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The National Teachers' Institute (NTI) on Thursday in Kaduna said it had spent N11.5 billion on the training of 425,000 teachers in the last four years.
The Director General of the institute, Dr Ladan Sharehu said this at a press briefing ahead of the flag-off of the Annual Nationwide Capacity Workshop for Teachers.
Sharehu said the programme, financed by the MDGs, was for the training of primary and Junior Secondary School teachers in the four co-subjects of English Language, Mathematics, Integrated Science and Social Studies.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports Sharehu as saying that N3.5 billion was spent in 2009 to train 120,000 teachers, N4 billion in 2010 to train 140,000 teachers and N2 billion used in 2011 on the training of 125, 000.
He said the current programme would involve 40,000 teachers spread across 109 centres in the country.
According to him, N1.9 billion will be spent on the procurement of training manuals, logistics and allowances for participants.
`` For this year the training of 40,000 teachers is going on in 109 centres in all the 36 states of the federation and the FCT and will cover Junior Secondary Schools (JSS).``
Sharehu said the NTI had introduced new courses on special educational needs for persons with disabilities and HIV/AIDs awareness.
``The introduction of these components was meant to ensure all-inclusiveness in our educational system as well as to educate the Nigerian citizens through teacher training about the dangers of HIV/AIDS pandemic.
`` The Institute intends to continue to explore other areas that will assist the Nigerian teachers to discharge their duties diligently.''
The Director General assured that all unsettled training allowances for teachers in 2011 would be paid in 2013 `` as soon as the appropriation is approved''.
The Controller General of Nigerian Prisons, Mr Zakari Ohinoyi, on Thursday criticised the discriminatory acts against ex-convicts in the country.
Ohinoyi said this at the Imo Prisons Inmates Day, tagged ``The Forgotten People'', which the Nigerian Prison Service jointly organised with the International Prison Chaplain Association of Nigeria (IPCA).
Represented by his deputy Mr Hassan Labo, the controller said discriminating against ex-convicts negated the reformation reason for their incarceration.
``The aim of jailing these people is to reform them, after which they are released back into the society to continue their lives as law abiding citizens.
``When society shuns them and people refuse to employ them because of the stigma of having once been in jail, they turn back to crime and the vicious cycle continues.
``This sabotages our efforts at reforming these prisoners," he said, while urging the people to assist the prisons service to improve the welfare of inmates.
On congestion in prisons, the he said that some of the inmates had remained in detention because of their inability to pay fines.
``Some of the inmates languishing in these prisons are here because they cannot afford to take the option of fine, which may even be as little as N10,000.
``Those cases should be looked into so that these people can be released and the prisons decongested.’’
Ohinoyi presented sewing machines, irons, hair dryers, generators, carpentry and masonry equipment, to some former inmates to enable them to start up businesses.
The Imo Controller of Prisons, Mr Greg Adimfono, also called for the rehabilitation of remand homes for underage offenders.
He said this would help in their reformation as having them in the same facilities with hardened offenders would influence them negatively.
The Commandant-General of IPCA, Rev. Amaeze Ogbonna, said the association would start a rehabilitation programme to teach skills to former inmates.