Schools resumption: Lagos gives recipe on post COVID-19 teaching skills 

Ahead of an eventual resumption of schools after lockdown, the Lagos State Government has charged teachers in public and private schools to reappraise and intensify their mentoring skills as a supportive learning tool in readiness to cope with post-COVID-19 classroom expectations.

The Tutor-General/Permanent Secretary, Lagos Education District 1, Barrister Margaret Solarin, gave the charge during a maiden webinar edition: Eko Educators series, 1.0. organized for the State Post Primary School Teachers.

Solarin said the mentoring skills became necessary especially with students that could not benefit maximally from the online teaching via radio and television organized by the State government at the wake of the pandemic.

She gave the admonition during her presentation, titled: “Mentoring As a Tool for Learning and Development,” organized for school teachers, via the Microsoft Teams Online platform.

Solarin explained that while post-COVID-19 school expectations would demand a much higher dispensation of teachers mentoring skills and expertise, they should, in addition, demonstrate endurance and exhibit tolerance in order to cope with manifestations of students that are still lagging behind and could not avail themselves the opportunities provided by the online teaching when they return back to school stressing that those students must be at par with their counterparts that were exposed to the online teaching.

She reassured that when teachers make conscious effort to portray themselves as dependable sources to proffer solutions to students problems and help overcome their challenges, confidence would be highly reposed in them which would ultimately enhance learning and development of the students.

Solarin reiterated that the overwhelming success of the mentoring process and dispensation of teachers superior knowledge, skills and expertise in the school context depends largely on the right use of language when communicating and interacting with their students.

She also warned that uncouth choice of words and languages should be avoided to elicit positive responses from the students and as such, no student should be referred to as “dullard with no prospects”.

She stressed on the need for teachers to constantly expose themselves to relevant knowledge and skills acquisitions to sharpen and broaden their expertise for quality teaching methodology that would further improve the potentials of students to become more successful and worthwhile leaders of tomorrow for the betterment of the nation at large.

Aside the mentoring of students, respective principals and senior tutors of schools should counsel and mentor the newly recruited teachers by the state government and guide them with your knowledge and expertise for better dispensation of service delivery, ” she urged.

Earlier, a senior lecturer at the Lagos Business School, Dr. Yetunde Anibaba who delivered a lecture on “Personal Agility” urged the teachers to be more ICT compliant in order to demonstrate that they are adaptable to change and also become more relevant in the grand scheme of things.

The EKO Educators Webinar Series 1.0 had in attendance the Commissioner for Education, Mrs Folashade Adefisayo in the capacity of special guest, the Chairman state’s Teaching Service Commission, TESCOM, Mrs Elizabeth Olabisi Ariyo who was the chief host and the Permanent Secretary TESCOM, Mrs Toyin Idowu who served as the moderator for the webinar.

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