‘Intruders are taking over teacher training institutes’ — NTI DG raises alarm

Musa Maitafsir, the director-general (DG) of the National Teachers’ Institute (NTI), has called on the federal government to sanction unauthorised teacher training institutions in the country.

According to NAN, Maitafsir spoke in Abuja on Friday during the 2022 nationwide capacity-building teacher training workshop organised by the institute.

The NTI DG lamented the proliferation of “illegal” training institutions for teachers, adding that urgent action is needed to save the teaching profession from “intruders”.

“Many unauthorised organizations have hijacked the training of teachers at the expense of mandated and professional institutions in the country,” he said.

“There is a proliferation of private firms with no business in education and mandate to train teachers, but patronised by state and federal government agencies in training teachers at the detriment of the institutions established by laws.”

Maitafsir also listed efforts by the NTI to equip teachers across the country with the relevant skills and knowledge required to function optimally.

“We have designed to train over 2000  Nigerian teachers this year, they will be introduced to the techniques of learning recoveries through Basic Education Support Funds from UBEC,” he said.

“Already, 2000 teachers  from Kebbi and Sokoto states had received a similar training by the institute in collaboration with the Commonwealth in 2021.”

Maitafsir further said 100 teachers would receive training on digital literacy this year apart from 148 teachers already trained by the institute in collaboration with the federal ministry of education.

He also disclosed that the institute had orgainsed a train-the-trainers capacity-building workshop for distance learning system centre managers in Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe states.