TRANSFORMATION OF TEACHER EDUCATION IN CONTEMPORARY NIGERIA

Abstract

Teacher education is design to equip prospective teachers with relevant and desirable knowledge, skills and attitudes required to enhance their efficiency and effectiveness in the classrooms and schools for optimal level of productivity for the attainment of educational goals and objectives. Regrettably, teacher education over the years has been too conservative in nature with obsolete curriculum incapable of meeting the yearnings and aspirations of society, which ought to have contributed meaningfully towards economic growth and national development. The government lackluster approach in these seeming maladies hindering the success of teacher education as her nonchallant attitude towards the programme is not encouraging or motivating thereby rendering the profession unattractive to prospective and existing teachers. This paper therefore, focuses on the ways by which teacher education can be revolutionize, and transformed by replacing the conservative values with more refined values that would enhanced better teacher performance for increase productivity at all levels of the education system. Therefore, it is recommended that government should improve its support to teacher education programmes with increased funding to the education system. Government should enforce the motivation of teachers through increase incentives and regular in-service training for enhanced productivity. The curriculum for teachers’ education should be totally reviewed in it content with the aim of addressing issues affecting it in this contemporary Nigeria. Institutions running teacher education should enforce strict monitoring and supervision of the programme to ensure compliance to it objectives. Qualifications into the programmes should be stringent in nature as to increase its value and respect among other professions. These recommendations if implemented would go a long way in the transformation of teacher education in contemporary Nigeria.