Don canvasses return of teachers’ colleges

Professor Garba described poor quality of teachers and poor knowledge delivery as a major weakness of teaching today which, he maintained, could be addressed through the revival of teachers’ colleges.He said the colleges were phased out mostly when a national policy was initiated which provided that only holders of National Certificate of Education (NCE) from […]

Professor Garba described poor quality of teachers and poor knowledge delivery as a major weakness of teaching today which, he maintained, could be addressed through the revival of teachers’ colleges.
He said the colleges were phased out mostly when a national policy was initiated which provided that only holders of National Certificate of Education (NCE) from middle manpower training colleges of education could be considered educated enough to teach in primary schools.
But Garba in an interview with Daily Trust said that for Nigeria to have comprehensively trained and professionally dedicated teachers, teacher training should start from secondary school level run as teacher-training colleges.
Garba, who has put in over 30 years of teaching mathematics in three universities said: “One of the worst reasons why students have problems with, particularly mathematics and other science subjects, are poorly trained and ill-motivated teachers.”
He added that for teachers to be adequately trained and indoctrinated to take teaching not as an occupation of last resort but as something worth devoting their entire life to, their grooming ought to start as early as the secondary school level in teachers’ training colleges.