By Praise Chinecherem
Teachers in Anambra State have been urged to imbibe values of hardwork and honesty capable of reducing examination malpractice in schools and boost learning outcomes.
State Head of Service, Barr. Theodora Igwegbe gave the advice during the annual Leadership Retreat for Headteachers, Officers-in-charge, and Directors in the State Basic Education sector themed: “Education as a Panacea for Human Capital Development: Effective and Efficient School Management as Sustaining Factors”
The retreat organised in batches for the entire Local Government Education Authorities in the State was aimed at retraining school administrators to address salient issues militating against implementation of educational policies and government programmes.
Igwegbe also urged the participants to teach the societal values to the school children in order to reduce social vices ravaging our contemporary society.
Executive Chairman, Anambra State Universal Basic Education Board, ASUBEB, Dr. Vera Nkiru Nwadinobi said the essence of the retreat was to revive essential leadership skills for the Headteachers to ensure maximum efficiency in achieving set goals of basic education in the state.
She said the retreat would offer Headteachers opportunities to share experiences, collect critical schools data, proffer feasible solutions to their problems and motivate them for greater productivity.
“I urge you to embrace the future task with enough positivity and deliberate efforts to add value to our basic education as you get back to your schools.
“We should not relent in rendering quality service to humanity, ” she said.
Resource persons drawn from various fields of education presented well researched papers to the participants.
One of the resource persons, Prof. Patience Egboka, whose lecture focused on “School Administration and Management in Primary Schools.” called for continuous in-service Teacher programme, improved welfare and sufficient funding as strategies for improvement of school administration.
She described the Headteacher as a manager, a community relations person, a supervisor, an instructor, a curriculum innovator, and a catalyst towards planned educational revolution whose role is to direct and monitor the academic and non-academic activities within the school.
Also in a paper titled: “Evaluation of Schools, Using Quality Assurance Indices or Aspects”, Dr. Bibiana Okoli described quality assurance as a process of monitoring, assessing, evaluating and reporting all aspects of the school life based on agreed standard, adding that human capital development is the most valuable asset within any organisation.
Another speaker, Ndidi Okeke who spoke on “Ethics and Values in Teaching and Learning”, described ethics as principles guiding human conduct, while values shape the learning environment through the inculcation of ethical behaviours and attitudes for both the teachers and learners.
On her part, Mrs Kate Ndulue who delivered a paper on “Curriculum Prepares the Learners to Meet the Needs of the Society” emphasized that curriculum comprised the learning content, methods, and sequence for teaching and learning which guarantees uniformity and consistency that can drive learners’ progress.
Executive Chairman of ASUBEB, Awka, Dr. Vera Nkiru Nwadinobi in her paper titled “Value Re-orientation and Stakeholders’ Role” stated that values are standards or principles used to judge the worth of an idea or action, while value re-orientation is the act of changing, adjusting, re-aligning attitudes and beliefs to a new and acceptable behaviour.
She highlighted some values in Nigeria and Anambra State, such as sacredness of human life, communal living, family, hardwork, and respect for old age among others, calling on all stakeholders in the education system to embrace the shared values of Anambra State so as to make a positive impact on everyone everywhere.
“Date Collection and Analysis Management in Schools” by Engr. Mike Neboh also featured, while question and answer session, experience sharing and suggestions for the way forward were the high points of the retreat.
Among those in attendance were the Board Secretary, Hon. Loveline Mgbemena, the permanent Board Members, Officers-in-charge, and the Directors.
