The Bayelsa State government has reiterated its commitment to the training and re-training of teachers, particularly in the area of digital knowledge, to improve the education sector and produce great leaders of tomorrow in the state.

The Commissioner for Education, Gentle Emelah, stated this on Wednesday while declaring open a three-day free training in “Creative Coding and Robotics for 50 Information and Communication and Technology (ICT) Teachers in the Secondary Schools in Bayelsa State” in Yenagoa.

The training, which will end on Friday, is organised by the state Education Development Trust Fund (EDTF) Board in partnership with the Odyssey Educational Foundation, an Abuja-based non-governmental organisation.

Emelah described coding and robotics as special ICT skills that teachers ought to be equipped with so that they in turn could groom students in their various schools and escalate e-learning in the state.

He said, “We all know the importance of coding and robotics; we are in the digital world and if we must be relevant then special skills like these are very important.

“As a government, we have decided to carry out capacity building for our teachers on coding and robotics. We are equipping our teachers and in turn, affecting our students and equipping them with digital knowledge. The collaboration with Odyssey Educational Foundation is very nice.

“As we speak, we have gathered about 1,300 primary school teachers at the prestigious St. Jude’s Girls Secondary School (Amarata); they will be there for about 10 days on modern technologies in teaching at the primary school level. In the next few years, Bayelsa should be a tourist centre of education.”

While noting that the Governor Douye Diri-led administration had placed priority on education as a major pillar of Bayelsa’s development, the commissioner lauded the EDTF for its foresight and advised the participating teachers to take the training seriously.

In her address, the Executive Secretary of EDTF, Alice Atuwo, said the training of the 50 ICT teachers would be followed immediately with the launch of a three-month training of girls in technological entrepreneurship in the state’s Model Secondary Schools.

She further said, “The training of students in coding and robotics is numerous. Research has proved that the introduction of coding and robotics training enhances problem-solving skills, creativity and mathematical abilities in students. Thus, this training is very important.

“Teachers need to be well equipped to help train our students in this body of new knowledge. It is the way to go if we want our students to join the comity of world netizens.”

Atuwo thanked the Odyssey Educational Foundation for collaboration and creating opportunities for Bayelsa teachers, urging the benefiting teachers to “seize the prospects being offered by this training” and work hard to succeed in the challenge ahead of them.

The Programme Director of Odyssey Educational Foundation, Stella Uzochukwu-Denis, said her organisation was delighted to be a worthy partner of the state government in the training of teachers in coding and robotics.

She enjoined the teachers to participate actively to enable them grasp the skills, adding that the training was an opportunity that could take them beyond their imagination through coding and robotics programmes.