Josiah Ajiboye, Registrar, TRCN

The Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) says Nigerian teachers will undergo digital literacy training as part of their mandatory professional development programme in 2019.

Prof. Josiah Ajiboye, Registrar, TRCN, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Abuja.

Ajiboye said Nigerian teachers needed to be digitally compliant in order to deliver effectively in the classroom.

“TRCN is poised to continue with the mandatory professional development programme for Nigerian teachers, especially in the area of digital literacy programme”.

“Our teachers have to be digitally compliant; technology mediated learning is the in thing now and as teachers we cannot remain redundant; we have to know how to use technology to be able to deliver in our classrooms. There are so many strategies that will come in but technology mediated learning is very critical and that is why digital literacy learning is very crucial for our teachers,’’ he said.

The TRCN boss said that the council conducted the digital training in 17 states in 2018, adding that after the 2019 elections, the council would complete the training in other states of the federation.

Ajiboye said that the council was conducting the training on a tight budget; however, he was hopeful that the Federal Government would support in 2019.

“Presently, we are starting with using the limited resources available in TRCN but we are looking forward to the Federal Government to supporting us massively in 2019 to deliver in the area of digital literacy training for all Nigerian teachers”.

“When you look at the education component for  the next level by President Muhammadu Buhari,  digital literacy training is one of the core mandates that the President intends  to do.’’

The Professor said the computer based Professional Qualifying Examination (PQE) for teachers conducted by the council showed the council’s determination in ensuring teachers were digitally literate.

“When we started with the computer based test for the PQE for teachers, people said many of these teachers did not know how to use a computer”.

“But we have since discovered that teachers, even in the rural areas use their phones and even these phones can be used to teach your students. So the idea is not to use sophisticated things but to use even the common thing like the handset to give student assignment and how to use it to chat with your learners”.

“That is what we have been saying, teachers need to adapt to their classroom environment and the use of the mobile phone alone will be able to help you deliver your lesson better,’’ he said. (NAN)