The Chief of Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Isiaka Amao, has promised to ensure regular training and refresher courses for personnel to tackle security challenges bedevilling the nation.
Amao said this while declaring open the 2021 NAF Education Officers’ Training Conference, on Monday in Jos.
Represented by Air Vice Marshal (AVM) Isa Muhammad, NAF’s Chief of Administration, Amao said the conference was in fulfilment of his promise to ensure training and retraining of personnel.
“What we are witnessing here is in furtherance of our focus in the pursuit of purposeful training and human capacity development, which is one of the key drivers of my vision for the service.
“This will no doubt enhance and sustain critical airpower capacities required for joint force employment in the pursuit of national security imperatives.
“Our emphasis on human capacity development is premised on the fact that it is only personnel that are equipped with requisite knowledge and skills that can be effective in the employment of airpower to adequately to deal with the security challenges facing this nation,”he said.
He said the training provides the education officers the opportunity to take stock of achievements and challenges facing NAF’s institutions and the education system as a whole, with a view to addressing them.
He tasked the education officers to uphold the mandate of facilitating policies that would ensure the provision of quality education to Nigerians, especially personnel and their dependents.
“I must draw your attention to the importance of effectively combining your responsibility as education service providers with your statutory military responsibilities.
“This is a challenge that requires you to constantly update your knowledge and skills so as to remain abreast with international best practices.
“Hence, regular refresher training and capacity building initiative like this conference is important for you,”he said.
Amao commended NAF’s directorate of education for maintaining quality and best standards in teaching and learning.
He, however, urged heads of NAF schools across the nation to regularly organise in-house refresher seminars in their various schools, insisting that it would help in consolidating the ideas and tenets of quality education.
In his address of welcome, Group Capt. Samson Adelakun, NAF’s Director of Education, said the conference had 200 participants.
“This comprised of NAF education officers, head teachers of NAF primary schools as well as quality assurance officers from various commands,” he said.
Adelakun said the conference would create an avenue for stakeholders within NAF’s education system to discuss contemporary issues facing education in general.
He added that the conference also aimed at broadening the mental horizon of key stakeholders with a view to equipping them with modern strategies to carry out their responsibilities better.
The director of education further explained that contemporary challenges facing the education system calls for the use of modern technologies toward addressing them.
“The use of Information and Communication Technology in education can play a crucial role in providing innovative forms of support to teachers, students and the learning process as a whole.
“It is one of most effective tools that can be applied to create the maximum impact on learning and outcomes.
“When we apply technology to high quality learning and teaching methodologies, students can potentially achieve quick understanding and deeper knowledge,”he said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the three-day conference has the theme “Adopting Innovative Technologies for Sustenance of Academic Excellence in the NAF Education System”. (NAN)
