COP calls for restructuring of Colleges of Education

Committee of Provosts (COP) of Colleges of Education has called for an immediate restructuring in Colleges of Education across the country to make them more relevant in the 21st century teachers’ education.
This call was contained in a communiqué issued by the Committee of Provosts of Colleges of Education in Nigeria after its 76th regular meeting held recently in Abuja at the National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE). The communiqué which was signed by the chairman, Communiqué Drafting Committee Prof. Emmanuel Ojeme was made available to newsmen.
According to COP, there is an urgent need to restructure and review the content, admission policy of Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB) as the current admission policy does not favour Colleges of Education.
The body harped on the need for government at levels to create more incentives for those opting for teaching profession.
COP said that given the advancement in education in the country, Colleges of Education must be more innovative in profession and practice for their survival and relevance in the society and for that to happen there must be incentives for qualified teachers.
The Committee also expressed the need for the review of National Certificate of Education (NCE) to make it more manageable to enhance productivity and to increase relevance to Nigerians.
Provosts also called for more efforts in Colleges of Education towards the drive for admission to increase NCE students’ enrollment in the nation’s education sector, advising that all institutions in the country must remain within the boundaries of its core mandate and stop encroaching on others.
COP cited the National Teachers Institute (NTI) as one of such institutions encroaching on others, saying that NTI should limit itself to organising workshops, seminars and conferences and stop engaging on Distance Learning in NCE and Degree programmes for which it is not equipped to run.
To boast teaching profession, the body also called on government at all levels to introduce special incentives for teachers’ education, to attract high academic performing students to teach and to remain in teaching profession.
The body also called for the professionalisation of teaching profession with enhanced salary structure to attract those with cognate teaching qualifications. It also called on employers to always employ qualified teachers to teach in their schools.
COP lamented seriously about the current Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME), saying it was designed without the interest of students’ choice of NCE courses.
“There is need for review of UMTE to detach Colleges of Education from the process, because it disadvantaged students wanting to study education courses in the country. We recommend for the return of old Teachers Training College to form a feeder to Colleges of Education, while NCE programme should be structured to a full two years programme and another two years leading to the award of B.Ed  degree in education. The Colleges of Education in the country should be made to become B.Ed Degree awarding institutions, “COP added.
In order to achieve some of the positions canvassed by COP, the body said that the law establishing National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE) should be reviewed to become a National Commission for Tertiary Education (NCTE), so as to enhance capacity to oversee the proposed new status of Colleges of Education as B.Ed awarding institutions.
To achieve this laudable objective of leapfrogging Colleges of Education to greater height in the country, provosts identified the need for them to lobby policy makers and leaders to influence the desire changed in the Colleges of Education in the country in the 21st century and beyond.