DEVELOPMENT OF TEACHER EDUCATION IN NIGERIA DR. (MRS.) A. A. JEKAYINFA DEPT. OF CURR. STUDIES AND EDU. TECH. UNIVERSITY OF. ILORIN, NIGERIA.

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1 DEVELOPMENT OF TEACHER EDUCATION IN NIGERIA DR. (MRS.) A. A. JEKAYINFA DEPT. OF CURR. STUDIES AND EDU. TECH. UNIVERSITY OF. ILORIN, NIGERIA. ABSTRACT This synopsis of the development of teacher education in Nigeria emphasizes the relative roles of the Christian missions and the colonial administration. The recommendation of two commissions (Phelps stokes and Ashby) and their implications to the development of teacher education in colonial Nigeria are also discussed. The paper assesses the available teacher training institutions in the country as at 1999 and recommends that more should be provided in the country to solve the acute shortage of teachers in the sector while teachers should reciprocate the recent upward review of wages and salaries by being more dedicated, devoted and committed to their jobs. INTRODUCTION The success of an educational enterprise particularly in terms of quality depends to a large extent, on the regular supply of teachers in adequate quantity and quality. In the National Policy on Education, the Federal Republic of Nigeria (1981) also asserts that no nation can achieve economic, social and technological progress and self-sufficiency without a good system of education to sustain its achievement. The training and production of the manpower required for the attainment of national objectives should be framed on the quality and quantity of teachers. Fafunwa (1974) stressed the dependency of manpower training and development on teachers. He argues that teacher education should be basically related to every phase of development in Nigeria, for wherever one turns, be it economic, political or social spheres of activities, one is faced with the over-reoccurring problem of trained manpower needs but no adequate training can take place without competent teachers to handle the programme. THE MISSIONARIES EFFORTS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF EDUCATION IN NIGERIA The origin and development of teacher education can be traced to the beginning of western education in t h e country, the various church Missions such as the Wesleyan Methodist, the Church Missionary Society, the Baptist, the Church of Scotland (Presbyterian) and the Roman Catholic were very active in Nigeria between 1842 and They contributed in no small measure to the development of teacher education. According to Ajayi (1965),the missionaries devoted their attention initially to the development of elementary (primary) education in the country. According to him, this might be due to the little stipend the missions relied upon from their overseas headquarters. Adeyinka ( 1971) remarks that the missionaries trained their teachers through the pupil-teacher system. In such a setting, the missionary teacher kept the school in his premises and his pupils lived with him as part of his family. Fajana (1978) added that those pupils whose ages were about 14 years had to have passed the standard V examination. They were then recruited as teachers to receive one hour daily instruction from the head teacher on how to teach. The duration of the course was two years after which they would sit for the pupil-teacher examination.

2 The first teacher training college, known as The Training Institution was established in Abeokuta in 1859 by the Church Missionary Society (CMS). The school was later moved to Lagos in 1896 when the missionaries were expelled from Abeokuta. It later moved to Oyo to become the St. Andrews College, Oyo. In 1897, the Baptist Mission established the Baptist Training College at Ogbomoso. In 1905 the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society founded an institution for the training of catechists and teachers in Ibadan. It opened with four pupils. The number of pupils had risen to twenty by 1918 and the institution became known as the Wesleyan College, Ibadan. As the Missionaries were making frantic efforts to provide teacher training institutions in the Western part of the country, so also were they trying to provide informal training for the teachers in the East. According to Fafunwa (1974), under the apprenticeship system, homeless boys and children of converted village heads lived with the missionaries and were taught to become pupil teachers and catechists. This practice of using apprenticeship system to train teachers was very common in the Western part of the country before and after the establishment of teacher training institution. The training of teachers in the northern part of Nigeria started with the opening of the Nassarawa School by the British government in The pre-requisite qualification for admission into a teacher training institution was standard IV. Apart from having Standard IV Certificate, the candidate, according to Fafunwa (1974), must have served as a pupil-teacher for two years and must have passed the pupil-teacher's certificate examination and would then have to act as assistant teacher before starting the two-year training course. At the end of the two years, the candidate would sit for and pass a prescribed teachers certificate examination and would be certified if he passed the examination. THE PHELP-STOKES REPORT AND ITS IMPLICATION ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF TEACHER EDUCATION IN NIGERIA There was a severe criticism of the teacher training system of the missions by the Phelp-Stokes report of According to the report, the teacher training system was unsatisfactory, the pupil-teacher was over-worked and under-paid; the curriculum was poorly conceived. The supervisory system, according to Fafunwa (1974), was inadequate. The missio ns did not understand the purpose of African education. In order to reorientate and re-organise the teacher education system along the lines suggested by the Phelp-Stokes report to redress the inadequacy of teacher education in the country, two types of teacher-training institutions were evolved. 1. The Elementary Training College (ETC) for lower primary school teachers ; and 2. The Higher Elementary Training College (H.E.T.C). The Elementary Training College (ETC) course lasted for two years and culminated in the award of Grade III Teacher s Certificate, while the H.E.T.C. course also lasted for two years and led to the Grade II Teacher's Certificate. Any candidate willing to go for the E.T.C course would have served as a pupil teacher for two years and on the successful completion of the Grade II course had t o teach again for at least two years before proceeding to the Higher Elementary Training College for the two-year Grade II course. THE ASHBY COMMISSION'S REPORT AND ITS IMPLICATION ON THE DEVELOPMENT ON TEACHER EDUCATION IN NIGERIA.

3 Before the Ashby Commission s report, there was nothing like B.A (Ed.) or B.Sc. (Ed.) or B.Ed, in Nigeria. The few graduates were graduates in Arts or Science (with B.A or B.Sc. degrees). Some of them had also the Post-Graduate Diploma in E ducat io n ( P. G.D.E.) o f t he University of London (Fafunwa 1974). One major event in the development of teacher education in Nigeria was the publication and subsequent implementation of the Ashby Commission report. While summarizing the facilities for post secondary education in Nigeria, the Ashby Commission observed that there was a gravely inadequate supply of trained and educated teachers in Nigeria Secondary Grammar Schools, even when there was an increase in demand for more of this category of education institutions. With reference to teacher-education, the most relevant recommendations of the Ashby Commission were: a) The opening of more universities b) The institution of a Bachelor s Degree in Education, i.e. B.A. (Ed.), B.Sc. (Ed.), or B.Ed. c) The training of more.teachers for the nation s secondary schools. The decade fo llowing the attainment of independence by Nigeria was one of rapid expansion of teacher education facilities. The decade ended with the production of another educational document namely, the report of the National Curriculum Conference of 1969(Taiwo, 1986). This document spelt out the objectives and contents of all levels of education, including teacher education in Nigeria. The 1969 Curriculum Conference provided the basis for the National Policy on Education of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (1977) revised in The National Policy on Education opened a new page in the development of teacher training programmes in Nigeria. Adeyinka (1993) observed that with the introduction of the education system, there was the need for a new orientation of secondary teachers and students. He stated further that the students were faced with a new curriculum challenge, that of acquiring the basic knowledge, and for the teachers, the skill to teach the new curriculum. National Policy on Education also states that all teachers in the nation's educational institutions, from pre-primary to university, would be professionally trained. The implication of this is that more Grade II Teachers colleges and more tertiary institutions would be established for the training of these teachers. This is what happened in the years following 1977 with considerable emphasis on the opening of tertiary institutions for the training of secondary school teachers in order to ensure that teacher education objectives are realized. Adeyinka (1988) stated that certain categories of educational institutions are charged with the responsibility of giving the required professional 'training for teachers these are? i) Grade II Teacher's Colleges, ii) Advanced Teacher's Colleges, iii) Colleges of Education iv) Institutes of Education v) National Teachers' Institute Prior to this and in preparation for the U.P.E scheme, the Federal Government had approved emergency teacher training programmes which began in September, This, according to Adeyinka (1988), was meant to produce 163,000 additional teachers estimated for the scheme. To obtain this large number of teacher trainees, the government mounted four

4 different teacher education programmes for four different categories of school leavers. These were: i) One-year course for holders of the West African School Certificate. ii) Two-year course for those who attempted WASC and failed or those with Grade III Teacher's Certificate. iii) Three-year course for holders of Modern III Certificate or S-75 Certificate i.e. recognized Secondary Class IV Certificate. iv) Five-year course of holders of Primary School Certificate. In 1957, the University of Ibadan introduced a one-year course for graduates leading to a diploma of education. In1961,the University started a one-year Associate ship course for selected Grade II teachers who would take over the headship of primary schools after the successful completion of their studies. (Fafunwa, 1974). The Ashby Commission's recommendation for Teacher's Grade I colleges was modified to give rise to new programme and a new certificate - the Nigerian Certificate in Education (NCE). This programme was meant for the training and preparation of teachers for the lower forms of secondary schools, and the teacher training colleges. The schools were popularly called t h e "Advanced teachers' colleges". They were established at Lagos 1962, Ibadan (1962) but transferred to Ondo where it became the Adeyemi College of Education). Owerri 1963, Zaria 1962, Kano 1964 and Abraka 1968) (Taiwo, 1986). Admission to these advanced teacher s colleges was open to candidates who held either the Teachers' Grade 11 Certificate and passed in two subjects at the ordinary level of the General Certificate of Education (GCE), or the West African School Certificate with Credit in at least two subjects, or the G.C.E. (O level) in five subjects including English Language. To achieve N.C.E, according to Taiwo (1986), a candidate must pass a final examination in two science or two arts subjects, education and practical teaching, and must have passed in ancillary subjects like general English, Library work, Health and physical education, offered during the programme: The Ashby Commission also recommended teacher education programme at the university level, observing that the new crop of Grade I teachers popularly referred to as "wellqualified non-graduate teachers" should be trained to man the lower levels of secondary schools and teacher-training colleges. The commission therefore recommended the introduction of a Bachelor of Arts/Science degree in Education (B.A. (Ed.)/B.Sc, (Ed.) in all Nigerian universities The B.A and B.Sc (Ed.) according to Fafunwa (1974) was launched at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka in September 1961 with 50 students. The University of Ibadan followed in 1963, Ahmadu Bello University in 1964, the University of Lagos in 1965 and the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) Ile- Ife, in CONCLUSION With the efforts of the British government in starting the establishment of teacher training institutions in the country and with the bold steps taken by the Nigerian Government and private organizations to continue in the development of these institutions, the country can now boast of 20 Federal Colleges of Education made up of 11 for regular programmes, eight(8) for technical programmes and one (1 ) running special programmes. There are also 38 State Colleges of Education, 12 Polytechnics running education programmes, and three(3) Colleges of Education run by private organisations (PCE Brochure )

5 I n a d d it io n, t h e r e a r e 3 5 universities and degree awarding institutions that are running education programmes. This is made up of 15 Federal Universities, three (3) Federal Universities of Technology, 9 State Universities, 2 State Universities of Technology and another 6 degree awarding institutions, (U.M.E. Brochure, ). Though, the grade II colleges have been totally faced out in almost all the States of the Federal, but there are Distant Learning Studies (DLS) organised by the National Teachers Institute (NTI) to replace the grade II teachers programmes. RECOMMENDATIONS Despite the enormous number of teacher training institutions and the production of teachers in large numbers in the country, there is still acute shortage of teachers in our educational institutions. It is hereby recommended that both the governments and private organisations should help in the establishment of more teacher training institutions in the country to solve the problem of shortage of teachers. With the increase in wages and salaries by the government, teachers are called upon to reciprocate the good gesture of the government by being more dedicated and committed to their jobs. REFERENCE Adeyinka, A. A. (1971.)., The development of secondary grammar school education in the western slate of Nigeria M.Ed. Dissertation-University of Ibadan. Adeyinka, A. A. (1993) The Development of secondary education in Oyo, Ogun and Ondo States of Nigeria, , Occasional publication 1, unilorin. Faculty of Education Adeyinka, A. A. (1998); History of education in Nigeria Mimeograph Ajayi, J.F.A (1965). Christian missions in Nigeria : The making of new elite- Ibadan history series 1. London: Longman. Ayandele, E A. (1966). The missionary impact on modern Nigeria, : A political and social analysis -Ibadan, history series 3 London: Longman. Fafunwa. A. B (1974). History of education in Nigeria. London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd. Fajana, A. (1978), Education in Nigeria, : A historical analysis Longman: Printing Press. Federal Republic of Nigeria (1977) National policy on education. Lagos. Federal Ministry of information. Solaru, T. T. (1964) Teacher training in Nigeria. Ibadan; University Press Taiwo, C.O. (1980). Tim Nigerian education system: fast, present & future. Lagos: Nelson Pitman Ltd.