Utomi Partners 1MT to Train 60,000 Teachers

*Beneficiaries to receive a lifetime access to 1MT online digital contents

A prominent Economist and Educationist, Prof Patrick Utomi has concluded plans to partner with 1 Million Teachers Inc. to train 60,000 teachers in six states in Nigeria, including the FCT. This was made known few days ago after a meeting with the Minister of State for Education, Hon Nwajiuba Chukwuemeka, and Oluwaseyi Anifowose, the Project Coordinator/Director of Strategic Partnerships for 1MT.

According to Prof Pat Utomi, the initiative whose vision is to raise, inspire and produce a new generation of excellence-driven teachers in Nigeria, will be launched in the month of April 2022 in the following six selected states: Delta, Lagos, Edo, Abuja, Anambra and Ogun state.

The training, which is an initiative of Professor Pat Utomi, seeks to improve the quality of education in Nigeria with emphasis on training and retraining of teachers for enhanced performance. The scholarship will be awarded to 60,000 teachers across the selected states in the country (10,000 teachers in each state.)

The beneficiaries will receive a lifetime access to the 1 Million Teachers online digital platform where they will be enrolled into the Black Belt Program.

Nwajiuba, applauded the initiative as he believes it will help build teachers’ capacity for personal and professional effectiveness. He gave assurance of his commitment and support for the initiative and commended Professor Utomi’s unwavering commitment to raising the standard of education in Nigeria not just as a leading academic but as person of policy and practice, including his work as National Patron of AFED, the Association of owners of low cost schools in blighted areas.

Prof Utomi emphasized that the Scholarship program will give the Nigerian teachers additional training in areas such as classroom management, educational pedagogy along with assessment design and educational leadership. He stated that through the training, “it is our hope to fully equip teachers with the training and skills that will be needed to further enrich their teaching and make an impact in the lives of their students in their various states.”

Prof Utomi who noted that the value of the scholarship scheme runs into millions of dollars, commended the founder of the 1MT and the Canadian University which has generously endowed the scheme said the future of the country depends on teacher quality.

Utomi who has served as Chairman of the panel of judges for the Maltina Teacher of the year awards Competition since it was founded 8 years ago pointed out that his role in the founding of schools at the Primary, Seconday, and tertiary levels and place as Pro-chancellor of both public and private universities incline him to celebrate teachers as the cornerstone of social progress and that greater reward for the teacher is in equipping him or her to be more effective in the classroom.

Focusing on the most under-resourced communities across the world, 1 Million Teachers (1MT) empowers teachers to enhance learning outcomes for students through various reward-based teacher professional development programs; designed to keep teachers engaged, motivated and excited about learning.

1MT aims at transforming teachers into lifelong learners, helping them inspire others and currently facilitates professional development of teachers in Nigeria and 16 other African countries and Pakistan through its signature program “Blackbelt Training.”