Teachers are Foundation for National Economic Development - NTI

Teachers are Foundation for National Economic Development – NTI:

The Director-General of the National Teachers Institute (NTI), Kaduna, Dr Ladan Sharehu, said on Tuesday that teachers were the foundation for national economic development.

Sharehu said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), during the matriculation ceremony of the Post Graduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) students of the institute’s Study Centre at Agege, in Lagos.

“No nation can rise above the quality of its teachers; education through the means of teachers produce the human capital that sustains the economy.

“Teachers produce the manpower who are facilitators of national economic development,” he said.

According to him, it is as a result of the need to educate more teachers and the yearnings of the teachers that a degree programme is scheduled to commence with effect from 2015.

“Our plan to introduce the B.A., B.Sc., and B.Ed. programmes are in response to the yearnings of the serving teachers.

“They cannot leave their work places to start a programme in a conventional institution.

“I will assure you that besides being cost effective, the programmes will be of high quality and will offer much more than the conventional offering,” Sharehu said.

NAN reports that Sharehu was represented by Mrs Kemi Adeyemo, Chief Education Officer, NTI, during the matriculation of 262 PGDE students of the Agege Study Centre in Lagos.

He, however, said that the acceptability of the Open and Distance Education (ODE) which was the system in NTI, was low.

Sharehu said that the ODE system did not give room for strikes and unionism, and urged students to take advantage of it.

“All these are geared toward national development because teachers are the key factor in nation building,’’ he said.

NAN reports that the NTI had 248 NCE centres and 87 PGDE study centres all over the country. (NAN)