Reinventing teacher education in Nigeria By Ibrahim A. Kolo

Reinventing teacher education in Nigeria
By Ibrahim A. Kolo

Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu
Recent calls, especially in Farooq Kperogi's Notes from Atlanta in Daily Trust of Saturday, 5th December 2015, on the Minister of Education to return the erstwhile Teachers Colleges in Nigeria, suggest both the nostalgia for the Grade II colleges and serious concerns for the depreciated standard and quality of education and teacher education in the country. But if truth must be told, a return to teachers colleges would certainly not guarantee the restoration of the desired standard of education without attending to the equally fundamental problems of underfunding, outdated and irrelevant curriculum, paucity of modern teaching and learning facilities, etc.
Notwithstanding, Kperogi's suggested models (returning to the old teachers colleges; reinventing the colleges of education to appropriate teacher training institutions; and more comprehensive adoption of elementary teacher education in the university faculties of education) do have their merits and demerits. None, however, comprehensively addresses the core elements of subject/cluster subjects content mastery; appropriate pedagogical professional skills acquisition; teacher professional tutelage and mentorship; and career orientation required for quality professional teacher education.
In re-considering the return of teacher training colleges, it is therefore important to take into consideration the following underlying factors: Addressing comprehensively the falling standard of education, especially at the basic level which will produce candidates for our dream teachers colleges; Innovating the appropriate teacher training curriculum and structure in the light of the new basic and secondary education curriculum and the philosophy of evolving the foundation for a Nigerian knowledge-based economy education system; Ensuring the implementation of the National Teacher Education Policy (NTEP) which has been abandoned by the Federal Ministry of Education; Implementing and enhancing the now almost moribund teachers special salary scale to encourage graduates to take to the teaching career; Exclusive and sustainable funding of the project, including special incentives for interested candidates; and coordinated mandatory continuous professional education and training for in-service programmes to be handled by relevant regulatory training bodies, like the Teachers Registration of Nigeria (TRCN) and the National Teachers Institute (NTI).
In line with international best practices, specialized tertiary teacher education arrangements are most appealing and sustainable for the reinvention of quality teacher education, especially for basic and secondary education, all other factors being equal. This model is a combination of the second and third options proposed by Kperogi. The model proposed here suggests the adoption of a four-year two-tier Diploma/Advanced Diploma in Teacher Education (ADTE) Curriculum in all colleges of education to run in place of the present three year NCE programme. Specifically, the proposed ADTE Programme should be aimed at preparing teacher trainees through relevant subject/cluster subjects content mastery; Appropriate pedagogical professional skills acquisition; Teacher professional tutelage/mentorship and teacher professional career orientation based on the NERDC basic and secondary education curriculum. The programme will run concurrently in the colleges of education (which may be renamed institutes of teacher education) and specialized universities of education.
In the colleges of education or the institutes of teacher education, the four year two-tier ADTE programme will be structured into specialties for Early Child Education (ECE); Elementary (Lower and Middle Basic) Education; Upper (Junior Secondary) Basic Education; and Senior Secondary Education certifications. After three years of appropriate subject/cluster-subjects content mastery and other teacher education components skills acquisition training, including micro teaching and teaching practice, teacher trainees can be awarded the diploma level of the teacher education programme. Those who choose to continue with teacher training can proceed to undertake a one year professional teacher tutelage and mentorship component to qualify for the full advance diploma certification as professional elementary school teachers. For those who terminate their training at the three year diploma level in the colleges or institutes, they will be considered qualified for admission into either the conventional and specialized universities teacher elementary or secondary education programmes. This will imply that they will undertake the mandatory one year professional teacher tutelage and mentorship component of the training at the end of the three-year university programme.
In the Specialized Universities of Education a flexible four year one-tier ADTE programme will run with the option of undertaking the tutelage and mentorship programme either in between the diploma level and the undergraduate programmes or at the end of the undergraduate programme. This flexibility allows for continuity and comprehensiveness of professional training in teacher education. The specialized universities of education would also collaborate with network of colleges/institute both for quality assurance of the ADTE programme on a peer review basis as well as for mainstreaming of the university ADTE graduates into the tutelage and mentorship component of the programme. Retired but accomplished teachers in various communities should be involved and paid to supervise the tutelage and internships.
To achieve the turn-around in Nigeria's education sector pivoted on the reinvented teacher education programme as either proposed herewith or even in the context of the three options proposed by Kperogi, the following suggestions are further proffered: The setting up of a technical committee to work with relevant agencies to finalize the ADTE and reinvented undergraduate curriculum, as well as the appropriate structure and operational modalities; Making special provisions in the annual budgets of the education sector to cater specifically for teacher education and professional development; Strengthening and adopting the necessary framework for the implementation of the National Teacher Education Policy; Upholding the upgrading of the four federal colleges of education to specialized universities of education status; Payment of the proposed N5,000.0 stipend for unemployed graduates to all students of the reinvented teacher education programme in the colleges/institutes of teacher education and universities.
Kolo, ex-Provost of COE, Minna, and immediate-past Vice Chancellor of IBB University, wrote from Minna, Niger State.

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