The Director-General National of the National Teachers’ Institute (NTI), Prof. Musa Maitafsir has called on the Federal Government to sanction illegal teacher training institutions in the country.

Maitafsir made the call on Friday in Abuja on the sidelines of the 2022 Nationwide Capacity Building Teacher Training Workshop organized by the institute.

He decried, ”many unauthorized organizations have hijacked the training of teachers at the expense of mandated and professional institutions in the country.

“There is a proliferation of private firms with no business in education and mandate to train teachers, but patronized by state and federal government agencies in training teachers at the detriment of the institutions established by laws.”

Maitafsir urged that the earlier these firms are regulated, the better the teaching profession will be saved from intruders in the business of teachers' production.

The Director-General said, ”over the years, the institute has been active in the training in line with the mandate and federal government act of 1978 that established it.

“ We have designed to train over 2000 Nigerian teachers this year, they will be introduced to the techniques of learning recoveries through Basic Education Support Funds from UBEC,

“ Already, 2000 teachers from Kebbi and Sokoto states had received a similar training by the institute in collaboration with the Commonwealth in 2021,’’ he said.

Maitafsir further said 100 teachers would receive training on digital literacy this year apart from 148 teachers already trained by the institute in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Education.

He stated that the institute had organized a train-the-trainers capacity-building workshop for distance learning system center managers in Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe states.

“ The same training will be extended to over 500 teachers in this type of training this year,’’ the D-G assured.

Maitfasir said that the institute had trained over 69,000 students to become qualified and certified teachers through NCE, BED, and PGD programs by Distance learning systems across the country.

In collaboration with Sustainable Development Goals Office, (SDGs), Maitafsir said that the institute has concluded arrangements to train 1,850 teachers in Information and Communication skills, effective classroom management, language, and communication skills.

He thanked the Federal and state governments as well as the development partners for their contributions towards improving the quality of teacher education in the country.