By Olakunle Olafioye
In a bold move to revive the dwindling fortune of colleges of education in Nigeria, the Federal Government has given an additional mandate of awarding Bachelor’s Degree in Education to Federal Colleges of Education in the country following the signing into law of the Federal Colleges of Education Act 2023.
In this interview Dr Tolu Okoruwa, head, Department of Early Childhood Care and Education at the Federal College of Education, Osiele, Abeokuta, Ogun State, examines the newly signed legislation, arguing that there are still few grey areas that must be addressed before the take-off of the new policy.
President Tinubu has just assented to a legislation which confers dual mandate on Federal Colleges of Education to award both NCE and Bachelor’s degree in education. How are stakeholders in the nation’s colleges of education reacting to this development?
Let me start by correcting a misconception. What the president approved is not a dual mandate. The dual mandate that was on ground before was such that students would first run two or three years of NCE and then proceed to three-year bachelor degree in the university. But what has just been approved now is that the two will run parallel: NCE will run for three years while those who put in for a degree will run four years. This is a good development for a number of reasons. First, it will increase access to university education. Before now, only universities could award degrees in education and adding colleges of education to institutions that can award degree, that means more students will be admitted and so we will be able to produce more teachers and the more teachers we have the more it will benefit the nation because we need teachers to be able to drive the development of this country. This development will also improve the quality of teachers that we produce because before now those who finished in colleges of education would have to apply all over again for admission in universities, but now that colleges of education have the two of them the transition will be much easier and this will help them to be more willing. Those who would probably have wanted to stop at NCE because of the uncertainty over whether they would be granted admission as a result of having to take JAMB again will be motivated to proceed. Before now universities only admitted a few of those who applied for Direct Entry with NCE; a larger percentage of the admission slots were given to those who applied through UTME. But with this new development it will be easier because as many of them that are qualified and that are willing to proceed to university. Another plus about this development is about the “autonomy” of the NCE. In my college, for example, we are running programmes in affiliation with two different universities. The universities determine so many things about these programmes whereas it is the colleges that are doing much of the work. But now things are going to change.
Nigeria used to have what was known as Teachers Education Certificate which has been phased out now. There is apprehension that granting NCE the power to award Bachelor’s degree in education may sound a death knell on NCE as most applicants may opt for direct Bachelor’s degree instead of taking the NCE route. Do you also share this fear?
First, the entry requirements for NCE and Bachelor’s degree are not the same. The cut-off marks for admission into NCE is smaller compared to that of a Bachelor’s degree. So, there will always be those who want to study education, but who cannot meet admission requirements for university. So, these ones can go to colleges of education.
The dichotomy between HND and Bachelor’s degree is one factor that has made most admission seekers show preference for university education as opposed to polytechnic. Don’t you envisage a similar development between Colleges of Education and the university as this policy takes off?
I don’t see any rivalry between colleges of education and universities over this policy. Rather, I view it more as a healthy one because, let’s not deceive ourselves, the teachers that are trained in colleges of education are classroom-ready teachers even they are, according to our educational policy, supposed to man the pre-primary to junior secondary schools while the senior secondary school should be manned by university degree holders. But the reality that I have seen is that those who finished in colleges of education before going to the university for their degree perform better than those who come in directly from secondary schools and, in fact, the majority of those who finish their degree in first class are mostly former NCE products. So, I see it more as a win-win thing. If the universities see that there is something that the colleges have that they don’t have, there is a tendency that the universities might want to upscale and upgrade as possible. In the colleges of education now, our teaching practice exercise is now a six-month programme, whereas in the university it may be just six weeks. At the end of the day, if we want to be objective, the products of colleges of education are usually more classroom-ready than those that are produced by universities.
Do you see the new policy as the elixir needed to revive the declining relevance of colleges of education in Nigeria?
Let me make it clear that it is not only in colleges of education that enrolment is declining even the university too is experiencing the same. The only difference is that it seems more pronounced in colleges of education. But with this opportunity to award degrees, colleges of education will definitely experience a resurgence because now colleges of education will no longer depend solely on students coming for NCE, but also on those coming in for degree programmes.
The full implementation of the policy is set to commence across federal colleges of education in September. Are you not disturbed that the timeline may be too short for effective take of this policy?
I am really concerned because in Nigeria we are so used to the fire brigade approach. Like I said earlier, what has been on ground was the dual mandate. But the challenge then is that the duration of NCE programmes fluctuated repeatedly with directives and counter directives coming from Abuja. Today they may say the programme should run for two years and tomorrow it may change to three years. This was what we were looking forward to be permanently addressed when suddenly this new policy- that NCE and Bachelor’s degree should run concurrently came up. Our policy makers need to really sit down and make up their minds as regards where they really want to go and plan adequately. The challenge with the September take-off date for the implementation of the policy are many. First, the students who are coming in for the programme have obtained JAMB forms and have written their examinations without even applying to these colleges of education. So, what form will the admission take? Secondly, the Federal Government has said the programme will only take-off in about 15 federal colleges of education with appreciable facilities and infrastructure, but whichever way one looks at it, these facilities may not be adequate to run these two programmes concurrently. Also NCE is being coordinated by the National Commission for Colleges of Education while the National University Commission coordinates the activities of universities. By the time this policy takes off, are the colleges going to be coordinated by the two bodies? So, these are the things that the policy makers should have addressed first. How do we get the facilities? How do we get the manpower? Which commission will coordinate and supervise these institutions? In three months the admission process will begin, how do we go about it? I think the time is too short; there is a need for thorough planning to avoid a situation where the policy will take-off on a wrong footing.
The problem of dearth of qualified teachers only affects private schools. I will tell you that we have master’s degree holders and PhD holders even in some primary and secondary schools in Nigeria. But it is in the private schools, where the proprietors want to make more profit that we have the problem of unqualified teachers. Unfortunately, most of our children are in private schools. That is the irony. The proprietors in private schools want to pay peanuts because they know that the higher the qualification the higher the salary that will be demanded. Unfortunately, in public schools where we have highly trained and qualified teachers, it is very difficult to see the effect because of lack of supervision. Unlike in the private schools, where the teachers are kept on their toes from morning till the closing time, teachers in public schools do not show enough commitment on their job because they are not closely supervised. And because of this, parents decide to withdraw their children to private schools; showing preference for the unqualified, but properly supervised teachers in private schools above the highly qualified, but not teachers in our public schools.