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SOCIOLOGICAL OVER-VIEW OF TEACHER EDUCATION PROGRAMMES IN NIGERIA (1979-1999) - Allwell Ome-Egeonu

Journal of Educational Research and Development, Volume 5, Number 2, 2016
ISSN: 2226 – 8012
©2016 McEvans Academic Journal

SOCIOLOGICAL OVER-VIEW OF TEACHER EDUCATION PROGRAMMES IN NIGERIA (1979-1999)

Allwell Ome-Egeonu
Department of Sociology
University of Port Harcourt, River State, Nigeria
E-mail: alome 1955@gmail.com

ABSTRACT
The concern of this study is to establish, content-wise,a supposed dimension of   good teacher Education ,considering the past. This is because teacher education programmes have been regarded as important in national planning. This explains that the success of any educational programme depends very much on the availability of equally well-trained teachers, seeng that they are often times the chief agents who implement such programmes in the classroom. Unfortunately, many people entered the
teaching profession with no determination to remain dedicated or devoted to the high ideals required of this profession. Thus effective teacher education programmes must be able to attract high caliber teaching personnel in order to improve its productivity and quality. To achieve the objectives of this study, the paper adopts content analysis of interviews and observational techniques as means of getting the required data relevant. Also existing documents from the Federal and  the Rivers State Ministries of Education  were employed. The study observed among other things, discrepancies in the application of standards in our teacher training institutions which no doubt have implications for the educational process. The study suggests that in service programme together with the five-fold dimension established by the researcher, form an essential element of teacher education in Nigeria.

INTRODUCTION
          Teacher education programmes in Nigeria have been regarded as an important component of national planning. In recognition of this, the government realized the importance of teachers in the achievement of the National development efforts, which are anchored on the National Educational Objectives. The new National Policy on Education categorically states that teacher education will continue to be given a major emphasis in all its educational planning.
          However, the success of any educational programme depends very much on the availability of equally well-trained teachers because they are usually the chief agents who implement such programmes in the classroom.

It is in recognition of this fact that both the Federal and the State Governments have emphasized the importance of getting well-trained people into the teaching profession. Unfortunately in Nigeria, many people entered the teaching profession with no determination to remain dedicated or devoted to the high ideals required of this profession. Such people use teaching as a stepping stone to other positions in society or careers. Thus effective teacher education programmes must be able to attract high caliber teaching personnel in order to improve its productivity and quality. This explains why teacher education involves the acquisition of knowledge that is well sufficient in depth, appropriate for instructing people how to teach and realize the goals, purposes and techniques of producing a practitioner with the right role concept and professional deposition.
                   Therefore since a teaching staff of proper quality is the first step in training of skilled manpower, this task demands first priority. The provision of adequately trained teachers is one of the two needs which face education in Nigeria. It is necessary to train Nigerians to run their schools, because the future of the nation rests in the hands of its
Sociological Over-View of Teacher Education Programmes                                 Allwell Ome-Egeonu
in Nigeria (1979-1999)

teachers, for the quality they possess today will inevitably be reflected in the citizens of tomorrow. The great difficulty in the developing of curriculum lies in the present limitation of teachers. It is not enough to demonstrate the effectiveness of the new curriculum but that all teachers must have confidence in their capacity to handle the new data and techniques with understanding. This emphasizes the fact that, there are at this time, many teachers who are poorly trained in Nigerian Schools.

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM.
Teacher effectiveness has been a subject of concern to Nigerians before and after independence. While some people have blamed the seeming ineffectiveness of teachers on their personality disposition, level of resourcefulness and low social prestige due to inadequate working environment and welfare, others have attributed it to the preparation process of the teacher, which include- terms of selection, content, methodology and post training induction of the teacher into the profession.

In recent times, the National Policy on Education and the Education (National Minimum, standard and establishment of institution) decree (1985) outlined the policy and objectives of teacher education programmes. This are:
-         To produce highly motivated conscientious and efficient classroom teachers for all     levels of our educational system.
-         To encourage further the spirit of enquiring and creativity in teachers.
-         To help teachers fit into the social life of the community and society at large and
-         To enhance their commitment to national objectives.  
-          To provide teachers with intellectual and professional background adequate for          their assignment and to make them adaptable to any changing situation not only in the life of their country, but in the wider world.
-         To enhance teacher commitment to the teaching profession.

          In the light of the above, the teacher is the hub around whom educational activities revolve. Therefore, his/her preparation determines the level and quality of the educational system. This is without prejudice to the fact that the other qualities of a teacher mentioned above in addition to cognate experience also determines the teacher’s classroom effectiveness and consequently the quality of the educational system.
          The question therefore, is- how appropriate is the education of Nigerian teachers in ensuring their effectiveness in the classroom? This is the main problem of this work. To examine, historically the problem with teacher education in Nigeria

Objectives of the study
This study is couched on the following objectives: examines content wise,
i.        To examine, content wise, the historical development of teacher education in Nigeria and recent policies.
ii.       To determine its appropriateness and relevance to contemporary issues and
trends in Nigerian  
iii To establish a supposed dimension to best run the teacher-education programme.

 Introduction: History of Teacher Education in Nigeria.
Before 1970, different regions and later states in Nigeria operated different educational systems. The educational policies were also different. Consequently, the approaches to teacher education were different. For example, because of the Universal Primary Education Scheme in the then Western Region, emphasis was placed on the mass production of Grade III Teachers. In fact, the entry qualification into the teacher colleges was secondary modern certificate (Western State of Nigeria, 1968.16).
Journal of Educational Research and Development, Volume 5, Number 2, 2016

          On the other hand, the Eastern Regional Government enunciated a policy to discontinue the training of Grade III Teachers by the end of December 1964. . This implies that Grade II Colleges should not admit new students after January, 1963 (Government of the Eastern Region of Nigeria 1964.26). By early 1970s, there were uniform educational policies governing the whole country. However, no picture of the historical development of teacher education could be complete without knowledge of what happened before 1970. Accordingly, the historical development of teacher education cannot be divorced from the earliest schools in Nigeria, which were established by missionaries and served  as the earliest teacher training institutions.

          The earliest endeavor to set up a teacher training education was made by the church missionary society (CMS) at Abeokuta in the then Western Nigeria in 1853, Ali (1992). Later the institution was transferred to Lagos where it remained for thirty years (30yrs) before it was again transferred to its permanent site at Oyo in 1896. Be that as it may, the Baptist followed the example of the CMS in1897 by opening their first teacher training institution at Ogbomosho. The earliest schools then were of the “boarding type, the schools were in the premises of the missionaries and most of the pupils lived with them and formed part of the family. This afforded the missionaries the opportunity of selecting and training the most promising pupils as teacher evangelist. During the colonial period (1960-1951), the missions embarked on the professional training of teachers, because they had to meet the demand for teachers to meet the rapidly increasing primary schools, and more importantly to satisfy the provisions of the education ordinances which laid emphasis on teacher certification as one of the criteria for awarding grants to voluntary agency schools, Kosemani and Orubite (1995).

          In the colonial period, prospective teachers went through some rigid training to become teachers. The students in training colleges were drawn from secondary and primary school leavers. Two and four-year training programmes were planned for them, Imogie (1990). They were trained as pupil-teachers and catechists through an apprenticeship system. Such teachers were expected to teach some pupils and also had some additional responsibility to serve as catechists. In fact, before starting the two-year course, they had to serve as pupil-teachers for two years and must have passed the pupil-teacher- examination. Moreover, at the end of the two- year course, they had to take and pass a prescribed teacher- certificate examination before certification.

          The curriculum of these early training institutions consisted of theology and teaching methods. This was probably because of the double roles played by the prospective teachers (as teachers and catechist-evangelists). According to Obukho (2004-29), the syllabus comprised New Testament criticism, Christian faith school method and Management, Preaching and Theology, Hygiene and Geography, History and English, Geometry and Arithmetic, local language, Carpentry and Masonry. However, there were no institutions that offered all the subjects due to lack of trained teachers, fund and equipment. Again, emphasis varied from school to school and from mission to mission.
          It must be realized that some of the subjects, especially Geography and History, were taught without any relation to student’s environment.  Only foreign examples were drawn, given the impression that such natural features were non-existent in their local environment. This system of preparing prospective teachers by the missionaries was described by the phelp-Stocks Report of 1925 as being unsatisfactory. Some of the criticisms were that the pupil-teachers were over-worked while they were also underpaid. The same report (Phelp-Stocks 1925) asserts that the curriculum was poorly organized. However, the report did not bring out clearly what the purpose of African education was at that time.
          Furthermore, by 1929, two types of teacher training institutions emerged; the elementary teachers’ training college and the higher elementary teachers college. The

Sociological Over-View of Teacher Education Programmes                                 Allwell Ome-Egeonu
in Nigeria (1979-1999)

elementary teachers’ college offered a two-year course leading to the award of the Grade three teacher’s certificate. Beyond the two-year elementary teacher- college, the higher elementary teacher college offered two-year courses that awarded grade two teacher- certificate. The grade three teachers were only expected to teach in the lower classes of the primary schools (popularly known as junior primary). The grade two teachers taught in the senior primary classes. Despite the new development in teacher training, the prospective teachers still had a long process to go through. This was in order to get grade two teacher certificate which was the highest teacher- qualification at that time, Afe (1995.160).
          Although, under the new system, a prospective teacher had to serve as a pupil-teacher for years before proceeding to the elementary teachers college. He had to teach for another two years after successfully completing the programme before any further training. The new development in teacher training led to increased student enrolment in schools. The number of training colleges also increased. For instance, Obukho (2004.12) and Sabe (2008.33) assert that in 1948, the total government teacher- training colleges rose to fifty-three (53) with a student-teachers population of 3,026. If these figures are viewed against the pupil population of over 138, 594 in primary and 108,  148 in secondary schools in the country. It will be justifiable to say that there was a great shortage of trained teachers for the schools. Secondly, it should be noted that not all the students enrolled at the beginning of the course successfully completed their programmes. There were also some drop-outs at this level.

The se-rule period (1951-1956) witnessed the large scale production of merely literate teachers in Southern Nigeria as a result of the Universal Primary Education Scheme by the two regions (Western. Region  1955, Eastern Region, 1957). This worsened the problem of untrained teachers in these schools. During this period, there was lack of appropriate planning towards the production of teachers for the schemes. As a result, many Nigerians with eight years of primary education were recruited into the teaching profession. Most holders of grade two teacher- certificates taught in lower classes of secondary schools, especially in unassisted secondary schools at that time.
          The most important landmark in the history of educational development in Nigeria up to 1970 was the Ashby Report of 1960. It realized that weak foundations at the lower levels of education would adversely affect higher education in the country. The Ashyby Commission Report (1960.81) notes that a well qualified teaching staff is the first vital step in the attempt to train skilled manpower and that it should be given first priority. A bold plan for university programmes in teacher education was proposed by the commission which recommended that 7,000 graduate teachers be trained for post-primary institutions by 1970. Thus, between 1960 and 1970, a minimum of 700 graduate teachers where to be produced annually. In addition to this, about 18,000 grade one teachers were needed for this period in different types of schools.
          The Ashyby Commission (1959) recommended for the establishment of Grade 1 teacher- college, for the improvement of primary education was not implemented, rather it was modified to give rise to a new programme and a new certificate, the Nigeria’s Certificate in Education (NCE), For the preparation of teachers in the lower forms of secondary schools and in the teacher training colleges, Adesina (1988.146), Fafunwa (1974.188), Lewis (1069.20) and Pandit (2006.120).  Despite government’s effort on improvement of teacher education, and the increase in the outputs of trained teachers, the number was still inadequate to cope with the over increasing number of pupils in schools. Subsequently to improve teacher education, a nine-month Post-Graduate Diploma course for selected grade two teachers was also introduced in 1958. A one-year associate ship course for selected grade two teachers was also introduced in 1961. Few were interested in the one-year course probably because of the poor conditions of service for teachers and also because graduates were reluctant to return to the university for one extra year at that time. Another
Journal of Educational Research and Development, Volume 5, Number 2, 2016

contribution factor for this reluctance was due to some strings attached to sponsorship. It called for five years of service after the short programme, FGN (1960.80).
          Other changes ranged from the introduction of more flexible training schemes to replace the pre-independence rigid structure, the abolition of the grade III teacher college (Elementary  Teacher College) to the nullification of the pupil-teacher stage as a precondition for entrance to the higher elementary teacher colleges. The new system allows straight five-year duration in the teacher training colleges for the award of the teachers grade two certificate. Secondary school certificate holders (West African School Certificate) obtained after five years successful stay in the secondary school and government class-four certificate holders (those who failed the WASC examinations) respectively spent one and two years to obtain the teacher grade two certificate.
          Finally, in any expanding education system, the desire to get well qualified teachers into the system involves careful selection and training, effective induction, professional encouragement and adequate remuneration.This has given rise to the dimensions proposed by the researcher.

TEACHER-EDUCATION QUA DRILATERAL


























The five fold dimension of teacher education
 
 




THE THESIS OF THE PAPER.
The training and re-training of teachers in any education system is an important issue in the implementation of the educational programmes. This by the paper’s five told dimension for a good education system. Today, institutions which are supposed to be producing teachers for the school system are not producing the right quantity of teachers. This is because most of the NCE teachers produced are not taught adequate senior secondary methodologies. This is both in the full time and in all kinds of in-service programmes. Clearly, this negates both
Sociological Over-View of Teacher Education Programmes                                 Allwell Ome-Egeonu
in Nigeria (1979-1999)

quality and quantity because all the NCE Teachers produced as at then to replace the Grade II Teachers became Square PEGS IN ROUND THOLES IN THE classrooms. It is important to note that today, one of the agitations in education is caused by teacher education, which when properly resolved will be useful for combating the fallen standards of education. For some years, there has been multiple criticisms, central in this criticisms is quantitative and qualitative teacher education for combating the fallen standards.

A picture of the training programmes revealed that the low personal and academic qualification of the entrants into the TC II programmes left much to be desired. The variety of arrangements to produce teachers has been encouraged by successive government from time to time and with its own ideas without due reference to what went on earlier. A notable impact is the loss faith by a good proportion of Nigerian publics on government promises to phase out the grade II programs and making the NCE the minimum qualification to teach in schools. These future promises are elusive; it is believed future government attitude towards teacher preparation will probably not be ameliorating over a reasonable period to change the perception of teacher education in all ramifications.

Nevertheless, the gross underestimate, ranging from unexpected students population to required physical structures and the inevitable establishing most of these institutions. Thus, to meet the objectives of teacher education as contained in the policy objectives, there is need for adjustment in the recruitment and training systems and also by streaming the programmes leading to grade II and NCE certificates because the inherent scenario is manifested in the low caliber of students turn-out in the schools which we cannot overlook.

CONCLUSION
A poorly trained teacher gives a devastating blow to the educational system. And the entire state. The following recommendations are therefore advanced for sustained qualitative and production of school teachers for a healthy State. 
i.  Government  should embrace the researcher’s five fold dimension to re-appraise the educational sector  in order to ensure a qualitative teacher education in Nigeria.
 ii. The pre-service and in-service programmes should be tailored to produce teachers that will teach in the educational institutions.

iii. The production of NCE and B. ED graduates should be encouraged.

iv.      The current admission procedure and requirements should be reviewed to all for stringent screening exercises (interview) for those who want to be teachers, so as to determine whether they are suited temperamentally and cognitively for teaching.
v.  Research is needed to establish whether a longer training would result in production of more efficient and effective teachers or whether the more efficient use of the current respective programmes duration is what is called for.

vi. There should be a deliberate action to ensure that the NCE primary graduates do not opt out of the primary school system, by removing differentials in the payment system of primary school teachers and secondary school teachers. 

vii. provisions should be made for libraries  to befit the status of these institutions and the in-service programmes should form an essential element of teacher education.


REFERENCES

Adesina, S. (1988). The development of modern education in Nigeria. Ibadan: Heinemann Educational books Nigeria Ltd.
Journal of Educational Research and Development, Volume 5, Number 2, 2016

Afe, O. (1995). Teacher education in Nigeria: Trends, issues and challenges. Benin: Nigeria Education Research Association (Nera), University of Benin.

Ali, H. (1992). Professionalism in Teacher Education in Nigerian Universities. Lagos. Evdor Graphics Press.

Fafunwa, A.B (1974). History of Education in Nigeria. London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd.

Imogie, P. (1990).  Needed direction for the Professionalism of the Teaching  Field in Nigeria. A paper presented at the seminar on teaching profession in Nigeria today. Organized by the school of education Ekiadolor, Benin City.

Kosemani, J.M. and Orubite, A.K. (1995). History of Nigeria Education: A Contemporary Analysis. Port Harcourt. Abe Publishers.

Lewise, L.J. (1969). Towards a Curriculum Development policy. In a philosophy of Education. Ibadan. Heinemann books Nigeria Ltd.

Obukho, S.T. (2004). Edited. National Commission for Colleges of Education Guidelines on Programmes.

Pandit, H. (2006). Some Perspectives on Teacher Education in Nigeria: A Speech Delivered at Convocation of College of Education Katsina-Ala, Benin State Nigeria, S Dec.

Sabe, J.I. (2008). Understanding of the Subject Matter as an Effective Strategy for qualitative Education: Implication for Teacher Education A paper presented at the regional seminar/workshop organized by dept of education, college of education Katsina-Ala.

Government Gazetts
1)       Federal Government of Nigeria decree 1985 National policy on Education         2004.
2)       Western State of Nigeria Gazette 1968
3)       Eastern Region of Nigeria Gazette 1964
4)       Federal Government of Nigeria 1960

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