A VIABLE OPTION FOR TRANSFORMING EDUCATION IN NIGERIA
Abstract
The
study made a case for repositioning teacher training institutions for effective
service delivery as a viable option for transforming education in Nigeria. The
population of the study comprised of 112 staff of the institutions studied in
their different categories. The entire population was used for the study as no
sample was drawn.
Three research questions guided the study while data were
collected using an instrument titled “Repositioning Teacher Training
Institutions Questionnaire (RTTIQ)”. Data collected were analyzed using mean
and standard deviation. Conclusion drawn included that since there is no
effective service delivery in the teacher training institutions, there is need
to reposition them through application of identified strategies.
Recommendations were made that government should ensure adequate funding of the
institutions among others.
Key
words: Teacher, training, institutions, service, delivery.
Introduction
The future of any nation depends on
the quality of its teachers. The reason according to Elimuli (2006) is that
teachers are ultimately responsible for translating educational policies into
practice and programmes into action in the course of their interaction with
learners. The maxims that no education system can rise above the quality of its
teachers and that no nation can rise above the level of its teaching staff
attest to the importance of the teacher. Ohuche (1999) remarked that the
teacher is the pivot of any education institutions. There cannot be quality
learning outcomes without competent teachers who are the prime movers of
teaching and learning process.
Quality or competent teachers are
mainly produced from teacher training institutions which are paramount for the
production of professional teachers needed in Nigerian educational system.
Federal Republic of Nigeria (2004) stated that all teachers in educational
institutions shall be professionally trained and that teacher education
programmes shall be structured to equip teachers for effective performance of
their duties. This implies that teacher training institutions should produce
for the nation, competent teachers who will give our children quality education
especially as there is presently no alternative substitute for them. As main
determinant of quality of education, teachers need adequate preparation since
they can only transit what they possess to the teacher.
If teachers are apathetic,
uncommitted, uninspired, lazy, unmotivated, immoral and anti-social, the whole
nation is doomed. If they are ignorant in their disciplines and impart wrong
information, they are not only useless rather portray what the next generation
will be (NERC, 1980). Teacher preparatory institutions are therefore strategic
in any nation especially Nigeria that by all indications is still far from
achieving its teacher education objectives. The goals of teacher education in
Nigeria are to:
§ Produce highly motivated, conscientious and efficient
classroom teachers for all levels of our educational system;
§ Encourage further the spirit of enquiry and creativity
in teachers;
§ Help teachers to fit into the social life of the
community and society at large and enhance their commitment to national
objectives;
§ Provide teachers with the 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; and,
§ Enhance teacher’s commitment to the teaching profession
(FRN, 2004:39).
The crux of the matter is that teacher training
institutions must be well positioned to produce desired result in terms of
raising for the nation professional and competent teachers.
For purpose of clarity, a teacher
training institution according to Odusina (1990) is a training centre where
individuals are groomed to be professional teachers. For Iheagwamu (2008),
teacher training institution is a formal place where teachers-to-be are given
the required skilled knowledge for the teaching career. In the same line of
thought, Ihebereme (2008) described teacher training institution as a specified
environment for the purpose of training and producing professional teachers who
are expected to effectively manage our nation’s educational sectors. Okafor
(2008) defined teacher training institution as an organized training area
geared towards production of a crop of required manpower to implement the
planned and developed curriculum of schools. Drawing from the underpinning
assertions in those definitions, a teacher training institution can be seen as
a consciously planned training environment in form of a premises built for the
purpose of exposing teacher-trainees to the principles and practice of teaching
that will sufficiently and adequately equip them to play key roles in
teaching and learning processes.
Teacher training institutions are
usually recognized as authorized training places for teachers. Ihebereme and
Onwuagboke (2009) maintained that any teacher training programme received
outside the periphery of teacher education institution does not qualify one as
a professional teacher. Federal Republic of Nigeria (2004:40) recognized the
following as teacher training institutions in Nigeria:
·
Colleges of
Education;
·
Faculties of
Education;
·
Institutes of
Education;
·
National
Teachers’ Institute;
·
Schools of
Education in the Polytechnics;
·
National
Institute for Nigerian Languages (NINLAN);
·
National
Mathematical Centre (NMC).
It is interesting to note that the
same document stated that the institutions “shall give the required
professional training provided they continuously meet the required standard”.
No wonder Ihebereme, et al (2009) argued that teacher education institutions
devoid of inadequacies, shortcomings or deficiencies as the case may be, are
what are needed if the nation is to succeed in producing quality teachers for
our school system.
In an effort to lay emphasis on the
functionality of teacher training institutions, Adeyemo and Olorode (2008)
declared that to build a strong house, there must be a solid foundation, and to
build and maintain a strong educational system, there must be an effective
teacher. Sadly, there seems to be teacher training institutions plagued with
lapses and pitfalls in Nigeria today. By all indications, teacher education
sub-sector in Nigeria has remained consistently traditional in contents, mode
of implementation, evaluation and management structure. The system appears
terribly deteriorated in quality and yearns for repositioning. This is because:
At this point in Nigeria’s development, when it is
hoping to be one of the 20 most developed economics in the world through vision
2020, it needs a virile, high quality educational system which can ensure that
Nigerians are not just onlookers but active participants (Ijaiya, 2008:232-233)
Only
a virile and proactive teaching force through an equally vibrant and
transformational teacher education with adequate support system can guarantee
that (Ijaiya, 2008).
In a related view, Anukam (2001)
noted that Nigerians have begun to doubt the performance of their educational
system and maintained that the best way to restore confidence in the system is
to start monitoring its foundation with a view to determining the threatening
factors and offering solution to such threats. The major threatening factor
cannot be far from the regrets of Ogunyemi (2005) that teacher education
institutions such as colleges of education, university institutes and faculties
of education are given second rate treatment as against those associated with
elite professions like medicine and law, with adverse effects on self image and
occupational prestige of teachers, in training as well as those who train them.
Research (Izumic and Evers, 2002) shows that the quality of classroom teachers
has the greatest impact on the performance level of students. That is why our
present educational system eroded by examination malpractices, cultism,
truancy, drug abuse and academic incompetence should be remedied using teacher
training institutions devoid of inadequacies, deficiencies and surmountable
pitfalls.
The basis of this paper therefore is
to appraise service delivery status of Nigerian teacher training institutions
with the view of repositioning them for effective performance for educational
transformation.
Research Questions
The
study was guided by the following research questions.
(1)
What is the
extent teacher training institutions presently render their various services?
(2)
What problems do
the institutions encounter in trying to render effective services?
(3)
What strategies
can be adopted to reposition the institutions for effective service delivery?
Method
The descriptive survey design was
adopted for the study. The population comprised the Deans, Heads of
departments, Directors, Senior Management Staff and Senior Administrative Staff
respectively of Faculty of Education, University of Uyo, Institute of
Education, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Federal College of Education, Okene
and Ebonyi State College of Education, Ikwo. Available statistics showed 1 Dean,
5 HODS and 10 senior Administrative staff for the university of Uyo; 1 Director,
10 academic staff and 12 senior administrative staff for the institute of
education, university of Nigeria, Nsukka; 5 Deans, 15 HODS and 15 senior
Administrative Staff for Federal College of Education, Okene and 5 Deans, 20
HODS and 13 Senior Management Staff for Ebonyi State College of Education,
Ikwo. Thus, the total population for the study was 112. The entire population
was used for the study as no sampling was carried out.
The instrument used for collecting
data for the study was a questionnaire titled “Repositioning Teacher Training
Institutions Questionnaire (RTTIQ)”. It consisted of two parts, A and B. part A
sought information on the respondents while part B contained there sections with
25 items in three clusters, A, B, C. A four – point rating scale of strongly
agree (4 points), agree (3points), disagree (2points) and strongly disagree
(1point) was provided for respondents to make their responses.
The instrument was validated by
three experts in education administration and planning of the Department of
Educational Foundations of Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki. The observations
of the experts led to the modification of items of the instrument. The
instrument was tested for reliability using cronbach alpha. The Alpha yielded
0.84, 0.81 and 0.76 for the sections respectively which were confirmation that
the instrument was reliable for the study. Through the assistance of four
research assistants, copies of the questionnaire were administered to the
institutions. All the 112 copies of the questionnaire distributed were returned
and used for data analysis. Data collected were analyzed using mean and
standard deviation. Item that scored 2.5 above was considered a positive
response while item that scored below 2.5 was considered a negative response.
Table one: Extent of service delivery
|
S/No
|
Item
|
 X |
SD
|
|
1
|
Effective
teaching delivery
|
2.49
|
1.03
|
|
2
|
Laboratory
experiences delivery
|
2.27
|
1.06
|
|
3
|
Delivery
of library services
|
2.33
|
1.13
|
|
4
|
Provision
of physical facilities
|
2.19
|
1.04
|
|
5
|
Provision
of other facilities
|
2.22
|
1.07
|
|
6
|
ICT
experiences/services delivery
|
2.13
|
1.36
|
|
7
|
Effective
supervision of students
|
2.25
|
1.04
|
|
8
|
Provision
of entrepreneurial experiences
|
1.94
|
0.90
|
|
9
|
Provision
of guidance/counseling services
|
2.36
|
1.16
|
|
10
|
Provision
of adequate human (personnel) resources
|
2.44
|
1.04
|
Results in table 1 indicate extent of service delivery
in the teacher training institutions. Going by the decision score of 2.5, all
the 10 items listed were not effectively being delivered in the institutions.
Service delivery is therefore low.
Table two: Problems in effective service
Delivery
|
S/No
|
Problem
|
 X |
SD
|
|
1
|
Poor
funding
|
2.81
|
0.96
|
|
2
|
Inadequate
facility/infrastructure
|
2.62
|
1.02
|
|
3
|
Inconsistency
in teacher education policy
|
2.59
|
1.06
|
|
4
|
Cultism/poor
reading culture among students
|
2.65
|
1.06
|
|
5
|
Admission/certificate
racketeering
|
2.63
|
1.07
|
|
6
|
Poor
handling of workers/students welfare
|
2.61
|
1.03
|
|
7
|
Inadequate
supervision of students
|
2.54
|
0.98
|
|
8
|
Unqualified
teaching staff
|
2.57
|
0.99
|
Result
in table 2 show that each of the 8 items listed is a problem in service
delivery in teacher training institutions. Item 1 (poor funding) scores the
highest mean of 2.81 followed by item 4 (cultism/poor reading culture among
students) with 2.65. All other items scored 2.5 and above indicating them as
problems militating against effective service delivery in the institutions.
Table Three: Strategies for
Repositioning the Institutions for Effective Service Delivery
|
S/No
|
Strategies
|
X |
SD
|
|
1
|
Adequate
funding of the institutions
|
2.77
|
0.98
|
|
2
|
Provision
of adequate facilities
|
2.65
|
1.01
|
|
3
|
Consistency
in teacher education policy
|
2.56
|
1.02
|
|
4
|
Adequate
supervision of staff and students
|
2.60
|
1.07
|
|
5
|
Recruitment
of only professional teachers
|
2.59
|
1.03
|
|
6
|
Adopting
reliable mechanism for dictating certificate forgery/racketeering
|
2.58
|
0.96
|
|
7
|
Improving
on teachers/students welfare
|
2.54
|
0.98
|
Results in table 3 indicate that the strategies listed
are effective for repositioning teacher training institutions. This is shown by
each strategy scoring up to 2.5 adopted as decision score. Strategy number 1
scored the higher with 2.77 followed by strategy number 2 which scored 2.65. It
then implies that use of relevant strategies can help in repositioning the
institutions for effective service.
Discussion
The finding of research question one
reveals negative response about extent teacher training institutions deliver
their services. Indeed, there is low or poor service delivery. The finding
collaborates Anukam (2001) which noted that Nigerians had begun to doubt the
performance of their teacher training, institutions. This is very unfortunate
as there cannot be a strong educational system without effective teaching
force. This also accounts for the reason Ijaiya (2008) maintained that only a
virile and proactive teaching force through an equally vibrant and
transformational teacher education with adequate support system can guarantee
the much desired educational transformation in Nigeria.
The study also reveals that teacher
training institutions in Nigeria encounter some problems in trying to
effectively discharge their duties. There are problems of poor funding,
inadequate facilities, inadequate supervision of students, and unqualified
teaching staff among others. This is in line with Ogunyemi (2005) which noted
that teacher educational institutions were given second rate treatment against
those associated with elite professions like medicine and law resulting to
adverse effects on self image and occupational prestige of teachers in training
as well as those who train them. There problems do not allow for proper service
delivery in the institutions thereby eroding the achievement of the nation’s
educational goals.
The third finding reveals some
strategies necessary for repositioning the institutions for effective service
delivery. These strategies which include adequate funding and provision of
adequate facilities among others would help the institutions provide the
teachers with required professional training. This is urgently necessary as no
institution ridden with pitfalls would effectively deliver required services.
Ihebereme, et al (2009) argued that teacher education institutions devoid of
inadequacies, short comings or deficiencies were needed if the nation was to
succeed in producing quality teachers for our school system. The finding also tallied
with Ezeuwa (2009) which, stated that teacher training institutions should
adopt strategies that would help them to effectively perform their duties.
Conclusion
The study established that teacher
training institutions in Nigeria lack in effective service delivery in all the
operational areas listed. It was discovered that this is aptly due to
identified problems such as poor funding and inadequate facilities. The study
favoured certain strategies as reliable yardsticks for addressing the problems
with the view to repositioning the institutions for effective service delivery
that will lead to the desired educational transformation in Nigeria.
Recommendations
Based on the foregoing study, the
following recommendations are herewith suggested to assist policy makers and
administrators to develop effective guidelines that will assist teacher
training institutions and relevant stakeholders to develop effective strategies
that will impact positively on effective service delivery and by extension
improve school academic performances.
(1)
Management of
teacher training institutions should through further studies be exposed to the
skills of effective school management.
(2)
Governments and
affiliate institutions should come up with viable mechanisms for ensuring that
curriculum implementation in the institutions are carried out according to
regulatory guidelines.
(3)
Government should
ensure adequate funding of teacher training institutions since fund is the
nerve centre of any purposeful administration. There cannot be any meaningful
progress in other areas of administration without adequate funding.
(4)
Relevant
authorities should insist on recruitment of qualified staff to handle the
nation’s teacher education institutions.
(5)
There is need for
the government and all other stakeholders of teacher education to ensure that
they improve on welfare of staff especially with regards to their training and
re-training.
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