By Prince J Musa in Kenema
The National Council for Civic Education and Development (NaCCED) has conducted a two day interactive session teachers from Primary and Junior Secondary Schools in Kenema district on the teaching of Civics in schools as a core subject.
Deputy District Director, Teaching Service Commission (TSC) ,Tamba S. Bockarie referred to the training as significant and timely for the educational sector and for the future development of the country.
He said civic education enhances patriotism and nationalism by citizens and that its re-introduction in the school curriculum will help in preparing the mindset of children that are going to school so that they will be able to know the importance of civic education including their rights and responsibilities as citizens.
‘’Without knowing our rights and responsibilities as citizens, development will not be achievable in our country’’, he said.
He stated that many of the educated people may not know much about civic education especially those that went to school during and after the civil war, and therefore encouraged the teachers to grab the opportunity so that they will in turn go back and serve as trainers of other teachers in the schools in teaching civic education.
NaCCED’s Facilitator, Ambrose Baion told the participants that the session was the third phase of NaCCED’s collaboration with the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education (MBSSE) and TSC in training teachers nationwide on how to teach civic education in schools, adding that, the leadership of the new direction government in 2018 thought it necessary to reintroduce Civic Education back into the educational curriculum and that as a council, they were able to bring onboard educationists in the country to develop text books on civic education which had been distributed in all the schools.
‘’Those who removed Civic Education in school curriculum did wrong to this nation,’’ he said. Baion stated that NaCCED has the conviction that for civic education to be effectively taught in schools, the council in partnership with other education sectors though it necessary to train teachers on civic education so that they can be grounded in teaching pupils civic education, adding, the training of teachers from each chiefdoms will serve as conduit for training of other teachers in their various localities.
He said the council has been preparing to cascade the civic education curriculum in teacher training institutions so that they will be able to train the upcoming teachers, saying civic education should be taken as one of the core subjects which children need to take in the National Primary School Examination (NPSE) and Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) .
The Manager Basic and Senior Secondary Education at TSC, Jallan Albert Sam affirmed the commission’s commitment in working with the NaCCED in building the capacity of teachers on civic education.
Naomi Brima, one of the participants, described the training as educative, as most of them as teachers are not knowledgeable about civic education. She said many young people today are being misused by other people for political gains or personal benefit.
She commended the government for bringing back civic education as that will help t address the issues of lawlessness and indiscipline among young people while civic education will also enable them as teachers to modify their dress code in schools, communities and serve as role model.
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