The Kaduna State Government on Thursday begun training of no fewer than 920 Principals in public schools across the state on sustainable school leadership and management practices.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the training is being undertaken by the State Ministry of Education in collaboration with Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE) project.
The first batch of the training in Kafanchan drew principals from the 373 public schools across the Southern Senatorial Zone of the state.
Alhaji Adamu Makadi, Chairman, Kaduna State Teachers Service Board, said the exercise was part of Gov. Uba Sani led administration’s efforts to reform the education sector in the state.
Makadi stressed that the essence of the training was to equip the principals with modern skills for effective management of their schools.
“The whole aim is to enhance the leadership and administrative capacity of principals in public schools in Kaduna state,” he said.
According to him, mechanism were already in place to ensure that the school principals live up to expectations.
In her remarks, Mariam Dangaji, AGILE Project Coordinator in Kaduna State, revealed that the remaining principals from the Northern and Central Zones of the state would have their own training in the next two weeks.
“In all, we are training about 920 principals across the state but we are starting with this zone, after which we will train those from the other two zones in the coming weeks.
“By next year, we shall undertake the same training for all the vice principals, like we are doing for the principals today,” she stated.
Dangaji tasked the participants on the need to make judicious use of the training in ensuring sustainability of the best practices in schools.
The facilitator, Prof. Mohammed Muftahu, Dean, Faculty of Education, Kaduna State University, stated that the training covers four key areas of sustainable leadership and management and professional standards for school leaders.
The other two areas, Muftahu said included teachers performance management and civil service rules, regulations and compliance.
The don noted that the importance of training and retraining school heads to keep them up to date with global best practices cannot be overemphasised.
The two day training featured technical sessions as well as presentations from some principals to assess their understanding of what was delivered.
Two of the participants, Helen Ibrahim and Sunday Boman from GSS, Kafanchan, and GSS, Mahuta, respectively, lauded the state government and AGILE for placing premium on building the capacity of school administrators.
According to them, the training was necessary and timely.
They promised to put into practice all that they had learnt to enable them effectively run their schools and guarantee more positive outcomes. (NAN)
