‘Attracting quality students to teaching a challenge’

The Federal Government, in an attempt to raise the quality of teachers at basic level of education, pegged the minimum teaching qualifications at National Certificate in Education (NCE). In as much as this is regarded as a bold attempt, the quality of students admitted into the NCE programme raises more questions than answers. It is […]

The Federal Government, in an attempt to raise the quality of teachers at basic level of education, pegged the minimum teaching qualifications at National Certificate in Education (NCE). In as much as this is regarded as a bold attempt, the quality of students admitted into the NCE programme raises more questions than answers.
It is one thing to have good programme for teacher education, it is another to get the right caliber of people to benefit from such programme.
The 2015 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) application statistics shows lack of interest of candidates for a career in the teaching profession. But experts attributed this to the low rating of the profession and lack of motivation for teachers.
Last week, the Director of Planning, Research and Statistics, National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE), Mr. Alex Maiyanga, said attracting quality students into the teaching profession is a big challenge due to the low status accorded it. This, he said, had created a dearth of applicants for admission into colleges of education.  
Unlike other academic disciplines that are highly competitive, there are scanty applications into colleges of education.  Those who find themselves in teacher training institutions see it as their last resort after failing to secure admission into the universities. 
 Out of the 1,436,867 applications for university admissions in this year’s UTME, only 61,653 candidates applied for courses in various faculties of education, coming after agriculture, which is at the bottom, attracting only 27,915 candidates.
Worse still, only few applications were received for colleges of education. Of the 1.4 million candidates that sat for the entrance exams, only 18,341 chose colleges of education as their preferred (first) choice.
 Maiyanga said only candidates rejected by universities and polytechnics hesitantly applied to teacher education institutions, and this has resulted in poor quality products.
 “They go there grudgingly, study and graduate grudgingly, and work in public service grudgingly. So what do you expect from a grudgingly-produced teacher other than poor result,” he said.   
This trend, according to Maiyanga, has great consequences on the quality of teachers produced in colleges of education and impacts negatively on basic education. He said when teacher education is not well managed, the tendency is for the educational system to be negatively affected. 
This reporter visited College of Education, Zuba, Abuja, where most of the students said they chose to attend the college after they failed to secure admission into the universities. Very few of them really have the genuine desire to teach after graduation.
The provost of the college, Dr. Muhammad Gambo Hamza, said that in recent times, people see colleges of education as dumping grounds for candidates who couldn’t get admission into the universities. He, however, decried the decision of the admission body to peg cut-off marks for colleges of education below that of the university, saying, “If someone who performs poorly in an examination is to become a teacher, what do we expect him to impact on his students?”
One educationist said the entrance requirements into the colleges had not only affected the quality of the products of the colleges but also the image of the teaching profession. He said if those who are admitted are of low academic quality, it means they may turn out to become low quality teachers who may not be able to provide the necessary academic leadership to their students.
Hamza, however, said the poor quality of teachers in schools in recent times called for the upward review of admission requirements into the colleges of education to ensure that the best candidates join the profession.
He said those who were supposed to become teachers were candidates who scored higher marks in the tertiary matriculation examinations because they are the custodians of knowledge.
The provost, who also identified the lack of motivation as one of the reasons for poor performance of teachers, said restructuring of teacher education in Nigeria should go beyond raising entrance qualification into colleges; the welfare of teachers should be improved. This, he said, would not only attract best candidates into the teaching profession but would ensure quality teaching.