Teacher education, critical component for education reform agenda- Educationist

An Educationist, Mr. Olusegun Abifarin, has identified teacher education as a critical component of achieving the nation’s education reform agenda.

Abifarin told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Omu-Aran at the weekend that teacher education was needed to achieve policy goals toward transforming the sector.

He said that teacher education would also help to address teachers shortages as well as dealing with the alarming discrepancies between teacher certified qualifications and actual teaching competencies and performance on the job.

Abifarin said that effective teacher education was necessary to produce competent and dynamic professional teachers needed to produce the critical mass of skilled manpower for sustainable development.

He said that the cumulative effect of the previous reforms since independence had been the expansion of the education system over the years at the expense of the quality of the product and the system itself.

“The system has suffered neglect in infrastructure and teacher capacity.

“The system is still weak as the demand for education has outstripped what the system can accommodate.

“Literacy rates remain low resulting in high regional geopolitical zone disparity.

“It is said that no nation can rise above the quality of its teachers.

“Therefore, teacher training and development is essential for reform, ” he said.

Abifarin said that restructuring teacher education programme would result to raising the minimum teaching qualifications of teachers for the different segments of the sector and addressing public outcry on the poor quality of NCE holders.

He suggested the acquiring of technical and vocational skill in critical areas of the economy by educated workforce and encouraging gender education was critical to transforming to sector.