…..to address mass failure in mathematics

To achieve the mission, the government has commenced training of junior secondary school teachers from Zamfara State on how to acquire appropriate skills in item writing in core subject like mathematics.This revelation was contained in a statement signed by the Deputy Director, Junior Secondary Education, Federal Ministry of Education, Mrs Abimbola Olamilokun.According to the statement, […]

To achieve the mission, the government has commenced training of junior secondary school teachers from Zamfara State on how to acquire appropriate skills in item writing in core subject like mathematics.
This revelation was contained in a statement signed by the Deputy Director, Junior Secondary Education, Federal Ministry of Education, Mrs Abimbola Olamilokun.
According to the statement, the 2- day intensive workshop on item writing was organised for junior secondary schools’ mathematics teachers.  The permanent secretary of the ministry, Dr. Macjohn Nwaobiala, said that many teachers did not possess the required skills in scoring, interpretation of test scores, test construction, and knowledge of the principles of test construction and scoring in the affective and psycho-motor domains.
He said that the ministry was aware that competence needed in writing objective, reliable and standardized test items and developing item banks, come by appropriate development of teachers capacity. The director, basic and secondary education, Barrister D.C. Uwaezuoke, said the poor quality of education outcomes recorded in recent years was attributed to poor quality of teachers, among other reasons, adding that to address the challenge of teacher education quality in Nigeria, professional development and incentives for teachers needed to be improved.
“It is a well known fact that many teachers have the task of constructing tests, but have relatively little or no training or information to rely on in this task,” he said.