor the training of Nigerian teachers in special science subjects at the African Education Institute, Kenya.

Japanese Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Akio Tanaka disclosed this during a courtesy call on the Minister of Education, Mrs. Obiageli Ezekwesili.

He said the Ministry would select the teachers to benefit from the training that promises to be a continuous exercise, adding that it was different from the activities of the Japanese International Co-operation Agency (JICA) in Nigeria, which include the construction of toilets and bore holes in some schools in three states of the Federation.

Tanaka, who traced Japanese co-operation with Nigeria to the pre 1999 period said the Japanese government intends to increase the scope of its co-operation with Nigeria and promised to introduce poetry competition among Nigerian school children as a way of encouraging hard work among them.

Responding, Ezekwesili thanked the Japanese Govern-ment and other creditor countries, who granted Nigeria debt relief and promised that Government would ensure that every money allocated to education is used to maximally.

She said the Federal Government plans to train 40, 000 teachers, who will be sent to the rural areas where they most required, while another 140, 000 will be given in-service training annually as part of the reforms in the education sector.

The Minister said the current reform in the country is aimed at resurrecting the culture of reward for hand work and good behaviour, which was part of the Nigerian culture, but was lost when education, which was the driving force behind hard work and competitiveness, was replaced by a culture of laziness and corruption.

She said the reform in the education sector will involve punishment for bad behaviours like cultism, examination malpractice, sexual harassment and other social vices, while hard work and good behaviour will be rewarded.

The reform she said would take a system approach, which will be deep and sustainable and requested the Japanese Government to help Nigeria in the implementation of the reform which will enable the products of the system compete in the market.

She pledged that the selection of teachers to undergo the training would be very competitive, fair and transparent to select the best for the training. Government, she added, wants to return the teaching profession to its glorious era through training, retraining and reward for hard work.

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