How to attract competent hands into teaching profession —UNILORIN VC

THE vice-chancellor of the University of Ilorin, Professor Sulyman Age Abdulkareem, has called for greater advocacy that would make the teaching profession attractive to competent persons.

Professor Abdulkareem made the call recently when he received in his office a delegation of the National Teachers’ Institute (NTI), Kaduna, whose Postgraduate Diploma in Education programme recently became affiliated to the University of Ilorin.

The NTI is a single-mode distance education institution dedicated to teacher training. It was established in 1976 by the Federal Government primarily to meet the pressing needs in the country for trained and qualified teaching staff at all levels of the educational system.

The vice chancellor stressed that secondary education is critical to educational development in life, noting that any defect at that level may be difficult to correct for the rest of the life of the person.

He, therefore, charged the institute to double its effort in producing quality teachers, adding that the success of the institute would be judged by the quality of the teachers it is able to produce for the nation.

Professor Abdulkareem said, “We should entice competent people to go into teaching,” adding that “education courses should not be seen as the last resort by admission seekers. We cannot get the best teachers if they only join the profession because they could not find other things to do.”

He thanked the director of the Centre for Affiliated Institutions, University of Ilorin, Professor R. I. Adebayo, for exceeding his expectations, while promising the NTI that UNILORIN would support and work with it by making the relationship a win-win situation for both parties.

In his remarks, the leader of the NTI team and Director of Examination of the institute, Mr. Bashir Mamman, explained that the National Universities Commission (NUC) selected UNILORIN based on its track record of academic excellence as one of the institutions for affiliation with the institute.

Mr. Mamman thanked the university management for the affiliation opportunity, saying that the institute had greatly learnt from the university and would continue to learn.

Also in his remarks, the director, Centre for Affiliated Institutions, Professor Adebayo, also thanked the vice chancellor for his positive dispositions to the centre, disclosing that the centre now has postgraduate and degree programmes.