CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Education is the process of facilitating learning, or the
acquisition of knowledge, skills, values, beliefs, and habits. Educational methods include storytelling, discussion, teaching, training, and directed
research. Education frequently
takes place under the guidance of educators, but learners may also educate themselves. Education can take
place in formal or informal settings and any experience that has a formative effect on the way one
thinks, feels, or acts may be considered educational. The methodology of
teaching is called pedagogy. Education is
commonly and formally divided into stages such as preschool or kindergarten, primary school, secondary school and then college, university or apprenticeship. A right to education has been recognized by
some governments, including at the global level: Article 13 of the United Nations' 1966 International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights recognizes a universal
right to education. In most regions education is compulsory up to a certain age. Teachers are distinct
occupational group of people specially equipped by training to execute the task
of educating students in institutions socially assigned the responsibility for
education. However, teacher Education as the education given to would- be
teacher in institutions such as teacher training collages, National collage so
that they will be in a position to acquire, inculcate and impart knowledge to
learners.
Profession is “a job that needs
special Education and training”. This means that there is a requirement from
employers to have a standardized set of proven competencies attesting to an
individuals capability to perform in the role of a professional. It can be
define as “an especially desirable and dignified occupation with an implication
of intellectual training and a largely mental expertise”.
IS TEACHING A PROFESSSION
For the last 50 years, educators have devoted a great deal of
energy to the debate over whether teaching can be considered a profession.
Unfortunately, this turns out to have been the wrong question, and so led us to
the wrong sort of answers. For example, there was a very heated debate in the
1960s and 1970s over whether teachers could organize strikes and still claim
that they were members of a professional association, rather than a union. This
controversy only makes sense, however, if one accepts that professions are
fundamentally different from other types of occupations, and by the mid-1970s,
social scientists were beginning to realize that this was not the case. They
argued that the professions had changed so much over the past 100 years that
there is now little left to distinguish professionals from other workers. Firstly, teaching is generally referred to as
a profession. This does not necessarily make it one. To determine whether
teaching really qualifies to be regarded as a profession in the real sense of
the word, I will mention characteristics that will determine is teaching a
profession. They are as follows:
(1) Provision
of continued competence programmes
(2) Setting
up of professional standard and code of ethics for members.
(3) Provision
of skilled social services.
(4) Founded
upon a systematic body of knowledge
(5) Lengthy
period of training
(6) Credible
registration and complete autonomy in their work
(7) Urge
to be of serious society
(8) Closely
knit professional organization
(9) Offers
a life career and permanent membership to its members
(10) Characterized
by public recognition
Because of space and time I will likely cut it short
saying that teachers meet the entire above mentioned requirement to make it a
profession and hence should be treated as one.
CHAPTER TWO
CHALLENGES OF TEACHERS EDUCATION IN NIGERIA
Part of what makes teaching a challenging career is the
diversity of the students that you teach. Every student is
unique having their own background, needs, and learning styles. Teachers in the United States
cannot use a “cookie cutter” approach to teaching. They have to
adapt their instruction to each individual student’s strengths and weaknesses.
Being adept at making these changes and adjustments is challenging to every
teacher. Teaching would be a much simpler task if this were not the case.
Increased Curriculum Responsibility
In the early days of American education teachers were only
responsible for teaching the basics including reading, writing, and arithmetic. Over the last
century, those responsibilities have increased significantly. It seems that
every year teachers are asked to do more and more. Author Jamie Vollmer
highlights this phenomenon calling it the “ever increasing burden on America’s
public schools”. Things that were once deemed a parent’s responsibility to
teach their children at home are now the school’s responsibility. All of these
increased responsibilities have come without a significant increase in the
length of the school day or the school year meaning that teachers are expected
to do more with less.
Lack of Parental Support
Nothing is more frustrating for a teacher than parents
who don’t support their efforts to educate their children. Having parental
support is invaluable, and the lack of parental support can be paralyzing. When
parents aren’t following through with
their responsibilities
at home, it almost always has a negative impact in the class. Research has
proven that children whose parents make education a high priority and stay
consistently involved will be more successful academically. Even the best teachers can’t do it all by themselves. It
takes a total team effort from the teachers, parents, and students. Parents are
the most powerful link because they are there throughout the child’s life while
the teachers will change. There are three essential keys to providing effective
parental support. Those include making sure your child knows that education is
essential, communicating effectively with the teacher, and ensuring that your
child is successfully completing their assignments. If any of these components
is lacking, there will be a negative academic impact on the student.
Lack of Proper Funding
School finance has a significant impact on a teacher’s
ability to maximize their effectiveness. Factors such as class size, instructional curriculum,
supplemental curriculum, technology, and various instructional programs are
affected by funding. Most teachers understand that this is completely out of
their control, but it doesn’t make it any less frustrating. School finance is driven by each individual state’s
budget. In lean times, schools are often forced to make cuts that can’t help
but have a negative impact. Most teachers will make due with
the resources they are given, but it doesn’t mean that they couldn’t do a
better job with more financial backing.
Over Emphasis on Standardized Testing
Most teachers will tell you that they don’t have a problem
with the standardized tests themselves, but how the results are
interpreted and used. Many teachers will tell you that you can’t get a true
indicator of what any particular student is capable of on a single test on any particular day. This becomes
especially frustrating when many students have nothing riding on these tests,
but every teacher does. This over-emphasis has caused many teachers to shift their overall approach to
teaching directly to these tests. This not only takes away from creativity, but
it can also quickly create teacher burnout. Standardized testing puts a lot of pressure on a teacher
to get their students to perform. One of the main issues with standardized
testing is that many authorities outside of education only look at the bottom
line of the results. The truth is that the bottom line hardly ever tells the
whole story. There is a lot more that should be looked at than just the overall
score. Take the following scenario for example:
There are two high school
math teachers. One teaches in an affluent suburban school with lots of
resources, and one teaches in an inner city school with minimal resources. The
teacher in the suburban school has 95% of their students score proficient, and
the teacher in the inner city school only has 55% of their students score
proficient. It appears that the teacher in the suburban school is the more effective teacher if you are only comparing
overall scores. However, a more in-depth look at the data reveals that only 10%
of students in the suburban school had significant growth while 70% of the
students in the inner city school had significant growth.
So who is the better
teacher? The truth is that you can’t tell simply from standardized test scores,
yet there is a large majority that wants to use standardized test scores alone to judge both
student and teacher performances. This simply creates many issues for teachers.
They would be better served as a tool to help guide instruction and
instructional practices rather than as a tool that is the end all for teacher
and student success.
Poor Public Perception
Teachers used to be highly regarded and revered for the
service that they provided. Today, teachers continue to be in the public
spotlight because of their direct impact on the nation’s youth. Unfortunately,
the media typically focuses on the negative stories dealing with teachers. This
has led to an overall poor public perception and stigma towards all teachers.
The truth is that most teachers are superb teachers who are in it for the right
reasons and are doing a solid job. This perception can have a limiting effect
on a teacher’s overall effectiveness, but it is a factor that
most teachers can overcome.
The Revolving Door
Education is tremendously
trendy. What is deemed to be the “most effective” thing today will be deemed
“worthless” tomorrow. Many people believe that public education in the United States is broken. This
often drives school reform efforts, and it also drives the revolving
door of the “newest, greatest” trends. These constant changes lead to
inconsistency and frustration. It seems that as soon as a teacher grasps
something new, it changes again. The revolving door effect is not likely to
change. Educational research and advancements in technology will continue to
lead to new trends. It is a fact that teachers have to adapt too, but it
doesn’t make it less frustrating.
Funding;
Budget cuts have created huge problems for most
public schools in recent years. Less funding means smaller staffs, fewer
resources and a lower number of services for students. While some argue that
throwing more money at the education problems won’t make them go away, others
assert that lack of funding caused many of the problems in the first place.
There are many problems in
public schools today, but identifying those issues is half the battle. With a
laundry list of challenges to face, now is the time for educators, parents and
lawmakers to come together and begin to find solutions – for the benefit of all
students in public schools today.
Classroom Size
Many areas of the country
are facing classrooms that are literally busting out at the seams. A report at NEA Today two years ago discussed how schools
in Georgia, in the midst of major funding cuts for schools, had no choice but
to lift all class size limits to accommodate students with the
faculty the school system could still afford to keep. More recently, Fairfax County in Virginia has been looking into a
proposal to increase classroom sizes in the face of significant budget cuts.
The Board of Education in South Carolina is also weighing their options in
this area.
When money gets tight,
classroom numbers are often impacted. Yet, most teachers agree that they cannot
effectively teach every student in a classroom, if the class size exceeds about
30. Their statements are backed up by research. Class Size Matters cites a study performed by the
Tennessee Star that found classes of 15-17 students in grades K-3 provided both
long and short-term benefits to both the students and the teachers in those
classrooms. Minority students, those living in poverty and male students
appeared to benefit from smaller classroom sizes the most.
Family Factors
Family factors also play a
role in a teacher’s ability to teach students. Principals and teachers agree
that what is going on at home will impact a student’s propensity to learn. Divorce, single parents, poverty, violence
and many other issues are all challenges a student brings to school every day.
While some teachers and administrators try to work with children in less than
ideal family environments, they can only do so much – especially when parents
are often not willing to partner with the schools to provide for the
children.
Technology
Kids Health Guide reports that students are more
technologically advanced than many teachers today, putting instructors at a
decided disadvantage in the classroom. However, a student’s love of technology
also tends to distract him from his schoolwork, according to NEA Today. When
teachers don’t have the techno-savvy to compete with those devices, by bringing education and technology together, it can be difficult to keep
students’ interest and attention to properly teach new concepts.Technology
needs to come into the classroom to keep up with the learning demands of the 21st
century. Schools that are already cash-strapped may find an unsurmountable
challenge in coming up with the funding to bring computers and other forms of
technology into their classes. Scholastic offers some tips for school
districts that want to fit the bill for technology, including everything from
asking individuals in the district for “big gifts” to going to Uncle Sam for
the funding. The website also suggests negotiating prices on technology when
possible and allowing student to bring their own from home.
Student Attitudes and Behaviors
Many public school
teachers also cite student attitudes, such as apathy and disrespect for
teachers, as a major problem facing schools today. A poll from the National Center for Education Statistics cited that problems like
apathy, tardiness, disrespect and absenteeism posed significant challenges for
teachers. These issues were seen more frequently at the secondary school level,
rather than the primary grades.
CHAPTER THREE
SOLUTION TO THE CHALLENGES FACING TEACHERS EDUCATION IN
NIGERIA
Having examined the problems bedevilling the education sector in
Nigeria, this paper would move on to examine the solutions that is needed.
However, it is the view of the Education Rights Campaign (ERC) that the
fundamental solution is to urgently put into power a working people’s
government that will mobilize the enormous resources of Nigeria to provide
free, functional and democratically-managed education at all levels.
ADEQUATE FUNDING OF EDUCATION
The abysmal low level of allocation to education must be reversed.
According to the United Nations Education and Socio-Cultural Organisation
(UNESCO), 26 percent of the annual budgets should be allocated to the education
sector. However, education in Nigeria is allocated less than 13 percent. ASUU
fought a courageous struggle to force the hands of the Federal Government to
commit more resources to the university system and the education sector. We
need to build a powerful movement to force the hands of governments at all
levels to commit resources to fund education. It is in this regard that the
Education Rights Campaign (ERC) is set to launch in the New Year a campaign for
a one-day nationwide lecture boycott and mass protest of Nigerian students to
begin to demand that government commits more money to the funding of public
education.
AUTONOMY AND INTERNAL DEMOCRACY
Autonomy and internal democracy are essential to the University system.
Unfortunately over the years government has interpreted the demand for
University autonomy to mean that universities will also be responsible
for their own funding. To make the University system operate without
bureaucratic bottleneck and administrative curtailment, full autonomy must be
granted to ensure that whilst Universities are funded by the State, they have
enough independence in the election of their principal management officials and
determination of other matters without undue interference by the State. At the
same time however, management of Universities, polytechnics, monotechnics,
colleges of education, teacher training institutes must be democratized in such
a way that elected representatives of students, workers, parents and
communities are allowed in the decision making organs instead of the current
bureaucratic manner tertiary institutions are run.
INFRASTRUCTURAL REPAIR AND
DEVELOPMENT
An urgent repair of critical infrastructure is needed at all levels of
the education sector. This would mean providing latest facilities for learning
based on latest technological advancement. For instance, information technology
devices are now being used for primary and post-primary education and a serious
programme of revamping education must take into cognizance these advancements.
REMUNERATION AND PENSIONS OF
EDUCATION WORKERS
What has been the most recurring crisis in the education sector has been
the poor remuneration of both teaching and non-teaching staff in the education
sector. To retain the best brains and attract new hands into the education
sector, a comprehensive policy of improved remuneration of the workers of the
education sector and a genuine pension scheme are urgently needed. The current
contributory pension scheme is exploitative. If ex-presidents most of whom
looted the country’s finances have a favorable pension scheme, those who work
their hands stiff daily to build this society deserves better. We demand a
genuine pension scheme that ensures that workers are able to live a fruitful,
healthy and fulfilled life after retirement.
POST - UTME
The Post - Universal Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) was
introduced few years ago by force by universities against the background of the
corruption and failure of examination bodies like JAMB and WAEC. However the
ERC feels that the additional cost of the Post - UTME cannot continue to be
borne by students and parents. It is unfair! In many Universities, post - UTME
has now become a means of raising Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) to the
detriment of students and their poor parents. We suggest that the cost of post
- UTME should be borne by the Universities since it is a means by them to take
care of the inadequacies of other recognized examination bodies.
HND AND B.Sc DICHOTOMY
The dichotomy between HND and B.Sc certificates is a false and
artificial dichotomy which is being maintained by the government and private
employers of labour in order to downgrade the skill of a section of the
population so they can pay cheaply for it. This explains why HND certificates
holders doing the same job as B.Sc holders are paid less and have less chance
of ascending to the top of their career. It is also a reflection of a sick and
imperialist-dominated economy that is focused on the export of raw materials
and without any serious plan for industrialization. The ERC upholds the demand
of Polytechnic workers and students for the elimination of this dichotomy.
A NATIONAL EMERGENCY ON EDUCATION
The crisis in the education sector is not only alarming, it is a
disaster that will set back Nigeria’s human and economic development for
decades thus mortgaging the future of generations’ unborn if it is unchecked
now. However the ERC is convinced that on the basis of the material wealth of
this country and the resourcefulness of its people that within a ten-year
period much of these problems can be resolved and the education sector restored
on a path of progress if clear people-centered policies are propounded and a
vigorous drive for their implementation is set off.
This will require the implementation of a free education policy and the
mobilization of all resources of society to accomplish this at all levels of
education. To this end, the ERC supports the call for the declaration of a
state of emergency on education and the adoption of the following steps to set
the education sector on the path of revitalization within a period of ten
years:
(1) Immediate increase in the allocation to education to 26% (with
capital allocation taking nothing less than 60% of this) of annual budget.
(2) Declaration of free education at all levels. How will this be
funded? We propose the following:
(a) For a drastic cut in the pay and emolument of all political office
holders. All political office holders must be put on the same National Minimum
Wage as the rest of the country’s workforce with other legitimate expenses paid
on the basis of proven need. Any political office holder that cannot serve the
country on the same pay package of civil servants should be asked to vacate the
post for those who can. Establishing the principle that a politician is not
more important than a school teacher is vital in the process of rejuvenating
our education system and attracting the best to take up teaching
appointments. The amount recovered from
this cost-saving exercise should be added annually to the education budget.
(b) Tax the rich and wealthy corporations to fund public education. The
huge profit locked in the vaults of multinational oil companies,
telecommunication giants and industries if heavily taxed by government will go
a long way to provide much of the needed resources to fund quality education.
Much of this wealth is being wasted on advertisements and often by individual
CEOs and their friends and relatives to finance obscene life styles anyway. The
exponential growth of market for luxury goods like jets, fast cars, yachts in
Nigeria while over 10.5 million children are out of school is the height of
societal injustice. A first bold step in this direction should be to review the
Tertiary Education Tax Fund (TETFUND) from 5% of assessable profit of companies
to a progressive education tax that starts from 5% as a baseline for small and
medium scale companies and then rises progressively to as much as 25% depending
on the assessable profits of local and multinational companies. Any
multinational company that cannot do business in Nigeria on these terms should
be nationalized and placed under democratic worker control and management.
CONCLUSION
The government
should fully implement a comprehensive educational system that lays emphasis on
skill, values, scientific and technological training, apprentice and
entrepreneurial training. We should reduce the emphasis on certificates. We
should set up structures that will help the country establish skill and
semi-skilled workforce for the informal sector. This will help reduce the level
of poverty and reduce the high rate of unemployment. It is becoming
increasingly noticeable that the informal sector is the engine room of economic
development and emancipation. The parents and the society should also find a
way of encouraging students to cultivate a reading culture and the
establishment of community base libraries. In addition to training centres to
cater for the population, it also needs to encourage the private sectors to
invest in research and development. Let us try to get the foundation right and
provide an enabling environment for education to thrive and help the society. We
may be sitting on a time bomb if we do not act now. In addition, we should
forget about development if we do not get our human resource on the right path.
Mineral resource does not guarantee development.
REFERENCES
Alan, B., & Stoller, F. L. (2005). Maximizing the benefits of project
work in foreign language classrooms. English Teaching Forum, 43(4),
10–21. Albion, P. R. & Gibson, I. W. (1998). Designing multimedia materials using a problem- based learning design. Retrieved February 16, 2007, from www.usq.edu.au/users/albion/papers/ascilite98.html
Boud, D. (1985). Problem-based learning in perspective. In D. Boud (Ed.), Problem-
based learning in education for the professions (pp. 13–18). Sydney, Australia: Higher Education Research Society of Australasia.
Brumfit, C., & Johnson, K. (Eds). (1979). The communicative approach to language teaching. New York: Oxford University Press.
ABSTRACT
The problem with our
educational system is that it is a product of the Nigerian system. We should
look at it from the pervasive corruption in the land, erosion of our value
system, lack of good governance, bad policy implementation and the over
importance placed on certificates. These and some others factors have made the
educational system in Nigeria not only weak but also dangerous. We should not
treat education as if it is different from every other sector .It is the same
environment were most of the basic things are not working the way it should be.
We have adopted the same principle and culture in every thing we do. Almost all
the stakeholders in our educational system have a share of the blame, the
government, the teachers, the administrators, the students and the society.
According to Rueben Abati in his article on educational standard in Nigeria..
’the country is a victim also of the collapse of
values, bottom-up and top-to-bottom, blame the politicians who steal public
resources and live ostentatiously; the administrators who steal the funds meant
for the education sector, the religious leaders who preach the message of
miracles and prosperity and parents who are willing to help their children
cheat….” The current blame game on 6-6-3-4 system of education will not solve
the problem. Any system we adopt with the same mindset will equally result in
the same situation. In almost all the sphere and sectors in Nigeria, we have
good policies but our implementation of these polices are always faulty. We are
in a society that no longer respects merit and hard work; but easy assess and
admiration to unaccounted wealth, culture of lawlessness and faulty value
system. Students and other stakeholders adopt short measures towards addressing
the problems. This can be seen in the rampant examination malpractice,
recruitment of unqualified teachers, inadequate funding and where funding is
available outright embezzlement and corruption.