Ondo SUBEB, UBEC Hold Training For 1,250 Primary School Teachers On Jolly Phonics To Enhance Learning

Ondo State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), in conjunction with the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), has organised a week training programme for the State public primary school teachers numbering 1,250 on jolly phonics, so as to enhance learning  for learners in schools 

The training which began in Ondo State in 2012 was conducted under the Teachers Professional Development Programme of UBEC.

Director of Training in SUBEB, Mrs. Comfort Monilari in an interview with a local online journal "The Hope" during 

the flag-off of the training in Akure, the State capital, explained that the training which covers 1,250 teachers across the three senatorial districts in Ondo State was designed to make reading and writing both easy and enjoyable for public school pupils in the state.

Monilari says the yearly programme has been very effective and has yielded tremendous results in Ondo State public schools, especially in the rural areas.

The Jolly Phonics Desk Officer, Mrs. Olayinka Ogundare, explained that jolly phonics is about using letter sounds to teach pupils reading and writing, instead of alphabetic letters, saying that it improves learners’ reading and writing skills.

“In jolly phonics, pupils learn to spell according to sound, not according to letters, because letters are a bit confusing to lower learners. When pupils spell with sounds, reading and writing become easy and interesting to them. The essence of this training, therefore, is to train teachers who will in turn teach their pupils, using jolly phonics," she stated 

"We are currently training 1,250 teachers; 250 from kindergarten, 500 from primary one and 500 from primary two”

She stated that reading and writing skills of pupils had improved across public schools in Ondo State since the state keyed into the programme in , 

“Hardly will you find primary one and two pupils in Ondo State public schools who cannot read and write,"Ogundare added 

One of the facilitators, Seyi Alake, from Universal Learning Solutions Initiatives, described jolly phonics as a concept of teaching pupils letter sounds so that reading and writing become easy for them because children decode letter sounds easily.

“The selection of participants was done by SUBEB and the training is taking place in Akure, Ondo town, Owo, Ikare and Okitipupa. For the first three days, we are training teachers in Akure, Ondo and Owo, then from Thursday to Saturday Okitipupa and Ikare,” he added.

One of the participants, Mrs. Esther Fajenyo, who said that she had applied everything she learnt in the previous edition and got positive feedback from her pupils, added that she was poised to learn more from this edition so that she could impart more knowledge in her pupils.