NTI failed in distance learning, ex-UBEC chief says

A former National Co-ordinator of Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Professor Gidado Tahir, has said that the National Teachers Institute (NTI) failed in the massive training of teachers for the Universal Basic Education (UBE) reform policy launched in 1999 through the Open Distance Learning (ODL). He made the comment in Abuja during the first public […]

A former National Co-ordinator of Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Professor Gidado Tahir, has said that the National Teachers Institute (NTI) failed in the massive training of teachers for the Universal Basic Education (UBE) reform policy launched in 1999 through the Open Distance Learning (ODL).
He made the comment in Abuja during the first public lecture by the faculty of Education of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) with the theme ‘re-tooling pre-service and in-service teacher education through ODL in Nigeria’.
Tahir said the ODL would have solved the problem of poor teacher supply for the program but the Institute failed and the country had to contend with the new fatal policy collapse because the teachers it produced were not knowledgeable enough to deliver the new curriculum.
“The NTI- driven quick-fix solution of using ODL for the mass production of teacher for the program was a colossal failure as its products were poorly prepared and hence rejected by many states of the federation,” he said.
He also noted that though NTI hasn’t got enough time to prepare adequately and in spite of its antecedents as the foremost ODL institution in Nigeria, it had also failed to design appropriate ODL framework during an emergency to fast-track the teacher production process for the effective take-off of UBE program. “Funding was never a problem in this case,” he said.