THE Federal Government has vowed to firmly tackle the twin problems of examination malpractices and cultism in schools as part of efforts to improve on the quality of education in the country.
Government has also announced plan to review the curriculum used for the training of teachers at the Colleges of Education for proper preparation of teachers to teach in primary and secondary schools.
Minister of State for Education, Professor Anthony Anwuka, speaking at an interactive session with newsmen during the weekend in Abuja, Anwuka, said government was concerned with the level of damage examination malpractice has done to the nation’s educational system.
He said teaching in Nigeria would no longer be an all-comers affair, saying by law, a National Certificate in Education (NCE) was supposed to be the minimum qualification for teaching at the primary school level.
Prof. Anwuka, said it was unfortunate that the training of teachers at Colleges of Education nationwide does not appear to be in consonance with the expectation of primary school teaching and learning.
He said for instance that an NCE student in a college of Education studying Education Physics, Education Chemistry, and Education Biology, could not effectively teach primary school pupils because the curriculum has no bearing with that primary education.
The Minister said: “Right now what we are doing is to prepare NCE graduates for admission into Faculty Education to read Bachelor’s Degree in Education and that is where their mind is and the preparation is geared towards but not to come and teach at the primary school level because they have not been prepared adequately for teaching in primary school.
“Teaching must stop being an all-comers game in this country. When they studied Chemistry from a University, because there is no job, somebody will say let’s go and teach. Teach what? You have not been prepared to teach,” he said.
He urged the National Teachers’ Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) to be up and doing, stressing that anybody who wants to teach in Nigeria’s school system must be trained and certified to teach in the system.
Anwuka, insisted that the Federal Government would look at that at all levels of education in the country, saying those who want to remain in the system must have to go and take some courses in pedagogy in order to teach.
He vowed that the current administration would do all it could to elevate the status of teaching in this country so as to attract best hands into the system.
The Minister said the Federal Government would enhance the working condition of teachers and make the profession much more attractive through enhanced remunerations than any other profession in the country.
The Minister, who also spoke on the sales of the Federal Government free textbooks supplied to schools, warned that anybody involved in that illicit deal would face the wrath of the law.
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