The Chairman of the board, Sunny Ogwu, said at the opening of the 5-day training workshop in Asaba that it was part of the state government’s commitment to boosting the quality of education.

The training programme is titled, “The Role of School Support Officers’ in the Effective Implementation of School Based Training Model.”

According to him, SUBEB will continue to give priority to its capacity building efforts by intensifying its training and retraining programmes for teachers in the state.

He said the training was in various skilled areas which included Jolly phonics, Quality Assurance, Early Child Care, Development Education and School-based Model and Cluster School Support Mechanism.

Others are leadership and management training as well as training of over 2,000 Head Teachers and Assistant Head Teachers on COVID-19 prevention and safety protocols.

Ogwu said that it was the first time the board was organising the exercise in the newly introduced School Support Officers’ programme aimed at effective implementation of school-based model.

“The School Support Officer (SSO) is a trained personnel based at the Local Government Education Authority, engaged to provide support to head teachers and teachers.

“The essence is geared toward improving school governance and quality of teaching and learning.

“The school support officer is expected to develop a respectful and collaborative relationship with the teachers, provide constructive feedback to the teachers, carrying out spot checks of learners’ performance.

“Model good teaching practice help teachers set goals for what they want to improve.

“It support teachers to meet regularly in professional learning communities and provide guidance on how to solve problems and share ideas,” he said.

Ogwu commended Gov. Ifeanyi Okowa for placing high premium on education as evident in his administration’s huge investments in the sector.

The chairman urged the participants to take the training very seriously.

He said that the workshop was designed to improve their capacity to provide critical guidance to head teachers to improve teaching and learning in schools.

The Director of Teachers Development, Mrs. Juliet Ezefili, urged the participants to reciprocate government gesture by applying knowledge got from the training in enhancing the quality of education in the state.

Also speaking, an official of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Mr Emeka Ihenwokeneme, gave the assurance that the board of UBEC would ensure continual collaboration with the state and give support that would improve the standard of education in the state. (NAN)