THE PACESETTER
JOURNAL OF THE
OYO STATE COLLEGE OF EDUCATION, OYO
VOLUME 13 NUMBER 1 JULY, 2006
25th Anniversary Edition
RESEARCH AND PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE
Oyo State College of Education
P. M. B. 1010, Oyo, Oyo State.
e-mail: pacesetteroyo@yahoo. Com
CONTENTS
Editorial Comments
v
Oyo State College of education, Oyo at 25 (1980-2005)
1-8
Text of a keynote Address Delivered at the National
Conference Marking the Silver Jubilee Anniversary of Oyo
State College of Education, Oyo
Development-Oriented Teacher Education
—
Prof. Pai OBANYA
9-27
Teacher Education in Nigeria and the Millennium
Development Goals — Prof. Adebayo Lawal
28-42
Teacher Education in Nigeria: Past, Present and Future
Challenges — Prof. D. O. Durosaro
43-53
Perceived Role of Women Education as A Major engine for
Women emancipation and National Development: A Case
Study of Oyo Township
— Dr. D. O. lyiola and T. V. Gbadamosi
54-63
The Role of Teacher Education in The Promotion of
Gender Equality in the New Technology
— Dr. S. A. Taiwo
Socio-Cultural Factors Impeding The Empowerment and
Participation of Women for Success in Higher Education
in Nigeria — Ademola, Adesina Emmanuel
The Role of Teacher Education in The Promotion of
Gender Equality — Dr. (Mrs.) M. Ojo
64-74
75-85
86-92
The Deities and Yoruba Traditional Music
—
Lawson Babafemi Alade
Building Cost Modelling for Oyo State College of Education,
Oyo — Busari R. S.
Le Pere Goriot De Balzac Et La Societe Africaine
Contemporaine — A. O. Ashipa
Index to The Pacesetter: Journal of Oyo State College of
Education, Oyo Volumes 11 & 12, 1998-2005
— Olalude Francis Oluwole
Leadership and Problems of Nation Building in Nigeria
(An Historical Perspective) — Ogunbunmi, O. A. (Mrs.)
93-98
99-105
106-115
116-142
143-154
The Role of Guidance and Counselling in Combating HIV/AIDS
— Ojo E. B.
155-162
The Place of Mother-Tongue Education in popular Participation
for National Development
— Onanuga, Cornelius Oluwarotimi
163-170
Socio-Behavioural Indices of Health as Correlates of
Successful Teaching of Environmental Sanitation in Oyo
State College of Education, Oyo
— Temilade Adeniyi, M. T. Ogunsola & O. A. Ajayi
171 -178
The Role of Teacher Education in The Eradication of
Poverty and Hunger — Dr. (Mrs.) M. Ojo
179-183
Challenges of information Technology in The Teaching and
Learning of Mathematics in Nigeria — J. O. Saddiq
184-193
Refocusing Integrated Science Education Towards
Environmental Sustainance in Nigeria
— Idowu, C. B. (Mrs.) & Ige A. O.
The Role of Teacher Education in the Promotion of Gender
Equality — G. O. Akanbi, T. A, Asiru & O. J. Olayanju
194-205
206-212
TEACHER EDUCATION IN NIGERIA:
PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE CHALLENGES
By
Professor D.O. Durosaro
Department of Educational Management,
University of llorin, llorin.
Introduction:
In all countries of the world, education is accepted as a process of
transmitting the cultural heritage, stabilizing the present and improving or
changing the future. It is an essential process of developing the child
cognitively, affectively and psychomotively. In every community, education is
viewed as a matter of cultural compulsion. The best legacy to bequeath to a
child is sound education. This is even more so in this 21st century. In this
century, it is quite obvious that knowledge is the greatest asset to possess.
The traditional sources of wealth like gold, oil and other merchandises have
already given way to thoughts and ideas. Mr. Bill Gate, the richest man on the
surface of the earth today, did not get his wealth from oil, gold or diamond.
He was enriched by knowledge and ideas of Information Communication
Technology (ICT). In a similar vein, an increasing number of countries such
as Japan, Malaysia and India are making billions of US dollars by exporting
computer software rather than cassava, oil or gold. Indeed, this is a century
of knowledge and no one should be under the illusion that without knowledge
he or she can hope to survive talk less of thrive.
The school system, regardless of which level of operation, is generally
accepted as a major agent of education. It provides avenues for interaction
between students and teachers on subject matters. These are the triadic
elements in learning. In contemporary time, there seems to be grave social
concern about the potential of our school system to deliver sound education
to the children in Nigeria because the education system appears to be crisisridden. There is the crisis of values, crisis of social confidence, crisis of
resource management, crisis of discipline, crisis of population explosion,
crisis of educational orientation and social relevance as well as crisis of the
teaching profession becoming a dying and decadent industry. In Nigeria
Teacher Education in Nigeria: Past, Present, and Future Challenge
44
today, education is the biggest industry we have. It employs more workers
than can be found in all other sectors put together. The Education sector
serves more clientele than any other industry. Therefore, the problems of the
education system are problems of every individual or household either
directly or indirectly. The factor of the teacher in education cannot be
overemphasized. The teachers must master the subject matter and impart
knowledge to their students. The National Policy on Education (2004) asserts
that no education system can grow beyond the quality of its teachers. Hence,
there is always a need to appraise the nation's system of teacher education
with a view to ensuring adequate supply of quality teachers in the right mix to
our schools. In this lecture, teacher education is considered as a process of
developing skilled teaching manpower to enable them provide good quality
and relevant education to learners at whatever level they operate within the
education system. According to the National Policy on Education (FGN,
2004) the goals of teacher education shall be:
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
(e)
production of highly motivated, conscientious and efficient classroom
teachers for all levels of our education system;
encouraging the spirit of enquiry and creativity in teachers;
helping teachers fit into the social life of the community and the
society at large and to enhance their commitment to national
goals;
providing teachers with the intellectual and professional
background adequate for their assignment and to make them
adaptable to changing conditions and;
enhancing teachers' commitment to the teaching profession, (p. 47)
Teacher education in Nigeria may be either pre-service or in-service.
Pre-service teacher education is provided by university faculties of education
and schools of education in the polytechnics and in colleges of education
while the in-service teacher education is provided by university Institutes of
education and the National Teachers' Institute (NTI), Institute of Education In
universities mount programmes of teacher education In form of postgraduate
diploma In education, part-time degree In education for serving teachers, and
various skill Improvement workshops. The National Teachers Institute
provides In-service training in form of "pivotal" Grade II certificate training for
Pacesetter: Journal of Oyo State College of Education Vol. 13, No 1, July, 2006
45
teachers In some disadvantaged states and NCE part-time courses (PTTP),
The professional bodies like the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) and All
Nigeria Conference of Principals of Secondary Schools (ANCOPSS) also
contribute to In-service teacher education by organizing workshops and
seminars for teachers geared at specific skill improvement.
This lecture attempts to examine the trend in teacher education in
Nigeria: past, present and the future with a view to highlighting the
Implications of teacher education for learning effectiveness In Nigerian
schools.
Historical Development Of Teacher Education In Nigeria:
Adeslna (2005) pointed out that the history of teacher education in
Nigeria dates back to the late 18th century during the early Christian
missionary era. At that period, the teacher was In fact the church catechist
chosen and trained by the Priest. He might not even be a pastor or an
ordained priest. He incidentally found himself playing the roles of both the
pastor and the teacher to the new converts comprising a conglomeration of
children, youths and the aged. Teacher education of the formal type was said
to have started about 1896 with the establishment of St. Andrew's College,
Oyo. It was specifically established to train teachers for the service of the
Church Missionary Society, The then colonial government showed
lackadaisical attitude to education of the natives Including teacher education.
Later, after realizing the importance of literacy to facilitate smooth
communication and commercial activities, the colonial government later
merely intervened in teacher education by regulating conditions of service for
teachers In service and organizing evening classes and vacation courses for
teachers, Obviously, the business of teacher education started mainly as an
exclusive missionary business. The early form of teacher education focused
mainly on production of teachers who operated at the primary level of
education. Before independence, there were very few secondary schools.
The bulk of the secondary school teachers then were expatriates and
missionaries most of whom had no teacher education. There were also a few
products of the secondary schools who were retained to teach as auxiliary
teachers. Moreover, the production of secondary level teachers was regarded
as something needing higher skill that could be available only in a university
Teacher Education in Nigeria: Past, Present, and Future Challenge
46
or an advanced teachers' college. In addition, a common feature of the
teacher education system of the early days was that of low enrolment. The
average enrolment in the teacher training colleges was less than 100. The
advantages of the low population teacher training colleges include
individualized contacts, more practical experience in teaching and production
of better trained teachers. However, where the school size was ridiculously
low, wastage resulted both in terms of manpower and facilities utilization.
Shortly after independence, there was a sporadic increase in
enrolment due to greater competition in school establishment among
missions. Demand for teachers also increased resulting in a “scramble”. At
the primary school level, there were about ten qualifications with which one
could be employed to teach. These included Standard Six School Leaving
Certificate, Primary school leaving certificate, Modern school certificate,
Grade 3 Teachers' Certificate, Grade 2 Teachers' Certificate, Grade 2 Failed
Testimonial, Associateship Certificate in Education, Grade 1 Teachers'
Certificate, Honorary Grade 1 Teachers' Certificate and Nigeria Certificate in
Education (NCE).
At the secondary and post-secondary levels there were about eight
different qualifications that could earn one the teaching job. These included
Ordinary National Diploma, Nigeria Certificate IN Education, Higher National
Diploma, Bachelors Degree (without teacher education), Postgraduate
Diploma in Education, Bachelor of Education, Master of Education and
Doctorate Degree. During that era, teaching was not professionalized. It was
an all-comer field. The teacher education curriculum was geared toward
primary school teacher education only. That was the practice in existence
between 1896 and 1970.
Pacesetter: Journal of Oyo State College of Education Vol. 13, No 1, July, 2006
47
Present Dispensation Of Teacher Education In Nigeria:
The current reality is that teacher education is much improved than it
was before 1970. Today, there are no pupil teachers with only primary
education who needed to be taught for some hours per week before going to
teach. Even though there are still signs of no commitment to teaching and
many teachers would want to leave the profession at the slightest
opportunity, it is heart-warming to note that a larger proportion of the current
day teachers are professionally trained. Access to the profession is much
easier since education and training for teachers is virtually free. The type of
teachers needed in Nigeria have become clearly defined in the National
Policy on Education Implementation Committee blueprint. It was prescribed
that the types and qualifications of teachers required should be as follows:
(a)
Pre-primary Education: Grade II Teacher with NCE teachers
as
heads.
(b)
Primary Education: NCE teachers and graduate teachers as
heads.
(c)
Junior Secondary Schools: NCE and University graduates
(d)
Senior Secondary Schools: NCE and University graduates
with professional qualifications.
(e)
Technical
Colleges,
Polytechnics
and
Colleges
of
Education:
University
graduates
with
post-graduate
qualifications in their disciplines together with professional
qualifications, practical industrial exposure and experience,
(f)
University:
University
graduates
with
postgraduate
qualifications together with professional qualifications and
experience.
This prescription implies that the minimum qualification to teach in our
primary school in Nigeria is NCE. The government had taken steps to ensure
implementation of this prescription. All the existing Grade 2 teachers' colleges
are being phased out and serving Grade 2 teachers are being retrained to
obtain NCE before the deadline to disengage them.
Also, various teachers' colleges now mount NCE sandwich or parttime courses to help upgrade the knowledge of teachers who are below NCE
level. There are crash programmes to educate teachers further. There are
avenues at the National Open University to help develop the modern day
Teacher Education in Nigeria: Past, Present, and Future Challenge
48
teachers.
Today, teachers are being educated online and via programmed
learning techniques. The type of teacher education now in vogue is the one
that produces specialist teachers with expertise in Educational Management,
Guidance and Counseling, Special Education, Vocational Education,
Educational psychology and others. The contents of teacher education have
been responding greatly to the changing needs of society. Four major areas
of teacher education course contents can be identified. These are:
Educational Foundation courses, courses related to the students' area of
subject specialization, General Studies and Teaching Practice. The
Educational Foundation courses of teacher education include: Administration,
Planning and Organization of Education, Teaching Aids and Educational
Technology; Developmental Psychology; Guidance and Counseling; Testing
and Measurements. History of Education. Comparative education, Sociology
of Education and Philosophy of Education. The courses in the students'
teaching area of specialization could be in any of modern languages,
vocational studies such as commerce, bookkeeping, shorthand, typing and
office management, Basic sciences such as mathematics, physics, chemistry
and biology or Applied sciences such as Agricultural science, Home science,
Food technology, Building technology, etc, Social studies such as history,
economics, government, religion, arts, music and drama, physical and health
sciences and practical teaching. In terms of duration of teacher education
programme to qualify for the NCE, the student teacher spends three years of
academic and professional training after the senior secondary school. For
those who want to become graduate teachers, the duration is four years of
post-secondary academic and professional training in the university. Since
2002, the National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE)
established some minimum standards for teacher education at the NCE level.
As part of the standard set, the minimum admission requirement for NCE
programmes is passes in five subjects (English inclusive) with three credits at
the same sitting or four credits at two sittings of Senior Secondary Certificate
Examination or National Examination Council or General Certificate of
Education Examination. To further assure quality of products, courses such
as Computer Education, Mathematics and General English have been made
compulsory for all NCE students.
Pacesetter: Journal of Oyo State College of Education Vol. 13, No 1, July, 2006
49
At the graduate teacher education level, the quality is also assured by
the National Universities Commission (NUC) by setting benchmark on
academic standard in education and closely following it up with regular
accreditation of courses at the universities. Institutions whose education
courses failed accreditation were asked to phase it out. The National Policy
on Education (1998) stipulated that teacher education should recognize the
need for changes in methodology and curriculum and teachers should be
exposed to innovations in their profession. Aaron (2003) identified some
specific areas of teacher education that need improvement. These include
teachers' communication skills, teaching of numeracy and basic sciences,
use of instructional time, promotion of active learning, assessment techniques
and teacher teamwork. Inherent in the aforemention issues are a number of
challenges facing teacher education in Nigeria. Some of such challenges are
briefly highlighted in this paper.
Future Challenges to Teacher Education in Nigeria:
The major challenge facing teacher education in Nigeria is how to
revitalize leaching and teacher education. There are currently three national
agencies with some responsibilities for the teaching profession. These
agencies are the National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE)
which coordinates and monitors teacher education in all colleges of
education, the National Teachers' Institute (NTI) which provides in-service
training programmes and the Teachers' Registration Council (TRC) which
maintains a national register and code of conduct for teachers. These bodies
have been set up to aid the professionalization of teaching. However, there is
a problem of attrition in the teaching force and dwindling enrolment in teacher
education programmes. The reason for this is the lack of motivation for
teachers. The teachers' conditions of service are not enticing enough to
attract and retain the best of brains in Nigeria. Because of the low social
status accorded teachers in the country, our children do not wish to enrol and
be trained as teachers. The few who enroll do so because they have no
choice. A very important challenge facing the government of Nigeria in the
area of teacher education is how to motivate teachers in order to encourage
new entrants to the profession and retain old ones. Motivation should include
better pay (an improved Teachers' Salary Scale) and improved condition of
service for serving teachers as well as bursary and scholarship awards to
Teacher Education in Nigeria: Past, Present, and Future Challenge
50
education students at all levels.
Another future challenge to teacher education in Nigeria is that of
globalization. The teachers of the future need to be trained and retrained in
Information Communication Technology (ICT). The world is gradually
becoming a global village. For our future teachers to have currency and
operate effectively and efficiently, they must imbibe the new technologies and
methodologies of the advanced countries of the world.
Moreover, owing to the various economic reforms of government in
Nigeria, there had been some cutbacks in social Sector expenditure including
those on education. Hence, there are gaps between resource requirement
and resource allocated to institutions. The implication of this is that teachers
must develop capability to improvise, to adapt, to be flexible and to
experiment with new strategies in teaching. The future teachers must be
developed to possess these capabilities.
As a result of the growing graduate unemployment in Nigeria, there is
a need to give entrepreneurial training to all our graduating students. The
teachers must not be excluded, they must first be educated in this direction
for them to transfer the knowledge to the students. This implies that the future
teacher education must include some entrepreneurial skill development
courses that must be taken by all. The teachers must be trained not only in
the act of self-development through continuous learning they must also be
adequately prepared for self-employment.
There is an emerging issue of mid-streaming the early childhood
education into the existing primary education system as packaged in the
Universal Basic Education (UBE) scheme. This will be a challenge to
teachers at that level in future. There may be a need to make early childhood
education, an area of specialization for future teachers just as we now have
NCE in Primary Education.
Another crucial future challenge to teacher education in Nigeria is the
issue of gender balancing. The general impression is that females form the
majority of the teaching force but an empirical study (Aarons 2003) shows the
contrary. The study found that 47% of Nigeria's primary school teachers were
females. The study further disclosed that female participation varied across
the States from 21% to 82%. The States that had low female participation in
teaching were also found to have low girl-child participation in schooling.
Teacher education may have to be more gender-fair by genderising the
Pacesetter: Journal of Oyo State College of Education Vol. 13, No 1, July, 2006
51
curriculum and textbooks as well as enticing more females to participate. Also
another survey carried out across the nation on the perception of people
about teaching as a profession showed that females have more positive
attitude to teaching as a profession than males (NCCE, 1992).
Conclusion and Recommendations:
Universally, it is accepted that teachers are the major determinants of
the quality of education. If the teachers in any nation are not committed, not
inspired, not motivated, lazy, immoral and antisocial, the entire nation is
doomed. If the teachers are not sound in their disciplines and they impart
wrong information, they are not only worthless but dangerous. Teacher
education is what makes the difference between a teacher and a cheater in
the teaching job. If you want to predict what the next generation of a nation
will be, see the kind of teachers trained and posted to the schools. If Nigeria
must re-engineer her economic, political and social systems, a great deal of
thought must be given to the inputs and management of teacher education.
The fundamental factor is that Nigerian teachers (at all levels) both serving
and those in training must be highly motivated to participate in the
developmental revolution which the nation is now embarking upon. Economic
reforms - (NEEDS, SEEDS, LEEDS, NAPEP) and even other socio-politicaleconomic reforms and educational innovatives can only succeed if teachers
are involved to help educate the masses on them.
The quality of teacher education must be able to equip the teachers
with the relevant basic and specialized knowledge and capability to achieve
the nation's educational goals. The teacher must have sound knowledge of
the social milieu in which he operates, its strengths and weaknesses, its
problems, production, trades, indigenous science and technology, music and
arts, government and administration, language and communication. In fact,
the teachers' education must be total and all-round in nature to be optimally
useful. The teacher must be encyclopedic.
Ensuring a sound teacher education system is the first step towards
teacher professionalism in Nigeria. Teacher education endows entrants to
teaching with training in methodology, what to teach, how to teach it and
practice of teaching or internship, just like a doctor, lawyer or an accountant
is also trained.
Teacher Education in Nigeria: Past, Present, and Future Challenge
52
Having x-rayed the issues of teacher education in Nigeria with a view
to highlighting the past, present and future challenges, it is pertinent at this
juncture, to proffer some suggestions for improvement on current practice.
In view of globalization and changing nature of the society, there is a
need for periodic review of the teacher education curriculum- This review
must be comprehensive and participatory of all stakeholders in education to
ensure social relevance. Crucial areas such as entrepreneurial skills,
information communication technology (ICT), HIV/ AIDS education, family life
education and women and child's right education must be integrated to the
curriculum.
Also, there seems to be a social demand for greater emphasy on the
mastery of trainees' teaching subject area and less emphasy on the
education foundation areas. This is not good enough. It contradicts the idea
of professionalism. While one would like to support mastery of teaching
subject areas but it should not be at the expense of educational principles
and practice courses. The call for the elongation of the duration of teacher
education by one year would be laudable only if the one year elongation
would be devoted solely to internship and mastery of more principles of
pedagogy.
To provide sound teacher education, there is the need to ensure that
the teacher trainers in our teacher education institutions are themselves
professionals. Towards this end, all colleges of education should be allowed
to mount Postgraduate Diploma courses in collaboration with neighbouring
faculties of education to professionalize ail graduate teachers without teacher
education. Any of such lecturers who refused to be developed should be
given the option of retiring.
According to the National Policy on Education, the apex of teacher
education programme should be undertaken at the Universities. The current
trend of colleges of education running degree programmes is a misplacement
of priority and merely for self-aggrandizement. Since the Colleges have no
clear mandate to produce degree holders, some colleges merely affiliate with
Pacesetter: Journal of Oyo State College of Education Vol. 13, No 1, July, 2006
53
some universities to bastardize the degrees. While one recognizes the
expertise of some colleges to produce degree holders, it is advisable that the
proprietors of such Colleges should apply to NUC for upgrade to Pedagogic
University status. One college - Tai Solarin College of Education, Ijebu-Ode
in Ogun State had led the way in this regard. Given the quality of your
facilities and staff and with the concurrence of Oyo State government, Oyo
State College of Education, Oyo could also demand for upgrading to
Pedagogic university status.
REFERENCES
Aarons. A. (2003) Nigeria: Universal Basic Education: issues of teaching and
learning, Research Report, Abuja, World Bank,
Adesina, S. (2005) Growth without development: Nigeria's Educational Experience
1914 to 2004, Abeokuta, Educational Industries Nig. Ltd. Pp. 152 -160.
Federal Government of Nigeria (1998) National Policy on Education, Lagos,
Government Press.
James Urwick and Balaraba Aliyu (2003) Towards the re-dynamisation of Nigeria's
education system. A report of the Symposium on the future of Nigerian
education, Teddington Lock, Council for Education in the Commonwealth pp.78.
Lassa, P, (2000) Teacher production, focus on Nigeria, in Akpofure R. (Ed.). The
state of education in Nigeria, Abuja, UNESCO. Pp. 70-83.
National Commission for Colleges of Education (1992) Feasibility of NCE becoming
the minimum qualification for teachers. A Research Report, Abuja.
National Commission for Colleges of Education (2002) Summary of minimum
standard for NCE teachers, Abuja.
National Commission for Colleges of Education (2003) Statistical Digest on Colleges
of Education, Abuja, Vol.6.
Obanya, P. (2002) Revitalising education in Africa, Ibadan, Stirling-Horden Publisher.
Orbach, E. (2003) The capacity of the Nigerian government to deliver basic
educational services, Abuja, World Bank.