4.3 Elaboración de las guías de laboratorio
4.3.3 Práctica 3
According to a World Bank report, ‘recent research in the United States (…) has
reported that teacher quality is the single most important variable in determining student
achievement’ (World Bank 2007b: 26). Adeleke suggests that low levels of teacher
quality in Nigeria are caused by the poor quality of trainees in teacher training
institutions and their poor attitudes to teaching, especially at primary school levels
(Adeleke 1999). In a 1999 study about trainees’ attitudes to teaching, 87% of a group of
trainees in a Nigerian university would not like to teach at primary school. However of
those who would like to teach at all, 88% would not like to be teachers for a long time
(Adeleke 1999). In another study carried out on 1200 teacher trainees from seven
Nigerian colleges of education, the reasons for enrolling in a college of education are
queried (Akinbote 2007: 8). Table 4 shows the response.
Reasons for enrolling in college of education No of students % Rank
1 Personal desire to become a teacher 150 12.50 3rd
41 job]
3 Because there is no other institution that could offer me admission
525 43.75 1st
4 To satisfy the wish of my parents 45 3.75 5th
5 As a result of encouragement from friends 108 9.0 4th
Total 1200 100.00
Table 4 Reasons for enrolling in a college of education (Akinbote 2007: 8)
Table 4 shows that the greatest proportion of Nigerian teacher trainees (525) in these
seven colleges of education entered teacher training colleges because they could not get
admission into higher institutions. This represents nearly 50% of the sample (Nigerian
colleges of education have a lower entry requirement than Nigerian universities: only
24% of students in this study could meet the university admission requirements: a
minimum of five credits). The next proportion (372 trainees) has no plan to remain in
teaching for a long time. Finally, as Akinbote tells us: ‘as many as 87.5% of all the
student teachers in the colleges sampled are reluctant or not good enough for other
institutions’ (2007: 9). The Adeleke (1999) and Akinbote (2007) studies suggest that
many Nigerian teacher trainees who end up as primary school teachers will have
negative attitudes towards teaching. Adeleke et al (2011) further highlight this problem
when they illustrate the poor subscription to education courses in Nigeria in 2002:
out of 975,060 candidates who sat for the 2002 University Matriculation Examination in Nigeria, Faculties of Agriculture and Education had the least number of applications with 6,494 and 10,784 candidates respectively. Again, 255,651 applications were received for Faculties of Administration while Faculties of Social Sciences received 185,727 applicants. Faculties of Engineering and Medical Sciences received 152,213 and 142,573 applications respectively (…)
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those for the Faculties of Education were grossly under subscribed (Adeleke et al, 2011: 4).
The data above suggests that in 2002, about 1.1% of all university applications were
made to Education faculties in Nigerian universities. This reinforces the view that
teaching in Nigeria is not the first choice of most Nigerian teacher trainees. Teaching
has been described as ‘the most bastardized ‘profession’ in Nigeria with reference to the
categories of people that answer the name teacher’ (Ojo et al 2007: 1). According to Ojo
et al (2007: 1):
Even among those that possess professional qualifications as teachers, there exist hundreds of unwilling performers, to whom professional ethics means nothing and whose contributions to widening the horizon of education, which is an expected pre-occupation of honest teachers, do not go beyond lip-service (Ojo et al 2007: 1).
Teacher quality in Nigeria was a theme of the 1980 National Seminar on Qualitative and
Quantitative Education at Bagauda Lake Hotel, Kano. The Bagauda Seminars which
tried to address the problems of teacher quantity and quality in Nigeria concluded that
teachers were the main determiners of educational quality and acknowledged that if
Nigerian teachers are ‘apathetic, uncommitted, uninspiring, lazy, unmotivated, immoral,
and anti-social, the whole nation is doomed’ (FME 1984, in Oduolowu 2009: 229-230).
In an attempt to resolve these problems the Nigerian government set in place a process
to professionalize teaching in Nigeria. Ojo et al (2007: 2) argue that although some
Nigerian teachers crave for the professionalization of teaching:
it is not quite clear who would control the professionalization process. Should it be the teachers themselves, the government through its agencies or the society that consumes the services of teachers? (Ojo et al 2007: 2)
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This statement omits teacher education institutions as a starting point of the
professionalization process (although they are mandated by the NPE to do so). However,
the teaching practice element in teacher education institutions which is supposed to start
the professionalization process has been described by Oduolowu (2009) as being
inadequate:
the exposure of pre-service teachers to teaching practice is generally unsatisfactory and insufficient. Only three courses are designed for teaching practice. In the second year, pre-service teachers go out to observe[r] what teachers do in school for a week and write a report. In the third and fourth years, the students are expected to go to school for practice teaching for a period of twelve weeks (i.e. six weeks in the third year and six weeks in the fourth year) (...) teaching practice is superficial. They [trainees] are supervised maximum of three times in six weeks (2009: 335).
The inadequate supervision of Nigerian teacher trainees during teaching practice (TP)
further weakens the realizations of high expectations and demands made by the NPE on
Nigerian teachers. Although the current National Commission for Colleges of Education
(NCCE) recommends 26 weeks of teaching practice, TP in Nigeria is still 12 weeks
within a 3-year teacher-training programme. This has been identified as too short (Ajayi
2002; Okebukola 2005). Okebukola (2007) highlight: inadequate teaching practice, poor
classroom management skills, shallow subject knowledge, lack of self-reliance, poor
attitudes and lack of professionalism as the weakness of many graduates from Nigerian
teacher education institutions. Ajeyalemi (2002) identifies incompetence in subject
knowledge and teaching as a common problem, while Okeke (2001) and Ajayi (2007)
argue that the curriculum is too theoretical and lacks a sufficient teaching practice (TP)
element. The NCE curriculum was originally designed for raising secondary school
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education curriculum for raising primary school teachers. In their 2010 Communique,
Registrars of Nigerian Colleges of Education (reported in a Nigerian Newspaper) called
for a review of the NCE curriculum to make it more effective for the training of primary
and pre-primary school teachers, adding that the ‘the poor state of basic school
infrastructures has also been a major setback in the quest to realize effective teacher
education service delivery in the country’ (Daily Trust: December 20, 2012).
Emeh and Ogaboh (2010) argue that if Nigeria must fulfill its developmental goals and
objectives, then teaching and teacher development must become a necessary focus.
According to Emeh & Ogaboh (2010: 66) ‘professional teachers are trained not only to
solve problems in the classroom, but also to initiate proposals for solving national
problems’. Such huge expectations of teachers in Nigeria are not uncommon. Emeh &
Ogaboh thus advocate the professionalization of teaching by arguing that:
the unethical behaviour among teachers (Orubite, 2010), the lack of standardized test scores (…) the poor academic performance of students (Ashibi, 2005; Ikoh, 1995), academic dishonesty among teachers at all levels (Denga & Denga, 1998), the lack of, or the ineffectiveness of regulatory body in the teaching occupation; the poor performance of most teachers and the general institutional weakness in Nigeria are all pointers that teaching should be professionalized (Emeh and Ogaboh 2010: 355).
Statements like the ones above illustrate the high (and perhaps unrealistic) expectations
of Nigerian researchers and policy makers towards Nigerian teachers and teaching
institutions. Ojo et al (2007: 1-2) also advocate the professionalization of teaching when
they question why Nigerian teachers have not made ‘teaching a closed system in which
only the professionally initiated can practise’. In a study which was aimed at
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sought to identify the views of Nigerians about teaching as a profession; assess if
Nigerian society was willing to accept teaching as a profession; estimate the proportion
of Nigerian teachers who are inclined towards professionalization and suggest strategies
for a realistic means of professionalizing teaching in Nigeria. A sample of 225 people
(59% were practising teachers) was used. 82.7% of teachers in the study perceived
teaching as a profession as did other professionals (respondents). However, 29.6% of
respondents would not agree to teaching as a profession unless entry into the profession
is controlled and ‘rigidly limited to those who are professionally qualified’ (Ojo et al
2007: 9). Only 8% of respondents endorsed restricted entry into the profession. This
suggests that teacher quality is not a major concern of the sample and that their
perception of teaching may be more occupational than professional.
Unclear attitudes towards teaching are said to come from a perception of teaching as a
temporary occupation from which teachers switch whenever they get a preferred
occupation (Adeleke 1999, Akinbote 2007, Ojo et al 2007, Oduolowu 2009). According
to Okobia (2012: 150), ‘to a large extent, quality of teachers and teaching depends on
the qualification, training and attitudes of the teachers’. Persisting poor attitudes to
teaching among Nigerian teachers may show a failure in Nigerian teacher education
programmes.
Besides the problems of teacher education in Nigeria, current teacher education
practices may still be considered inadequate for realizing Nigeria’s five National goals
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society, a united, strong and self-reliant nation, a great and dynamic economy and a land
full of bright opportunities for all citizens’ (FRN 2004: 6). The 2002 Nigerian Biennial
National Teachers’ Conference sums up its perception of the problems of teacher
education in its communiqué, which says:
The quality of teacher education is at present less than satisfactory. The conventional mode of teacher education is ill equipped and therefore inadequate to cope with the urgent demand for more qualified teachers in the expanding basic education sector. The present structure, content, and mode of delivery of the present teacher education curriculum are too inadequate to meet the challenges of emergent national issues and problems. This is because the curriculum is too centralized and therefore inadequate to accommodate local peculiarities in an increasingly complex and diverse society such as Nigeria (NTI 2002: 2).
The above statement shows the conference’s dissatisfaction with teacher education
quality in Nigeria and suggests that the problem is from the teacher education
curriculum, which is not flexible enough to cope with the needs of modern Nigeria.
These inadequacies are identified above as: the structure of Nigerian teacher education
programmes; the content of the current teacher education programme(s), modes of
delivery of these programmes and a ‘centralized curriculum’ (one size fits all) which
cannot meet local needs in the diverse Nigeria society.
In a report on Nigeria, (World Bank 2000) some of the following problems were
identified as being associated with teachers and teaching in Nigeria. Some of these are:
shortage of primary school teachers, ‘is some instances schools have operated with a
teacher-pupil ratio of 1: 76’ (World Bank 2000: 8); the low numbers of graduates
entering the profession; problems of unequal teacher quality across Nigeria;
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preparation programmes; poor leadership; unqualified teacher educators and a decline in
the number of male teachers in some Nigerian states. These problems still persist
thirteen years after the report and there is still a perennial shortage of primary school
teachers in Nigeria.
Although the World Bank (2000) suggests an oversupply and under supply of teachers
of particular subjects, English language teaching is not identified as one of the shortage
areas. In 2011, I wrote to the Teachers’ Registration Council Nigeria (TRCN) to request
the number of qualified teachers (who are registered with TRCN) with an English
language teaching qualification. From a database of over 700,000 registered teachers,
the following data was provided showing the distribution of qualified English language
teachers in Nigerian primary and secondary schools. See Appendix 1 for a
comprehensive breakdown of the data base.
Total number of teachers registered with TRCN
Total Number of qualified English language teachers registered with TRCN
Percentage of English language teachers registered with TRCN Primary School 575160 6666 1.16% Secondary School 251866 4241 1.7%
Table 5 Qualified English language teachers in Nigeria
Table 5 illustrates part of the problem. There are not enough qualified English language
teachers in Nigerian primary and secondary schools and teachers without English
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compulsory subject and the language of instruction. English language teaching is a
cause for major concern in Nigeria as student achievement has dropped in the subject (as
well as in other subjects). Teacher-student ratios are still not appropriate nation-wide
and Nigerian teachers are viewed as needing to be more effective (World Bank 2003).
However, in government owned classrooms where there is at least one teacher to 76
pupils, the ability of an English language teacher to effectively teach any of the four
basic skills is questionable.
Many policy makers and researchers have blamed Nigerian teachers for the myriads of
problems in the Nigerian educational system. However, Egbo (2011) takes on a different
view, stating that the problem stems from the need for capacity building of Nigerian
teachers. Egbo argues that there is a connection between capacity building and effective
teaching and learning in Nigeria. She argues that: ‘disregarding the professional needs
of teachers is, in effect, inimical to the progress of Nigeria’s educational system’ (Egbo
2011: 13-15). Egbo defines capacity building for Nigerian teachers as:
• Policy, training and pedagogy: a reworking of policy on teacher development
and preparation and approaches to teaching.
• Availability of 21st century infrastructure: providing materials, resources and 21st
century ‘tools’ that enhance teaching and learning, including reducing the
current large classes that make teaching young learners an impossible task.
• Teacher welfare and empowerment: raising teacher moral and motivation by
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Egbo (2011:15) also observes that ‘effective capacity building means that all those who
are charged with educating the nation's children and, subsequently implementing
educational policies at the micro-level must be treated in ways that are commensurate
with principles of social justice’. Udofot agrees. According to her:
Nigerian teachers are the most traumatised and the most de-motivated in the world from the primary to the tertiary level. They are [...] de-motivated right from the time they are recruited into the profession through their training to the period of deployment. Even when they retire from the service they are not paid their retirement entitlement (2005: 73).
Arguments such as these suggest that Nigerian teachers are not solely responsible for
falling standards. By showing these weaknesses of the Nigerian educational system,
they introduce teacher motivation into the discussion. Egbo (2011) provides a model of
capacity building for Nigerian teachers:
Figure 2 A Nigerian model of teacher capacity building (Egbo 2011: 15)
The model above suggests that there is a relationship between the three highlighted
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and empowerment. These three interact to create capacity building which as Egbo
(2011) argues, has the potential for providing ‘transformative teaching and learning’ in
Nigeria. While Egbo raises fundamental questions, the model appears to advocate for a
top-down approach by excluding teachers’ input although it attempts to put the teacher
at the centre of capacity building. In the following section, I discuss the problems
associated with teaching English in Nigeria.