The Strengthening Education in Northeast Nigeria (SENSE) program in collaboration with the Adamawa State government has established a Teacher Resource Center (TRC) at the Jimeta Central Primary School.
This center will improve professional development by refurbishing an office space for teachers at the local government area and also providing teaching and learning materials for improved delivery.
Dr. Abubakar Abba Tahir, Vice President University Relations represented American University of Nigeria President, Dr. Dawn Dekle at the formal launch. Below is his speech commemorating the milestone achievement.
I congratulate all of us here most profoundly for coming to formally launch a critical but often relegated layer in our educational system, the Teacher Resource Center (TRC) for our learning communities. This is another of the many humanitarian projects of the Atiku Centre, which has continued to impact the educational future of our people in more ways than one. We have therefore assembled here today, to formally celebrate the professional development of teachers, and officially announce our capacity to create teaching and learning materials, which beneficiaries could easily manipulate in interactive learner-centered classroom activities for the benefit of our young men and women.
We are convinced that inaugurating the TRCs at the LGA level is a critical step in fast-racking the sustainable professional development of teachers, and also a crucial element in the production of key teaching materials for the majority of beneficiaries who are located outside our State Capitals. The alliance between the twin States of Gombe and Adamawa is a significant step in creating sustainable solutions to the many challenges that have bedeviled teachers and learners in our schools.
AUN, through the instrumentality of the Atiku Center, its many partners, and donor agencies, will continue to collaborate and upscale the educational needs of our communities in more ways than one. I would therefore like to immensely thank the leadership of the Atiku Center, it’s staff, partners, and financiers for their hard work, commitment, and unedited generosity in propelling and repositioning the educational future of our youngsters.
As a trained grade two teacher myself, I understand the value and valor of such Resource Centers in the educational destiny of our people. Even though I did not attend today’s modern college of education where teachers are baked, the old Teacher’s College system, which produced me was actually the very foundation upon which such COEs have been built. During our days of mandatory teaching practice for pupils of the second, third and fourth years in primary school, I look back with nostalgia how the professional development of teachers and the production of teaching tools was handled and factored in school budgets and plans with every seriousness, proactivity and strategic thinking at all times.
I can also recall how, during my graduate school days when Materials Production was imported into our curriculum as one of the mandatory courses. Even though not all of us in the class were pursuing education degrees then, but because the philosophy of the university was built on education and technology, I could now see why at that time, everyone was mandated to offer and pass Materials Production as a graduation requirement for the award of an MA even in Special English. In our days at the Teacher’s College, the professional development of teachers was commonplace and the production of teaching and learning materials became an indispensable way of life for both teachers and learners. At that time, Teacher’s Colleges did not need to reach out to donors or remind the government to factor in such basic and essential teaching and learning needs, but they have been part of the basic plans of all schools and education ministries across the country.
I therefore sincerely felicitate with the immediate beneficiaries at today’s launching ceremony and salute all other stakeholders who left no stone unturned, which led to the success, which we are celebrating today. On this historic launch, please accept the best wishes of the President, the Governing Council, the Board of Trustees, Faculty, Staff, Students, and Alumni at the American University of Nigeria. It is hoped that all the resources made available here will be deployed and utilized for the greater good of the greatest number so that our donors and partners will continue to have confidence in our work, and continue supporting our humanitarian initiatives for the good of our challenged people and country.
By Office of Communications