Teacher Education andAcademic Quality in the Nigeria Education System: A Vicious Circle Perspective (original) (raw)
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THE IMPLICATIONS OF POOR QUALITY TEACHER EDUCATION ON EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA
International Journal of Economics, Commerce and Management, 2016
The paper examines the implications of poor quality teacher education on educational development in Nigeria. It explains teacher education, quality teacher education, poor quality teacher education, implications of poor quality teacher education on educational system of Nigeria as well as challenges to teacher education. The paper outlines the challenges which include, unable to meet the international commitment, lack of training and retraining of teacher education for sound education, revitalization of teacher education. It draws conclusion and suggested some recommendations, government at all levels and individuals that have concern for education should fund the educational sector. Training and retraining of teachers becomes crucial and necessary and among others.
The production of quality teachers to boost the efficiency of Nigeria's education system
Research in Education, 2009
T he Nigerian education system is guided by the provisions of the National Policy on Education (2004). The policy, which was fi rst published in 1977, provides for the '6-3-3-4' system of education. This implies six years of primary education, three years of junior secondary education, three years of senior secondary education and four years of tertiary education. The teacher education programme in Nigeria falls within the four-year tertiary education spectrum. Section 8, subsections 70-9, of the National Policy on Education (2004) specifi cally provided for teacher education. According to Section 8, subsection 70b, of the policy, 'the minimum qualifi cation for entry into the teacher profession shall be the Nigeria Certifi cate in Education (NCE)'. In addition, Section 8, subsection 72, of the policy specifi ed the institutions that shall give 'the required professional training provided they continuously meet the required minimum standards'. These institutions are: Colleges of Education, Faculties of Education, Institutes of Education, the National Teachers' Institute (NTI), Schools of Education in polytechnics, the National Institute for Nigerian Languages (NINLAN) and the National Mathematical Centre (NMC). Every nation strives towards the provision of quality education for its citizens. This is in realisation of the fact that education is indeed necessary to engineer and consolidate any nation's developmental process. It should be noted, however, that the provision of quality education will be in jeopardy if the teachers are haphazardly employed, poorly remunerated, not rewarded for incidental contributions and not exposed to continuous self-development (Onyene, 2001). The role of the teacher in ensuring the success of any education system cannot be overemphasised. This fact has been recognised by the government of Nigeria in its National Policy of Education (revised 2004), that no education system can rise above the quality of its teachers. The policy further noted the need for 'highly motivated conscientious and effective' teaching staff at all levels of education. Teachers are implementers of every policy on education. It is the teacher who translates policy into action at the classroom level. It is he who injects reality into educational decisions and it is he who concretises the curriculum (Anadi, 1992).
Adequacy and Quality of Teachers in Nigeria Universities
Ismail Adesina RAJI, 2009
The National Universities Commission’s (NUC’s) ranking criteria for teaching staff in the programme accreditation benchmark (2007) namely: staff/student ratio (10%), staff mix by rank (6%) and qualifications (3%) were adopted to estimate the adequacy and quality of teachers in Nigeria Universities in 2012. The set of 188 faculties in 25 universities for which complete data was obtained out of 375 faculties in 46 universities that were operating before 2001 was used. A checklist was used to collect secondary data on the number of students as well as the number, highest qualification and rank of teachers in each faculty. Average shortfall in the number of teachers ranged from 15% in the Faculty of Arts to 71% in the Faculty of Technology/Engineering. Shortfalls in the number of teachers were generally high in the science related disciplines. Proportion of teachers that hold Ph.D degree was around 60% in the Faculties of Law, Engineering and Environmental Sciences, and barely close to 80% in a few other faculties. The average rank of teachers was generally below the NUC benchmark. Quality indices for university teachers were as low as 45.2% (Administration), 48.9% (Engineering/Technology) and 49.2% (Environmental Sciences). On the high side of quality indices were 73.8% (Arts), 70.8% (Education) and 69.9% (Veterinary Medicine). Providers of university education should address the problem of adequate staffing and career development of teachers in Nigerian universities
Management of Teacher Education in Nigeria: Issues, Problems and Remedies by
The importance of teachers and the roles they play in the educative process are central to basic education, particularly in third world countries, there may be close substitutes for teacher-roles in the form of teaching machines with programmed instruction (Balogun 1988) but in third world countries such as Nigeria, teachers undoubtedly remain the managers of knowledge. Therefore, teacher education in Nigeria is, and should be, the foundation of quality and relevance of education at all levels. Teachers are crucial inputs of an educational system. The real growth points with teaching profession are well trained and experienced teachers. If we believe in the capacity of education system to promote rapid and directed social and economic change, we should be concerned with who teaches in our schools. Since no education system can rise above the quality of its teachers, an educator must first be educated and trained. It is not surprise, therefore, that there is widespread interest in developing a functional and more workable fit between teacher-training programme and the complexities and demands of teaching. Base on the above premises therefore, this study sought to examine some salient issues in education and x-ray the problem areas in the management of teacher education in Nigeria. Over years, the issue of teacher education vis-àvis the concept of educational management has been seriously neglected. It is imperatives to note that educational management is a scientific organization of human (teachers) and material resources available for education and using them systematically to achieving educational goals. Therefore, for any teacher education to be successful some management issues as it affects teacher education must be thoroughly diagnosed. Some of these issues are: quality in teacher production, selection of entrance, teacher preparation programme, staffing, facilities, administrative leadership and discipline, funding, pedagogy among others. While the problems confronted by teacher education include: aversion for the teaching profession, teacher retention and turnover, inadequate funding, quantity and quality of teacher. It is in the light of the above that the study is set to proffer solution to these problems that rearing their ugly heads with a view to improving the country's quality of education via teacher education. The study will be of immense importance to both educational planners and administrators. It is therefore suggested that teachers should be allowed to undergo on-the-job training; conferences, workshop and seminars.
Getting Teacher Quality Right in Nigeria: Some Strategic Options
The paper summarises the provisions of the Benchmark Minimum Standards (BMAS) for graduate teacher education in Nigeria and highlights the findings of a national survey of the quality of graduate teachers from universities and colleges of education. Huge gaps were found to exist in teachers’ content knowledge across all subjects and in the general quality of teachers, hinting on the impact on lowering the quality of delivery of education in Nigeria. Recommendations were directed at reformatting the teacher education curriculum and curriculum delivery process and in periodic re-certification of teachers in a way that will narrow the gap between the expected and the observed.
THE CHALLENGES OF TEACHER EDUCATION IN NIGERIA Case Study
The study was aimed at finding out the factors that constitute challenges to teacher education in Nigeria. A sample of 200 teacher educators and 300 students randomly sampled from teacher training institution in Akwa Ibom and Cross River States of Nigeria was used for the study. A well-structured instrument titled "Perception of Challenges of Teacher Education Questionnaire (PCTEQ)" was distributed in order to explore the views and perception of respondents with regard to the factors identified as constituting challenges to teacher education in Nigeria. The instrument was a 4-point Likert type scale with a reliability coefficient of 0.875. The research question was answered using means (x), standard deviation (SD) and one-sample test statistics. While t-test was used to test the hypotheses at .05 level of significance. The result of the study revealed that both student teachers and teacher educators agreed that course contents/delivery, admission of students, inadequate instructional facilities, teaching practice, examination malpractice, poor funding, knowledge of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), poor attitude of the public towards teaching, and poor implementation of teacher education policies posed great challenges to teacher education in Nigeria. Student teachers had a significantly higher perception of the challenges of teachers education in Nigeria than teacher educators. There is no significant influence of gender of student teachers and teacher educator on their perception of the challenges of teacher education. Premised on these findings it was recommended among other things that government should adequately finance teacher education and adequate instructional facilities both in quality and quantity should be provided for effective teaching-learning process in teacher training institutions in the country.
The Challenge of Teacher Quality and Human Development in Nigeria
US-China Education Review B, 2015
Teaching has been changed from what it used to be in Nigeria. The change has been in structure and quality. The increasing expansion of pupils' enrolments at both the primary and secondary schools has led to the existence of six categories of teachers with different academic qualifications. This paper explored the levels of these qualifications and their influence on Human Development Index (HDI) including Life Expectancy Index (LEI), Education Index (EI), and Income Index (II). The study adopted the descriptive research design by collecting data on the quality of primary and secondary school teachers from ministries of education in 20 of the 36 states in Nigeia. The "Categories of Primary and Secondary School Teachers' Checklist" was given to the planning units of the affected ministries for completion. The responses were then thematically analysed and discussed. It was discovered that the quality of teachers in 80% of the sampled states may be incapable of boosting the HDI of the states in Nigeria. This is because of the relatively high percentage (15%) of voluntary corps members and part-time teachers (state-organised employment opportunity programme) employed particularly at the secondary school level in the southwest ; and high percentage of unqualified teachers in the northern states (up to 76% in Bauchi State). It was concluded that specific guidelines for teachers' recruitment at both primary and secondary school levels be legislated upon and enforced across the states in Nigeria in order to ensure improved HDI.
A Critique of Teaching Profession and Teacher Education in Nigeria
Teaching is one of the oldest professions in modern Nigeria. The advent of the Christian missionaries who introduced western education culminated into the evolution of teaching profession. For ease of communication, educating the Africans had to go along with evangelistic activities. This put teachers in elite position in the society and possessed good positive image. With the rise of other professions, the honor accorded teachers drastically wane down, and so their commitments to teachings were negatively affected. The paper focuses on the roles of teacher with specific illustration from Nigerian experience. Teacher training programmes in Nigeria were reviewed and arguments for and against the relevance of teacher in emerging world were critically analyzed
This paper focuses on exploring the relationship between teacher education variables and educational requirements of students in 21st century Nigeria. The correlational research design was adopted in the study. A total of 273 senior secondary school teachers took part in the study. Random sampling technique was used to select the teachers through balloting. A validated researcher designed 47-item instrument which was used for data collection. The reliability of the instrument was established using the Cronbach alpha method to obtain an index of 0.83. Seven research questions and three hypotheses guided the study. Mean, standard deviation, and multiple linear regression analysis were used for data analysis. The findings among others established the fact that the current content of teacher education is relevant in meeting the professional training needs of teachers in the 21st century Nigeria (M=3.12, SD=0.41), the extent of the current content is relevant in meeting best practices of teacher education in 21st century Nigeria (M=2.96, SD=0.50), and the extent of the content of national policy on teacher education is relevant to 21st century Nigeria education (M=2.65, SD=0.56), which were rated above average. The educational requirements of students in 21st century Nigeria was also rated moderately satisfactory (M=2.80, SD=0.44). There were respectively positive, strong, and significant relationships between current content of teacher education (Beta=0.152, t=2.881, prob=0.004), best practices of teaching (Beta=0.146, t=2.884, prob=0.004), teacher education policy (Beta=0.377, t=8.229, prob=0.000) and the educational requirements of students in 21st century Nigeria. It was recommended, among others, that the current content of teacher training programmes should continue to link with the knowledge needed in the 21st century.
Teaching Profession in Nigeria; Issues, Problems and Prospects
It is worrisome in Nigeria that teaching profession has moved from the foreground to the background which the aftermaths are continuous insecurity, under-development, retrogression, corruption, indoctrination, low-technological advancement, economic insufficiency, cultism, mediocrity, students unrest just to mention but few. The focus of this chapter is to X-ray the concept of teaching, the concept of a profession, characteristics of a profession and prospects of teaching profession in Nigeria.