THE National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE) has taken steps to strengthen the quality of teaching and learning in teacher training institutions in Nigeria.
Acting chairman, governing board of the commission, Hassan Muhammad Dukku, made this known in Abuja while briefing newsmen on the outcome of the retreat for board members and management of NCCE held in Akwanga, Nasarawa State.
He said what the Commission was doing was to undertake regular review of the National Certificate in Education (NCE) curriculum, explaining that the curriculum is to be reviewed every five years.
According to him, NCE programme is for three years, adding that after three years, it would be possible to determine the impact of the curriculum on the nation’s educational sector, hence the need to review it after five years if there is the need for improvement.
Dukku said the commission being the supervisory body of all colleges of education in the country, often undertakes accreditation visits to colleges and other NCE-awarding institutions to ensure that they have the capacity for the programmes offered.
Dukku explained that the retreat was organised principally to discuss the role of the board and management that would promote teacher education in Nigeria, as well as ways of avoiding conflict and internal wranglings between board members and management.
He also disclosed that government has banned satellite campuses of the colleges, said many of these outreaches were substandard and not properly supervised by parent institutions.
He noted that one of the recommendations of the retreat was for the board and management to intensify efforts to identify and stamp out illegal NCE-awarding institutions.
He said the commission was committed to improvement in the quality of teaching and learning in Colleges of Education in Nigeria, saying this would enhance the production of quality teachers that would teach in schools across the country.
According to him, this is done through accreditation of programmes of NCE-awarding institutions, regular review of the NCE curriculum among others.
Dukku said further, “At the retreat, we discussed the relationship between the management and board as it affects the smooth running of the NCCE, how the budgets are implemented, the procurement processes among others.
“Many boards usually have problems with the management either by overstepping their boundaries or arrogating so much power to themselves. To avoid this kind of conflict, we decided to organise the retreat where we invited professionals, Federal Government agencies to remind us what our role is all about,” he said.
In the same vein, participants at the retreat urged both the Federal and State Governments to increase funding for teacher education in order to improve on the quality of teachers produced in the system.
They also asked NCCE to work in synergy with other relevant agencies such as the National Universities Commission (NUC), the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) among others so as to improve on teacher education in Nigeria.
The recommendations were contained in a communique issued at the end of the meeting and made available to newsmen in Abuja. It was co-signed by the acting chairman, governing board of the commission, Hassan Muhammad Dukku and the executive secretary of the commission, Professor Bappa-Aliyu Muhammadu.
The participants at the retreat also called for review of the Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE) Minimum Standards every five years to keep pace with the ever changing standards, urging the board and management to continue to follow due process in employment, discipline, promotion, budgeting and procurement.
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