Revalidating Educational System Through Ancient Landmark

Dr. Lizzy Nkem Onyemah

The concept of revalidation is often used as the ratification of the value or authenticity of something such as education.

In Nigeria, teachers’ education has become an issue that needs urgent revalidation. When Western education was first introduced in the country by the missionaries, there was the need to train the teachers to handle this vital aspect of teaching and learning. However, there was no formal training for the early teachers. Instead, they started as catechists performing many functions, such as; teaching, catechism, or giving religions instructions to children. Some of the passionate and dedicated converts became literate and were utilized as interpreters and also given some classes to teach at the Sunday school.

Formal training of teachers in Nigeria was eventually started by the British colonialists with focus on the three Rs — Reading, Writing, and Rithmetics. The first institution set up to train teachers came up in 1896, when the Church Missionary Society (CMS), now the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) established St. Andrews Teachers’ College, Oyo. With time, many more Teachers’ Training Colleges (TTCs) were established. This improved the quality of teachers who were hitherto standard six certificate holders. Most of the Teacher’s Grade II Colleges received the touch of the missionaries, who were the early teachers, and infrastructure, books, etc were provided by the missionaries. The government owned colleges were properly monitored and managed. The Teachers Grade II programme was well designed to cater for the primary education of every average Nigerian child.

The curriculum was well designed and the trainees were also enthusiastic. Products of TTCs were described as professionals with deep knowledge of the content of their subjects. They possessed impressive teaching skills, good work ethics, efficiency and commitment to the teaching profession. Unfortunately, at present, the quality of teachers, as well as the quality of education in Nigeria have dwindled following the adoption of a policy stipulating that the National Certificate in Education (NCE) will be the lowest teaching qualification in Nigeria. The NCE programme is filled with students who never initially wanted to be teachers, but because of lack of admission to the university, they decided to opt for the colleges of education with the hope of getting direct admission into the university after three years. So, the students are not prepared to take teaching as a profession but just to obtain the certificate as a sure way to the university. Furthermore, the NCE curriculum is so broad that it does not address the needs of the primary school child. The implication of this is that it can lead to crime and other social vices since the teachers cannot give what they do not have. The return of Teachers’ Training Colleges will seriously revalidate the educational system in Nigeria, especially in our primary schools. To make teacher education to be an interesting venture as well as enhance the educational system in Nigeria, there is the need to revisit the ancient landmark by revalidating the Teachers’ Training Colleges in terms of making the colleges attractive to would-be-teachers.​

Dr. Onyemah is a lecturer in the Department of Marketing Education, Federal College of Education, Asaba, Delta State