Presidential Committee Trains Over 1000 Teachers In Northeast On Trauma Control

Presidential Committee on Northeast Initiative (PCNI) has begun a 5-day training programme for 1,100 teachers in the northeast to control trauma and enhance teaching.

The training, which began on Monday, was to address psychological trauma experienced by teachers affected by the Boko Haram insurgency in the region.

PCNI’s Chairman, retired Gen. Theophilus Danjuma, who was represented at the event by Prof. Hauwa Biu, said the training would expose teachers to new techniques of teaching and security tips on schools protection.

“This workshop came up because of the issue of Boko Haram; due to the problem that we have encountered in the school system.

“ (Boko Haram) killed many of the teachers, many students were abducted, and many schools were destroyed.

“We feel the need to empower the teachers both psychologically and intellectually for them to know what they should do to address future occurrence of this nature.

“We have 500 participants drawn from the 27 local government areas of Borno.

“Each of them will go back to their respective schools, local government areas and teach others who were not opportune to be here, so that everybody could benefit from the outcome of the workshop.

“They stand to gain a lot from the training on issues of capacity building, new methodology as well as trauma and security issues that they can address.’’

According to him, the exercise is in collaboration with the University of Maiduguri and the Borno State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB).

In addition, Abba Kura, a representative of SUBEB, said the board had accorded priority to providing psychological support to teachers to enable them discharge their duties effectively.

Kura noted that the board had conducted similar exercises for teachers in collaboration with a humanitarian organisation: Save the Children and UNICEF.