A total of 271 public and private secondary school teachers have graduated from the 2022/2023 edition of Seplat Teachers’ Empowerment Programme (STEP) in Edo and Delta states.
Speaking at the graduation and certificate award ceremony in Benin City, Chioma Nwachuku, Director, External Affairs and Sustainability, Seplat Energy Plc said the beneficiaries of the empowerment comprising 260 teachers and 11 Chief Inspectors of Education (CIEs) in the two states.
Nwachuku said since the inception of STEP in 2020 a total of 634 persons made up of 574 teachers and 60 Chief Inspectors of Education have been trained.
She also disclosed that the programme has enormously impactful in touching over 25,000 students within the third years of the programme.
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She explained that Seplat Energy was strongly committed to educational advancement in the country and such considers teachers as the critical success factor for the STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) model.
“As a result in 2020, Seplat embarked on empowering teachers and Chief Inspectors of Education (CIEs) at Edo and Delta states with the requisite knowledge and skill sets to excel in teaching their students STEAM model learning.
“The STEP initiative by Seplat Energy builds teachers competencies to teach the STEAM model of learning to secondary schools students to promote their creative thinking abilities.
“Allow for higher student engagement, and offer a well-rounded education where Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics are equal contributors to the process of learning.
“The program provides teachers access to STEAM learning through workshops and a customised e-platform with a collection of STEAM resources that teachers can access on a free device provided by Seplat.
“Over the years, Seplat Energy has invested significantly in other educational Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programmes such as the PEARLS quiz competition to support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Number 4, which promotes education for all,” she said.
She said secondary school teachers in public and private schools in the company’s host states were open to benefiting from the laudable programme.
Delivery a keynote address on the Seplat education roundtable and STEP Award ceremony with the theme, ‘Transforming the education workforce: The role of technology in teaching,’ Joan Oviawe, the Edo State Commissioner for Education, assured that technology remained critical to transforming the education workforce.
Oviawe opined that the 21st Century interaction between teachers and students could be massively impacted and boosted leveraging the right technologies and methods.
She called for project-based and competency-based learning approaches in schools, adding that: “Our teachers must become technologically-savvy at this time.
“Data gathering has become very key now and technology provides the right platforms. It is a new era and we are in a new world. Thanks to Seplat Energy and its partners for leading this journey.”
On his part, the Delta State governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Delta State Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education, Augustine Oghoro, commended Seplat for its people-focus initiatives.
Okowa opined that the interventions were timely given the need for teachers and students to be equipped with relevant skills to become global champions.
