DEVELOPMENT OF TEACHER EDUCATION IN NIGERIA

DR. (MRS.) A. A. JEKAYINFA

DEPT. OF CURR. STUDIES AND EDU. TECH.
UNIVERSITY OF. ILORIN, NIGERIA.

ABSTRACT

This synopsis of the development of teacher education in Nigeria emphasizes the

relative roles of the Christian missions and the colonial administration. The
recommendation of two commissions (Phelps stokes and Ashby) and their implications to
the development of teacher education in colonial Nigeria are also discussed. The paper
assesses the available teacher training institutions in the country as at 1999 and
recommends that more should be provided in the country to solve the acute shortage of
teachers in the sector while teachers should reciprocate the recent upward review of wages
and salaries by being more dedicated, devoted and committed to their jobs.
INTRODUCTION
The success of an educational enterprise particularly in terms of quality depends to a
large extent, on t he regular supply of teachers in adequate quantity and quality. In the
National Policy on Education, the Federal Republic of Nigeria (1981) a lso assert s t hat
no nat io n can achieve economic, social and technological progress and self-sufficiency
without a good system of education to sustain its achievement. The training and production of
the manpower required for the attainment of national objectives should be framed on the
quality and quantity of teachers.
Fafunwa (1974) stressed the dependency of manpower training and development
on teachers. He argues that teacher education should be basically related to every phase of
development in Nigeria, for wherever one turns, be it economic, political or social spheres
of activities, one is faced with the over-reoccurring problem of trained manpower
needs but no adequate training can take place without competent teachers to handle the
programme.

THE MISSIONARIES EFFORTS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF EDUCATION IN

NIGERIA
The origin and development of teacher education can be traced to the beginning of western
education in t h e country, the various church Missions such as the Wesleyan Methodist, the
Church Missionary Society, the Baptist, the Church of Scotland (Presbyterian) and the Roman
Catholic were very active in Nigeria between 1842 and 1860. They contributed in no small
measure to the development of teacher education. According to Ajayi (1965),the
missionaries devoted their attention init ially to the development of elementary (primary)
education in the country. According to him, this might be due to the litt le stipend the missions
relied upon from their overseas headquarters. Adeyinka ( 1 9 7 1 ) remarks that the
missionaries trained their teachers through the pupil-teacher syst em. I n su ch a set t ing , t he
missionary teacher kept the school in his premises and his pupils lived with him as part of
his family. Fajana (1978) added that those pupils whose ages were about 14 years had to have
passed the standard V examination. They were then recruited as teachers to receive one
hour daily instruction from the head teacher on how to teach. The duration of the course was
two years after which they would sit for the pupil-teacher examination.
 The first teacher training college, known as The Training Institution was established in
Abeokuta in 1859 by the Church Missionary Society (CMS). The schoo l was later mo ved
to Lagos in 1896 when the missionaries were expelled from Abeokuta. It later moved to
Oyo to become the St. Andrews College, Oyo. In 1897, the Baptist Mission established
the Baptist Training College at Ogbomoso. In 1905 the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary
Society founded an institution for the training of catechists and teachers in Ibadan. It opened
with four pupils. The number of pupils had risen to twenty by 1918 and the institution
became known as the Wesleyan College, Ibadan. As the Missionaries were
making frantic efforts to provide teacher training institutions in the Western part of the
country, so also were they trying to provide informal training for the teachers in
the East. According to Fafunwa (1974), under the apprenticeship system, homeless boys
and children of converted village heads lived with the missionaries and were taught to
become pupil teachers and catechists. This practice of using apprenticeship system to
train teachers was very common in the Western part of the country before and after the
establishment of teacher training institution.
The training of teachers in the northern part of Nigeria started with the opening
of the Nassarawa School by the British government in 1909. The pre-requisite
qualification for admission into a teacher training institution was standard IV. Apart from
having Standard IV Certificate, the candidate, according to Fafunwa (1974), must have
served as a pupil-teacher for two years and must have passed the pupil-teacher's certificate
examination and would then have to act as assistant teacher before starting the two-year
training course. At the end of the two years, the candidate would sit for and pass a
prescribed teachers certificate examination and would be certified if he passed the
examination.

THE PHELP-STOKES REPORT AND ITS IMPLICATION ON THE

DEVELOPMENT OF TEACHER EDUCATION IN NIGERIA
There was a severe criticism of the teacher training system of the missions by t he
Phelp-Stokes report of 1925. According to the report, the t eacher t raining syst em was
unsatisfactory, the pupil-teacher was over-worked and under-paid; the curriculum was
poorly conceived. The supervisory system, according to Fafunwa (1974), was inadequate.
The missio ns did not understand the purpose of African education. In order to re-
orientate and re-organise the teacher education system along the lines suggested by the
Phelp-Stokes report to redress the inadequacy of teacher education in the country, two
types of teacher-training institutions were evolved.
1. The Elementary Training College (ETC) for lower primary school teachers ; and
2. The Higher Elementary Training College (H.E.T.C).
The Elementary Training College (ETC) course lasted for two years and culminated in
the award of Grade III Teacher’s Certificate, while the H.E.T.C. course also lasted for
two years and led to the Grade II Teacher's Certificate. Any candidate willing to go for
t he E.T.C course would have served as a pupil teacher for two years and on the successful
completion of the Grade II course had t o teach again for at least two years before
proceeding to the Higher Elementary Training College for the two-year Grade II course.

THE ASHBY COMMISSION'S REPORT AND ITS IMPLICATION ON THE

DEVELOPMENT ON TEACHER EDUCATION IN NIGERIA.
 Before the Ashby Commission’s report, there was nothing like B.A (Ed.) or B.Sc.
(Ed.) or B.Ed, in Nigeria. The few graduates were graduates in Arts or Science (with B.A
or B.Sc. degrees). Some of them had also the Post-Graduate Diploma in E d u c at io n
( P . G. D . E . ) o f t h e University of London (Fafunwa 1974).
One major event in t he development of teacher education in Nigeria was the
publication and subsequent implementation of the Ashby Commission report. While
summarizing the facilities for post secondary education in Nigeria, the Ashby Commission
observed that there was a “gravely inadequate supply of trained and educated teachers” in
Nigeria Secondary Grammar Schools, even when there was an increase in demand for more of
this category of education institutions.
With reference to teacher-education, the most relevant recommendations of
the Ashby Commission were:
a) The opening of more universities
b) The institution of a Bachelor’s Degree in Education, i.e. B.A. (Ed.), B.Sc. (Ed.), or B.Ed.
c) The training of more .teachers for the nation’s secondary schools.
T he d ecad e fo llo w in g t h e attainment of independence by Nigeria was one of rapid
expansion of teacher education facilities. The decade ended w it h t he p ro d u ct io n o f
ano t her educational document namely, the report of the National Curriculum Conference
of 1969(Taiwo, 1986). This document spelt out the objectives and contents of all levels of
education, including teacher education in Nigeria. The 1969 Curriculum Conference
provided the basis for the National Policy on Education of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria (1977) revised in 1981.
The National Policy on Education opened a new page in the development of teacher
training programmes in Nigeria. Adeyinka (1993) observed that with the introduction of
the 6-3-3-4 education system, there was the need for a new orientation of secondary teachers and
students. He stated further that the students were faced with a new curriculum challenge,
that of acquiring the basic knowledge, and for the teachers, the skill to teach the new
curriculum.
National Policy on Education also states that all teachers in the nation's
educational institutions, from pre-primary to university, would be professionally trained. The
implication of this is that more Grade II Teachers’ colleges and more tertiary institutions would
be established for the training of these teachers. This is what happened in the years following
1977 with considerable emphasis on the opening of tertiary institutions for the training of
secondary school teachers in order to ensure that teacher education objectives are
realized.
Adeyinka (1988) stated that certain categories of educational institutions are
charged with the responsibility of giving the required professional 'training for teachers
these are?
i) Grade II Teacher's Colleges,
ii) Advanced Teacher's Colleges,
iii) Colleges of Education
iv) Institutes of Education
v) National Teachers' Institute
Prior to this and in preparation for the U.P.E scheme, the Federal Government had
approved emergency teacher training programmes which began in September, 1974. This,
according to Adeyinka (1988), was meant to produce 163,000 additional teachers estimated for
the scheme. To obtain this large number of teacher trainees, the government mounted four
 different teacher educat io n programmes fo r four different categories of school leavers.
These were:
i) One-year course for holders of the West African School Certificate.
ii) Two-year course for those who attempted WASC and failed or those with
Grade III Teacher's Certificate.
iii) Three-year course for holders of Modern III Certificate or S-75 Certificate i.e.
recognized Secondary Class IV Certificate.
iv) Five-year course of holders of Primary School Certificate.
In 1957, the University of Ibadan introduced a one-year course for graduates leading to
a diploma of education. In1961,the University started a one-year Associate ship course for
selected Grade II teachers who would take over the headship of primary schools after the
successful completion of their studies. (Fafunwa, 1974). The Ashby Commission's
recommendation for Teacher's Grade I colleges was modified to give rise to new programme
and a new certificate - the Nigerian Certificate in Education (NCE). This programme was
meant for the training and preparation of teachers for the lower forms o f secondary
schools, and the teacher training colleges. The schools were popularly called t h e "Advanced
teachers' colleges". They were established at Lagos 1962, Ibadan (1962) but transferred to
Ondo where it became the Adeyemi College of Education). Owerri 1963, Zaria 1962, Kano
1964 and Abraka 1968) (Taiwo, 1986). Admission to these advanced teacher’s colleges was
open to candidates who held either the Teachers' Grade 11 Certificate and passed in two
subjects at the ordinary level of the General Certificate of Education (GCE), or the West
African School Certificate with Credit in at least two subjects, or the G.C.E. (O level)
in five subjects including English Language. To achieve N.C.E, according to Taiwo (1986),
a candidate must pass a final examination in two science or two arts subjects, education and
practical teaching, and must have passed in ancillary subjects like general English, Library
work, Health and physical education, offered during the programme:
The Ashby Commission also recommended teacher education programme at the
university level, observing that the new crop of Grade I teachers popularly referred to as "well-
qualified non-graduate teachers" should be trained to man the lower levels of secondary
schools and teacher-training colleges. The commission therefore recommended the
introduction of a Bachelor of Arts/Science degree in Education (B.A. (Ed.)/B.Sc, (Ed.) in
a ll Nigerian universities
T he B. A and B.S c (E d.) according to Fafunwa (1974) was launched at the
University of Nigeria, Nsukka in September 1961 with 50 students.
The University of Ibadan followed in 1963, Ahmadu Bello University in 1964, the
University of Lagos in 1965 and the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) Ile-
Ife, in 1967.
CONCLUSION
With the efforts of the British government in starting the establishment of teacher training
institutions in the country and with the bold steps taken by the Nigerian Government and
private organizations to continue in the development of these institutions, the country can now
boast of 20 Federal Colleges of Education made up of 11 for regular programmes, eight(8) for
technical programmes and one
(1 ) running special programmes. There are also 38 State Colleges of Education, 12
Polytechnics running education programmes, and three(3) Colleges of Education run
by private organisations (PCE Brochure 1999-2000)
 I n a d d i t i o n , t h e r e a r e 3 5 universities and degree awarding institutions that
are running education programmes. This is made up of 15
Federal Universit ies, three (3) Federal Universities of Technology, 9 State
Universities, 2 State Universities of Technology and another 6 degree
awarding institutions, (U.M.E. Brochure, 1999-2000). Though, the grade II
colleges have been totally faced out in almost all the States of the Federal, but there are
Distant Learning St udies (DLS) o rganised by t he National Teachers’ Institute (NTI) to
r ep lace t he gr ade II t eacher s’ programmes.

RECOMMENDATIONS
Despite the enormous number of teacher training institutions and the production of
teachers in large numbers in the country, there is still acute shortage of teachers in our
educational institutions. It is hereby recommended that both the governments and private
organisations should help in the establishment of more teacher training institutions in the
country to solve the problem of shortage of teachers. With the increase in wages and
salaries by the government, teachers are called upon to reciprocate the good gesture
of the government by being more dedicated and committed to their jobs.

REFERENCE
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western slate of Nigeria 1908-1968. M.Ed. Dissertation-University of Ibadan.

Adeyinka, A. A. (1993) The Development of secondary education in O yo , Ogu n and

Ondo St at es o f Nigeria, 1908-1980, Occasional publication 1, unilorin. Faculty of
Education

Adeyinka, A. A. (1998); History of education in Nigeria Mimeograph

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Ayandele, E A. (1966). The missionary impact on modern Nigeria, 1812-1914: A

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Fafu nwa. A. B (1974). History of education in Nigeria. London: George Allen and
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Fajana, A. (1978), Education in Nigeria, 1847-1930: A historical analysis

Longman: Printing Press.

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Solaru, T. T. (1964) Teacher training in Nigeria. Ibadan; University Press

Taiwo, C.O. (1980). Tim Nigerian education system: fast, present & future. Lagos:
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