The Federal Government has commenced plans to train one million in-service teachers under its Accelerated Teacher Professional Programme (ATPP).

According to the Minister of Education, Dr Maruf Tunji Alausa, this is part of efforts to improve teaching quality and strengthen learning outcomes across the country.

He spoke when he received the newly appointed UNESCO Country Representative to Nigeria, Professor Isaiah Barreto Da Rosa, in Abuja, on Tuesday.

Alausa said the programme would equip teachers with improved pedagogical skills and capacity to effectively teach Nigerian children, stressing that teacher quality remained central to the government’s education transformation agenda.

“We are rolling out the Accelerated Teacher Professional Programme, which will train one million in-service teachers to improve their skills and capacity in the way they teach our children,” he said.

The minister also claimed that more than one million out-of-school children had been returned to classrooms in the past 20 months through government interventions aimed at expanding access to education.

“Today, in the last 20 months alone, we have moved over one million children from the streets back to school. We will continue to deepen our strategy to ensure that every child is taken off the streets and returned to school,” Alausa said.

He, however, noted that despite the progress, Nigeria still faced a significant challenge, estimating that the country’s total out-of-school population could remain between seven and eight million.

“That is still too many. Every single child out of school is still one child too many,” he said.

Alausa identified quality assurance, technical and vocational education and training (TVET), STEM, reintegration of out-of-school children, data and digitalisation, and girl-child education as the government’s six priority areas for transforming the education sector.

He said the government was also using data to plan interventions, identify gaps and monitor outcomes, describing evidence-based governance as critical to achieving sustainable reforms.

On the proposed collaboration with UNESCO, the minister welcomed technical support for teacher development but stressed that such assistance must align with Nigeria’s priorities.

“We are open to UNESCO coming to us and saying, ‘With your ATPP programme, we can help support you with a certain number of teachers.’ That is fine,” he said.

“But we will not accept UNESCO coming to tell us that this is what we need to teach our teachers.”

Alausa said the government would continue to mobilise domestic resources and work with development partners to ensure that its education reforms were effectively implemented and sustained. (Daily Trust)