Given the poor performances of students in English Language and Mathematics, the National Senior Secondary Education Commission (NSSEC) recently held a five-day training programme for teachers in the two core subjects in Ilorin, Kwara State.

The 116 participants at the training were drawn from the north central states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.

Kwara State Governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq who was represented by the Commissioner for Education and Human Capital Development, Hajiya Sa'adatu Modibbo- Kawu said the training became imperative because of the poor performance of learners, most especially in the two core subjects.

Executive secretary of NSSEC, Prof Benjamin Abakpa, said the commission was kicking off the first edition of reskilling teachers after pilot testing of the manuals on difficult concepts in English Language and Mathematics with teachers from selected public and private schools at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

According to him, the essence of the workshop is to identify the difficult concept in English Language and Mathematics and proffer possible pedagogical skills to tackle the menace facing learners and take them from not knowing to solving equations and putting tenses together correctly.

In her goodwill message, the chairman of NSSEC, Nimota Akanbi, lamented that the performance of students in English Language and Mathematics in external examinations has been consistently poor.

She charged resource persons at the training to simplify the teaching methods of the two core subjects for teachers who will in turn do the same for their students.

AbdulRazaq thanked the commission for choosing Kwara as the host of the training programme.

He said his administration had invested in the state, especially on training and retraining of teachers.

He noted that the novel KwaraLEARN scheme has impacted greatly on teaching and learning on schools.