By News Editor
No fewer than 250 academic staff of the Federal University Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE), have benefitted from the maiden edition of the staff training initiative of the Vice-Chancellor, Prof Abayomi Sunday Fasina.
This was just as the excited lecturers expressed lauded the VC for approving the workshop which was organised by the University’s Directorate of Integrated Services and Training, under the headship of Mr. Olanrewaju Patrick Ogunjobi, with a view to optimize lecturers’ productivity and best practices by imbibing pedagogical principles.
According to Mr. Olanrewaju Patrick Ogunjobi, who is Acting Director, Directorate of Integrated Services and Training, “the training is geared towards Optimizing Productivity and Best Practices Among University Teachers”.
Ogunjobi however said that programme would be a continuous excercise.
The maiden edition, with the theme: ‘ Pedagogical Principles’, had 250 lecturers drawn from all the faculties of the institution while subsequent editions will cater for other batches of the academic staff.
Addressing the lecturers at the opening session of the training, Ogunjobi said: “The Workshop is designed for the Academic staff of our prestigious, fast growing University. We hearthly congratulate the Vice-Chancellor for the feat of always having something new to do at any point in time, since his assumption of office as our Vice-Chancellor.
“Today, our University is ranked amongst the fastest growing and sought-after University in Nigeria. This feat has been made possible because of the VC’s indefatigable leadership and sense of vision and mission. He came in well prepared, without any doubt as to what he wants, and the level he wants the University to be, by the time he will be leaving office.
“ To really make FUOYE a University to beat; and a University with an eye to the future, he has embarked on so many infrastructural development projects, but the area that concerns our interest more, is his strides in Human Capital Development, involving Training and retraining of staff, to engender Higher Productivity.
“It has been proven beyond any shadow of doubt that regular staff training and retraining increases productivity and increases staff efficiency at work while using less capital and preventing staff layoffs.
As a first priority in improving the lot of the Academic staff, the Management, under Prof. Fasina’s leadership, came up with the initiatives of ensuring that FUOYE Teachers start focusing on publications in Scopus-indexed journals (Elsevier,Thomas Reuter, and Scimango Journals), which are considered as very illustrious and prestigious, and a major factor in University rankings throughout the world.
“This initiative is of great benefits, particularly in the areas of visibility, access to grants, high frequency of wider audience, quality of manuscripts, etc. In other to give teeth to this initiative, the University Management has insisted on certain high impact factor; certain journals like SCOPUS, ISI, ISS, SCIMAGO, MLA, which are being recommended, and with our new Condition of Service in place, it has become imperative for our academic staff to explore these options, to raise the university’s standing and expedite promotions.
“Having entrenched the culture of publishing in High Impact Factor journals, the Vice-Chancellor considers it important and imperative to look at the Teaching Character of his Teachers, not only to improve themselves alone, but to also improve the outcomes of their teachings and the impacts on the students, who are the end results of their vocations, hence the Pedagogical Training workshop we are organizing for today and tomorrow”
“Effective pedagogy involves understanding each student’s unique needs and learning styles and tailoring instructions accordingly. It also involves creating opportunities for active learning, such as group discussions, hands-on activities, and problem-solving exercises. It is the art and science of teaching, and it encompasses a broad range of strategies and techniques aimed at facilitating learning. At its core, pedagogy is about creating an environment that fosters curiosity, engagement, and growth. With the right teaching skills, we can create an environment where our students can thrive and fulfill their potential.
“When we are equipped with everything we need to make our classes engaging, productive, and fun for our students, our classes won’t be bored, and our students will perform outstanding feats and be able to compete well in this highly competitive world we have found ourselves today.
“For this Training programme, involving two Hundred and fifty Academic staff, drawn from all the Faculties, and across all Departments, and which I see as a LIFE SKILLED TRAINING WORKSHOP, we have selected very outstanding Professors of Educational Management; those who have proven themselves very well in the subject matter, to come and rub minds with us.
“Our Vice- Chancellor is very passionate about this and I would implore that we all accord the workshop the seriousness it requires. Yes, not every academic staff is covered in this Training Workshop, but we want to assure that the softcopies of papers delivered will be made available to every academic staff, while another set of academic staff are considered in subsequent edition’. he said
While declaring the event open, the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Fasina said he approved of the training so as to improve some of “our colleagues’ skills in teaching for us to optimize and get the best from our lecturers.
“Many of us are very brilliant and have had first class in the University but still cannot teach well, this is why this training is needed.
“We need to get more training from those who are real teachers. We will be having series of these kind of training as long as we are here. I have heard a students who said that his lecturer is brilliant but doesn’t know how to teach.
“We may also be bringing an idea where students would assess their lecturers’ way of teaching. We enjoin professors of this University to ensure that they produce more Post Graduate products because this is the essence of having professors in the system. The facilitators have been carefully selected to cater for our needs and the topics have also been selected for same purposes.”
The two-day training featured engaging lectures delivered by facilitators of professorial cadre in their respective fields in the academia. They included Prof. Kunle Adegun, Provost, College of Education, Bamidele Olumilua University, Ikere, Prof. T.K Akinwamide of the faculty of Education, Ekiti State University Ado-Ekiti, (EKSU), Prof. Ekundayo Haastrup of the faculty of Education, (EKSU) and Prof. Afolabi Popoola.
