I am glad that my last week’s article with the above title elicited the kind of reactions it did. I have received emails and Facebook mes...
I am glad that my last week’s article with the above title elicited the kind of reactions it did. I have received emails and Facebook messages from people who are concerned about the neglect of elementary education pedagogy in Nigeria and the long-term consequences this could have for the country. Of the sample responses reproduced here, I find the first one, written by a seasoned educationist and international consultant on elementary and secondary education, the most enlightening and informative. It fills me with hope that there may be some light at the end of the tunnel.
I have been reading your columns in Weekly Trust and Sunday Trust newspapers with keen
interest, especially when I am in Abuja for my consultancy services. I
read your Weekly Trust column of 19th
January and feel I should share my experience and update you on the
current trend and development on Teacher Education Reform.
Many have advocated for a similar call
in the past but educationists have been cracking their brains on a way forward.
Developed countries have faced similar challenges in the development of a sound
educational system that caters to the needs of a large percentage of their
children. Kwara State, in collaboration with the National Commission for
Colleges of Education (NCCE), has examined the issue and a new curriculum has
been developed that is implemented at the two colleges of education in Kwara
State. Other colleges in the country will start to implement it when the Federal
Government directs them to do so.
The new NCCE curriculum will henceforth
prepare specialist teachers for Early Childhood, Primary and Junior
Secondary Education in addition to Adult, Non-Formal and Special Needs
Teachers, although the latter is being reconsidered in the
light of Inclusive Education. It may interest you to know that the admission
requirements to colleges of education have also been upgraded to five
credits, including English and Mathematics. This is to control the risk of
garbage in, garbage out.
It may also interest you to know
that in developed nations like the U.S and the United Kingdom you must have a
first degree, plus additional teacher professional qualification, before you
are considered into the teaching profession. In nations like Japan and Korea,
you must be a first-class degree holder before you can be employed to teach at
the primary level. Nigeria is a nation with many multifaceted problems.
Excellent plans and policies are developed in paper but the implementation is
always a problem.
Attached is a document for your
perusal only. I hope the document will be officially published this year for
implementation. However, I may remind you that there are many challenges in the
education sector. For instance, the new NCE curriculum met with a serious
resistance from Staff Unions of Colleges of Education. In the new curriculum, subjects
not taught at the Basic Education level were removed. The Unions saw it as
a way to lay off their colleagues from service. (Subjects like History,
Political Science, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Geography, etc. were not
included).
I am currently a National Consultant
on Institutional Development with the Education Sector Support Programme
in Nigeria, a DFID-funded programe to improve Nigerian Educational system by
the U.K. Government. I am hopeful that things will change for better if the new
NCE curriculum is implemented with sincerity.
Alhaji
Ibrahim Ibn Woru, Ilorin
You have hit the nail squarely on
the head once again. It is as you put it. Phasing out teachers' colleges by the
military policy makers, is indeed, the most thoughtless and toxic educational
policy change, amongst so many others in Nigeria's history, due to its apparent
negative chain effects—drop in educational standards, lack of adequate
preparation of secondary school students, which leads to the production of
half-baked graduates, which in turn results in the production of a legion of
'certified' uneducated workers. This is all largely because good primary education
has been jettisoned by our elite at the top. I am sorry for all of us.
I am a constant reader of your
highly enlightening and rich columns. Like the meaning of your name, you truly
separate the truth from falsehood! More power to your elbows.
Tahir
Aminu-Baba, Head of Documents, University Library, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa
University, Bauchi
You have said it all. If we are to
recall and reflect back, most of the intellectuals we have at present in
Nigeria were molded by those teachers that had Grade II teacher education
training. What you have rightly said is a must for a solution to our
educational crises.
Abdulkadir
Abubakar Auyo, Kaduna
Nice piece. But I think that the
decay of educational standards in Northern Nigerian can be attributed to the
lack of coherent approach in policy formulation as well as paucity of funds to
the educational sector rather than just the abrogation of Teachers' Colleges.
Aliyu
Bashir Bauchi, Bauchi
Yes, I really can't help but to
agree with you. It is now left for the government, particularly those of the
northern states to act quickly so as to reverse this ugly trend.
Abubakar
Algwallary, Kano
You have hit the nail on the head
and your suggestions are quite OK. What baffles me is that ministers of
education in Nigeria, over the time, have been educationists.
Aminu
Isa, Lokoja
Related Article:
I concur fully with submissions made in this article not only because they are logical practical and solid, infact they accurately reflect the realities on the ground which are also the toxic effects of the 1990s IBB's policy debacle.
ReplyDeleteThis apparently thoughtless at best shallow policy engendered near total destruction of real education in Northern Nigeria especially.
As one trained in those prestigious teacher training colleges I nostlgically recall the sense of loss many of us felt when our alma matas were turned secondary schools with half backed university graduates as tutors.
I pray and hope my state Governor, Isa Yuguda would do well to bring back the glorius teacher training colleges.