The development Research and Projects Center (dRPC), a non-governmental NGO through its education pillar of work and sustaining its teacher training programs, convened two teachers participation centres for 50 teachers in Kano and the FCT at the 2024 edition of the Annual Teachers Conference themed “Advancing Teacher Professionalization in Nigeria Towards Education 20230: Strategies, Prospects and Challenges”. The dRPC, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) in Kano and five other NGO/INGOs at the National level, supported the online conference on the 16th and 17th October 2024. In the goodwill messages at the Kano Center, the Permanent Secretary of the Kano State Ministry of Education, represented by the Director for Development Partners, Alhaji Mua’azu Lawal Abdulkadir, called on the teachers to make the best use of what they learnt at the conference for the betterment of their profession. The dRPC’s Executive Director, represented by Dr Judith Giwa Amu in her goodwill message at the National Virtual Conference, noted that “the education sector is indeed in a fragile state especially in northern Nigeria with over 2,295 teachers killed because of violence in schools resulting to 55% shortage of teachers in the BAY states as documented just last week by the Nigeria Education in Emergency Working Group (EiEWGN).” She further reiterated that the dRPC believes “through a multisectoral approach and meaningful collaborations with Civil Society Organizations, the strategic role of professional teacher development towards achieving Education 2030 can be strengthened.”
The dRPC, through its presentation on “The Business Case for Investing in Local CSOs to Strengthen Capacity of Teachers to Respond to Sexual Related Gender Based Violence (SRGBV)” called on a multisectoral approach for strengthening teachers’ capacity as change agents to improve Gender Responsive Pedagogies and pastoral care skills in addressing School Related Gender Based Violence (SRGBV). The conference generally discussed how the Teaching profession can be standardised to ensure only TRCN-certified teachers are retained in classrooms across the nation, the significance of the TRCN certificate, which gives global recognition and increases employment rate for teachers, policy reforms for professional teacher development and teacher wellbeing /mental health attracting and retaining Quality Teachers.
Through its Education Pillar of work, the dRPC is one of the oldest Indigenous NGOs working on education through sustainable models for teacher professional development, improving opportunities for Girls Education and Child protection and empowering women, girls and most vulnerable for better life choices.
