CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
Education is a means through which nations build their desired society and it is an instrument for a change. Education is aimed at inducing a change in individuals in some desirable way and add to the knowledge they already posses (Onwuka, 1981).
The arrival of missionaries in Nigeria brought formal Teacher Education in the country. The need for evangelization encouraged the training of personnel for the purpose of teaching. Initially, these personnel functioned as catechists who teach religious doctrines in the churches but later realize the need to train them to provide manpower for other services. This continued until 19thcentury when the formal institution for the training of teachers was established in the country (Akuyimu, 1991). The Ashby commission in 1959 came with the revolution of Teacher Education. The Ashby commission reportedthat the country’s (Nigeria) manpower development depend on the number of qualified teachers and recommended teacher Education programme upon which the whole system of education depended.
From the recommendations, two schemes of Teacher Education were introduced. One of these schemes was teacher certification programme which was established with the assistance of UNESCO. Later both the Federal and the then Regional governments established in all five Advance Teaching Training Colleges (ATTC) in 1962 following the Ashby commission recommendations. This was later changed to Colleges of Education (COE).
The Colleges of Education are charged to train teachers in various teaching subjects and methods, who will teach in the senior section of the nation’s primarySschools and in the junior section of the secondary schools. Specifically, the National policy on Education (2004) stipulates that the aims of teacher education are to:
xProduce highly motivated, conscientious and efficient classroom teachers for all levels of our educational system.
xEncourage further the spirit of enquiry and creativity in teachers.
xHelp teachers to fit into the social life of the community and society at large and to enhance their commitment to national objectives.
xProvide teachers with the intellectual and professional background
adequate for their assignment and to make them adaptable to any changing
situation not only in the life of their country but in the wider world.xEnhance teachers commitment to the teaching profession.
The above objectives indicate that teaching in tertiary institutions, which deals with teacher education programme, is more than instructing; more widely and provides a framework in which students acquire potent knowledge about subject matter. Above all, the objectives require teacher development in solid
self-understanding and effectiveness that depends on their professionalism, experience and commitment. In the same way, Shuaibu (1991) states the important role teacher education programme plays in our educational system as follows:
xIt preserves the system. A teacher education programme should be concerned the teacher on how to select what to teach and to identified group effectively.
xIt should be evaluative. A teacher education programme should be evaluative of not only what is learnt but what has been considered worth while and how these matters have been taught.
xIt should be generative. The programme should be able to predict the future and work out the skills and attitudes that would be required to stand the test of time.
xIt should serve as a maintenance system. The teacher education programme should make up the short fall resulting from expansion in the education system.
xA research-based teacher education programme should identify obsolesce in knowledge and methodology and substitute for these in the school curriculum.