Conference of Provosts lament abolition of teachers’ training colleges
A conference of Provosts of Colleges of Education in Nigeria (COPEN) has chided education authorities over the abolition of teachers training colleges (TTCs), regretting that the has worsened reading culture among students.
The Chairman of the conference of Provosts, Dr. Nwanze Ignatius Ezoem, who spoke to journalists in Asaba Thursday in response to the meeting of provosts recently held in Asaba, Delta State, said for the “bastardization” of the teachers’ training colleges, reading culture among students, many of who engrossed in disclaim, eventually end up in colleges of education as a matter of last resort after failure to secure admission into universities and polytechnics.
Dr. Ezoem who is also the current provost, Federal College of Education (Technical) Asaba, held that unless the teacher training colleges (TTCs) are brought back as the preliminary breeding ground for professional teachers, Nigeria’s quest for wholesome education, and by extension, accelerated wholesome development, might either remain external mirage or be unduly long in coming.
Dr. Ezoem further held that TTCs, which were once the training schools for teachers in the country, would, on reintroduction, also help to attain the dream to restore the reading culture in the country.
The provost explained that while it was proper for the government to have introduced the Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE) as the benchmark qualification for teachers, it was regrettable that the move, in practice, proved a fundamental error of judgment, given that the colleges of education, which award the NCE, have a curriculum deficiency.
This he attributed to the fact that the colleges of education, unlike TTCs, had no provision in their curriculum, for the effective training of their students who will eventually become teachers in teaching methods for the respective subjects; moral orientation of students; inculcation of reading culture in students and generally programming their products for effective service to the larger society.
A primary school headmistress in Asaba, Princess Ngozi Omelez, an NCE graduate who later acquired Bachelor in Education (BED) had told journalists last Monday in Asaba that the foundation of NCE graduates should first be established through teachers’ training college (TTC), noting that TTC programme would errors’ free teaching methodology of NCE holders.
But Dr. Ezoem speaking further, lamented: “Today unlike those days when students competed academically among themselves, children cannot read for two hours but could, quite ironically browse for five consecutive hours on their expensive telephones”.
