FG should extend funding to private institutions —NCCE executive secretary

Professor Bappa-Aliyu Muhammadu is the executive secretary of the National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE), Abuja. He recently went on an inspection tour of selected private colleges of education and institutions offering the Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE) programmes in the country. KATE ANI caught up with him during his visit to Foreign Links Campus College of Education, Moro, Ile-Ife, Osun State. He spoke on a number of issues relating to colleges of education in Nigeria. Excerpts:

What is the essence of your inspection tour of private colleges of education and what are your observations so far?

For an individual to embark on a big project like establishing a private college of education, it is not out of place to commend them because they need encouragement. These projects are not easy to embark on due to the kind of resources they gulp. Another purpose of the tour is to ensure that they run institutions of repute. This is because of the ongoing process of resources visitation and then accreditation, which is done occasionally. By that, I mean, this is not my first inspection tour to private colleges of education, and it will not be the last.

Facilities in most colleges of education are obviously inadequate …

In the first place, we have a minimum standard, and if they don’t meet such a standard, they cannot operate certain programmes. If they do, their certificates will not be recognised because they won’t be accredited. We have shut dowm some private colleges of education that were found wanting. When we visit some of these schools, we tend to find out if they have good personnel, their teachers, are they qualified to teach?  Do they have teachers in different configurations? For example, if a student is enrolled to study Christian Religious Knowledge/English, does the institution have teachers for that subject combination? How are their classrooms, laboratories, lecture theatres and so on? There are so many things that we look at, which are the indicators to determine whether a college of education is qualified to award certificates.

What is your position on accreditation of programmes in colleges of education in the light of poor funding by government?

Some colleges, even federal colleges, have had their accreditation status in some courses denied. While some get interim, others get full accreditation if they meet the standard; because we have to maintain a standard.

Why do you think students’ enrolment in colleges of education is low in Nigeria, whereas millions of candidates sit the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) every year?

The answer is simple: who wants to teach? Most of the students that we have for the NCE programmes are students who couldn’t gain admission for direct degree programmes, and then they resolved to go to polytechnics and when the polytechnics couldn’t absorb them, they would say, ‘okay, let me take teaching’. We want to change the scenario; we want people who are interested in teaching, give them jobs and good incentives, so that we have teachers who are professionals, who are interested and motivated, rather than people who are coming to us by accident. There are so many things that we are doing to go in that direction. Now, you will find out that if you go to schools, especially secondary, a considerable number of these teachers are those that have done either the Higher National Diploma or degree and couldn’t get work anywhere and then end up taking a teaching job, while still on the lookout for corporate jobs. In that situation, can there be a good teaching experience? In the first place, they are not trained teachers. In the second place, they don’t like the job. But right now, we want to change that; we want only people who are interested in teaching, who can impact more positively on the lives of their students.

 

How do you intend to achieve that?

I am happy with what the National Council on Education is doing. When the agenda came up during the national executive meeting recently, they looked at education and whether they could declare a state of emergency. There must be efforts to get teachers who are trained and who are professionals. Don’t forget, education is the greatest industry in this country, if you are talking about the number of teachers.

Can the commission amend the curriculum in a way that colleges of education will award degrees too, since the mindset of the youths is to have degrees?

We are not objecting to that idea. Right now, at least, there are some colleges that are referred to as dual mode. That is, they are awarding NCE and BSc.

What is your evaluation of public-private partnership investment in colleges of education?

We are encouraging them because we know that a college of education could be an investment. We are encouraging them to help us produce well trained teachers. We know that the system is being affected by dwindling or low enrollment, because of what you mentioned earlier; people don’t want to take teaching as a career. Now, talking about the commission partnering with private colleges of education, the federal government’s focus has been on the universities and polytechnics, colleges of education either owned by the federal or state government and the assistance they have been rendering has been through the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), by way of infrastructure and instructional facilities. Now, this assistance is not extended to private colleges of education, and we want these private colleges of education to produce professionals. That is where federal government may need to consider the possibility of extending that assistance to some approved private institutions. Although as of now, the federal government is yet to buy into that idea, we are clamouring for them to.

NCE holders find it difficult to get jobs. What is the commission doing to change the situation?

That is true, and it’s unfortunate. Qualified teachers in the secondary schools are just about 40 per cent. The rest are not qualified teachers. We need the NCE teachers to be employed in schools. Another thing is apathy on the part of the government where they will say they need teachers but don’t have money to pay them. For example, in the West, people have not been paid salaries in some states for three or four months. Teachers are being paid half salaries for some months also. All these developments are attributed by different state governors to lack of funding. I want to see a situation whereby teachers are paid as and when due. I also want a situation where our schools are manned by qualified teachers and not just any person walking into the classrooms. Instead of educating the child, he would do the reverse because he is not trained.  To that effect, we have been asking the chairmen of Universal Basic Education Board in each state to recruit qualified teachers, because it is their mandate. They are the ones who recruit. We have been in contact with them and they also know the right thing to do.

What is your message to students, colleges’ management and the government of Nigeria?

My message to the government is that nations develop through human capacity building; education has to be given priority attention if we want to develop as a nation. As for the managements of the different institutions, they should strive to uphold the basic requirements in teacher production in complying with the NCE mandate. I want the students to take education as a career, and to improve and go through the upward mobility within that particular noble career; because teaching is a noble profession.