By Bodunde Tenabe
NIEPA Nigeria Ondo has organized a workshop towards building the capacities of Board members of Bayelsa Education Development Trust Fund (BEDTF).
The workshop held in Warri, Delta State was targeted at the Chairman, Executive Secretary and the upper echelon of the board, and aimed at building their capacities to better support the development of education in Bayelsa state.
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Speaking at the opening ceremony of the workshop, Director General of NIEPA, Prof. Lilian Salami represented by Head of Training department, Dr. Sunday Adegbesan commended the Bayelsa State Government for its ingenuity in birthing an Education Development Trust Fund to provide functional and qualitative education for indigenes of the state.
Dr. Adegbesan extolled the virtues and sterling qualities of the Board’s Executive Secretary Dr. Mrs. Alice Atuwo and commended her for considering it worthwhile to enhance the capacity of members of the board.
He disclosed that the institute recently, has been in close collaboration with Bayelsa SUBEB and also contributed immensely in developing the State Education Sectoral Plan (SESP) in order to enhance strategic operational plan for education in the state.
In her welcoming remarks, Executive Secretary, Bayelsa Education Development Trust Fund, Dr. Mrs. Alice Atuwo stressed on the critical efforts done by His Excellency, Governor Seriake Dickson after a declaration of a state-of emergency in the Education sector in 2012. As a result, Bayelsa is among the first five best performing states in the West African Examination Council and the National Examination Council results in the past five years.
She said, provision of functional and qualitative education for indigenes of the state and also to provide vocational trainings and skill acquisition are some of the priorities of the Trust Fund.
“One or two additional skills and experience will be added via this training programme, so when we go back, we should be able to add value to the board and the work we do,” Atuwo said.
Members of the board who attended the programme include; High Chief Fidelis Agbiki, a former press secretary to seven different Governors in Rivers and Bayelsa State respectively, Engineer Tobias James, a former commissioner of education in Bayelsa state, Barrister Stanley Damabide, a former Special Adviser to Governor Seriake Dickson on Legal Matters and former NBA Chairman, Bayelsa State, John Angese who served as the immediate past NUJ Chairman Bayelsa. Others are; Professor Francis Sikoki, Prince Cadbury Omieh, Chief Noah Kikile and Mr. Abiah Dressman.
The 3-day workshop was facilitated by seasoned personnel from NIEPA Nigeria Ondo and focused on promoting a more strategic and integrated way of working among Board Members and their staff. The sessions covered a wide variety of topics, including: team building and communication among staff; managerial, leadership, and communication skills in consideration of different personality types; coaching and mentoring skills; staff morale, motivation and goal congruence; conflict management in the workplace, and support/trust among staff; psychosocial resilience and coping mechanisms to manage stress at the workplace.
The sessions, based on an interactive approach, engaged the participants and provided them with a platform to share experiences, best practices, and success stories.
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