By Samuel Edu

Private school teachers in Ondo state have been urged to live up to their responsibility as change agents in the lives of students in their care.

   Speaking at a basic education and literacy workshop, tagged ‘On-the-job training for teachers, as agent of change process in Education’, organised by Rotary Clubs of Akure City and Akure METRO for the teachers in Akure, the Commissioner for Education, Pastor Femi Agagu stressed that pupils and students deserve the best from their teachers.

Represented by the Director, Inspectorate of Quality Assurance of his Ministry, Mr. Oyebanji Ogundele, Agagu said the education of children must not be handled with levity and this informed huge investment of Ondo state government into education.

“Our children need the best as the competition is getting tougher in the global scenes. As a matter of fact, in years to come, our children and wards will be sitting to compete with children given birth to in the United States, Finland, United Kingdom, hence we cannot afford to handle their education with levity,” he noted.

He appreciated the Rotary Club for the initiative towards supporting all-round quality education for children in the state.

Dr Samuel Omisule, Director Engineering and Material Institute, EMDI, harped on the need for teachers to be endowed with adequate knowledge and able to impact on the students.

He said the objective of the training was to bridge knowledge gap among the teachers in order to enhance their capability in impacting positively on the students.

Also, Dr Christabel Nna Emeka stressed the indispensability of professionalism and motivation in the teaching profession, noting that regardless of the problems teachers are  faced with, self motivation an essential factor for success in the teaching profession.

Sensitising the teachers on “Referral services of Guidance & Counseling programme /stress in teaching profession & coping Strategies”, a clinical psychologist, Mrs. Ijaniyi Shewa emphasized the indispensability of Guidance and Counseling in the education sector.

“It is common today that most of us have this impression that the majority of our problems could be solved by pastors and religious leaders, this is not always true.

 Problems of some students would have been naturally solved with the help of a well coordinated counselling session, he added.

The club also had a road show on Saturday in Akure in commemoration of the country’s 62 years independence anniversary.

The show started at the government house where members paid condolence visit to the governor on the death of his mother and later visited the Deji of Akure, Oba Aladelusi.