Deputy Public Affairs Officer, U.S. Consulate General, Lagos, Jennifer Foltz, has stated that teacher training is essential to both experienced and new teachers, saying “it is a known fact that students who have well-informed teachers tend to perform far better than their peers.”

Foltz stated this while speaking at an interactive session with teachers who are currently participating in the ‘Ibadandun Project,’ a professional development workshop organised to train teachers by Five Cowries Arts Education Initiative, with the support of the US Consulate General Lagos, held at the Whiz-kids International School, Ibadan, on Monday.

The teacher training programme tagged: “Ibadandun Project” was launched in August 2021 to train over 100 primary and secondary school teachers drawn from Ibadan local communities in Oyo State.

According to her, teachers must get innovative pedagogy and interactive assessment techniques to enliven the teaching-learning process for their students.

Speaking about the teacher training programme and the U.S. Consulate General, Lagos’ collaboration with the Five Cowries One Million Teacher’s teams, she said that the U.S. Mission is fully committed to supporting a more educated population, hence the move towards increasing and strengthening the capacity of Nigerian teachers.

She said: “It has been said that Nigeria’s young people are its greatest resource, and they can produce a more prosperous future for Nigeria. We believe that by empowering you educators, we are empowering your students.”

She charged the participants to seize the invaluable opportunity to learn and grow in their careers and ensure that they share the renewed knowledge with their colleagues back in their various schools.

Speaking at the event, the international Partnership Officer for Five Cowries Art Education Initiative and facilitator, Tolulope Ami-Williams, hinted that the foundation had been running workshops in this regard for over three years and had been to several locations in the country with different partners to train teachers, most especially in the area of using arts as a teaching tool to change children feelings about coming to school and how they see education.

“I’m very excited about this project with the US Consulate General, Lagos, to empower a total of 100 teachers in Oyo State”, she said.

She noted that teachers need amazing opportunities such as was provided by the Five Cowries to scale up and add value to their profession and lives as teachers, saying “we have noticed that a lot of teachers don’t find it necessary to add value.”

Speaking about the source rationale behind the idea, she said, the source is coming from the heart of people that want to see improvement and want to see a change in the narrative of the educational sector especially at our public schools level.

In her remarks, Jumoke Olowookere, a mentor to the ‘Ibadandun Project’ and the Five Cowries’ One Million Teachers Initiative, said she was excited with the progress that the teachers had been making from the inception of the project till now, stating “you could see the confidence with which they carry themselves now and how they have been interacting with their students.

“I remember when we started the project and many of them came with different archoic methods of teaching coupled with lack of creativity and collaboration, but since the training began we can see the impact the training had on them holistically.”

They have been adequately equipped with different and modern teaching techniques and have had the privilege of working with different techniques, tools and materials that they have not had before, most especially in terms of painting and colouring.

The proprietor of Whiz-kid International School, Ibadan, and host of the training centre, Mrs Funmi Olanrewaju, said the programme has been of great benefits to the pupils and even to the teachers.

“It has increased your creative skills; the students are more active now and their drawing skills  have greatly improved; they are more eager to draw. More so, this initiative has improved teamwork in both the teachers and students

Some of the beneficiaries of the training programme, Mr Adeegbe Babatunde Olayemi from Baptist Primary School, Okolo Eruwa; Mrs Ogunwuyi Tolulope Josephine, R.C.M Basic School, Igana; Mrs Ojo Ronke Olakitan, U.M.C School, Ibadan; Mr Ojerinde Adeoye Timothy, Methodist High School, Ibadan, among others, lauded the Five Cowries One Million’s team and U.S Consulate General, Lagos, for the professional development workshop. They said that the training has greatly improved and enhanced their teaching methods.