Dr. Bello Zakariyau Adebayo, Head of the Department of Biology at Kwara State College of Education, Ilorin, sheds light on the pressing issues plaguing Nigeria’s education sector, particularly the quality of teachers graduating from Colleges of Education (COEs). In a candid and exclusive interview with thenigeriaeducationnew.com, He discusses the challenges, offers unique perspectives, and proposes far-reaching reforms.
Q: Can you describe your experience with teacher training or regulation in Nigeria, and how would you assess the general quality of teachers graduating from Nigeria’s Colleges of Education today?
Dr. Bello : My name is Dr. Bello Zakariyau Adebayo, the HOD of the Department of Biology, Kwara State College of Education, Ilorin. Your question is tripartite; it has three dimensions. I will answer it this way.
The first problem we are facing today in teaching is the problem of professionalisation. Teaching is not yet fully regarded as a profession. Unlike medicine, accountancy, or law, where you must pass through a strict system and certification before you can be recognised, anyone who can hold chalk and talk in front of a crowd can call themselves a teacher. That is why we now see the rise of extra-moral classes during breaks. The question is: who are the teachers handling these lessons? In most cases, they are not trained teachers. Professional teachers, who have worked throughout the term, are either resting, furthering their studies, or engaged elsewhere. Instead, undergraduate students or community members who can speak English simply step in to teach children.
Teaching, however, is a noble job. A teacher is like a doctor, the classroom is the theatre, and the student is the patient. Putting a quack teacher before children is like putting a quack doctor in the theatre; it is a death sentence. These untrained teachers end up confusing children with wrong knowledge, and the professional teacher later has to make them unlearn and relearn. Unfortunately, nobody regulates these extra classes. The Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) should have stepped in. Retired teachers or principals, who have both experience and credibility, could be engaged for such community teaching instead.
The second issue is the perception of Nigerian Certificate in Education (NCE) holders as second-class teachers compared to degree holders. Society tends to look down on them. But the truth is, Colleges of Education are specifically established to produce teachers for primary and junior secondary schools. Their training is rigorous, and their teaching practice is far more robust than what degree students undergo.
At the NCE level, students spend six months, which is an entire semester, on teaching practice. They serve as full teachers, taking on responsibilities such as class management, excursions, and even labour duties. This is similar to doctors going for housemanship in teaching hospitals; without it, you cannot become a complete doctor. Degree students, on the other hand, only do teaching practice twice, for just four weeks each, mostly observational. Clearly, the depth of experience between the two cannot be compared.
Another strength of the NCE is the curriculum structure. In Colleges of Education, lecturers teach both the core sciences and pedagogy. For example, in Biology Education, lecturers are trained in both the science itself and in methods of teaching it. Students receive direct, specialised training for three years. In contrast, university education students must “borrow” science or arts courses from other faculties, where they are often treated as second-class students. This discrimination demoralises them and affects their confidence. Over time, they lose interest in science because they feel insignificant.
To solve this, universities should restructure their Faculties of Education into full Colleges of Education, just as we have Colleges of Nursing or Colleges of Medicine. With a provost in charge and dedicated laboratories for each discipline, students would gain specialised training and stop relying on “borrowed” courses.
In fact, every College of Education must have model primary and secondary schools on campus for accreditation. These schools serve as laboratories where student teachers immediately apply what they learn in class. In contrast, university primary or secondary schools often operate as business ventures, not under the Faculty of Education. This limits their use for professional teacher training.
All of this shows clearly that the quality of NCE graduates cannot be compared with degree holders from Faculties of Education. Both cover similar curricula, but NCE graduates have stronger practical exposure and are more professionally prepared for teaching, especially at the foundational levels of education.
Q: What role should the NCCE play in raising the standard of Colleges of Education, and is the current NCE curriculum still relevant for preparing competent 21st-century teachers?
Dr. Bello :You see, we should give credence to the National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE). Every five years, they carry out what is known as the minimum standard review of the curriculum. The one we are using now was created in 2020, and it expired this year. By next year, we will have a review of another curriculum.
If you compare the 2015 curriculum with that of 2020, you will clearly see the difference, because the current realities were captured in the new one, especially in areas like digital literacy, entrepreneurship skills, and other competencies required for the 21st-century teacher.
So, in that regard, the current NCE curriculum is loaded and capable of transforming the education sector into a better future, precisely because it is reviewed in line with present needs.
Q: How effective is TRCN’s certification process in filtering or improving teacher quality?
Dr. Bello :I have issues with TRCN because they need to step up and act like other regulatory bodies. For example, nobody can dress as a lawyer or doctor without certification; there are sanctions. If you operate a hospital without being a certified doctor, they will close it down and even jail you. The same goes for pharmacies and chemists; National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) ensures no one sells drugs without proper approval.
This is what we expect TRCN to do. How many schools have they shut down? How many quack teachers have they prosecuted, whether in public or private schools? If TRCN is truly here to regulate, then every teacher in the classroom should have passed through their certification. The classroom is like a theatre; putting an uncertified teacher there is like putting a quack doctor in an operating room.
If TRCN enforces this strictly, people will value going through the Faculty of Education to build a career, rather than switching to teaching through The Postgraduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) just because they couldn’t find a job elsewhere. This practice lowers the self-esteem of professional teachers. Right now, some people simply pay the fee, write the TRCN exam, and claim to be teachers. That is not enough.
TRCN must act as a true regulatory body. If the law is weak, they should push to strengthen it. Unqualified teachers should be phased out completely, and any school or agency hiring them should face sanctions. Certification should not be about money; it should be about quality training and competence.
If TRCN takes this role seriously, then teacher quality will improve, and the teaching profession will finally be regarded as the respected profession it deserves to be.
Q: Would you support regular competency tests or re-certification for all teaching graduates?
Dr. Bello :I don’t fully support the idea of regular competence tests because I see them as shortcuts. For instance, to become a lawyer, one must spend a year in law school after university, which is a whole system on its own, and only then can one be called to the bar. By comparison, a mere competence test for teachers is not enough.
What I believe should happen is that every college and faculty of education should have a teaching laboratory. There, students can be assigned to micro-teaching and teaching practice, which will test both their intelligence and practical ability. The results from this process should then be merged with the CBT and used to certify the individual as a qualified teacher. In this sense, what teachers receive should not just be a certificate, but a license.
Even though the certificate currently serves as a license, it should be clearly recognized as one and subject to review after 10 years of service. During that period, teachers should undergo seminars, workshops, and conferences to update their knowledge. When reevaluation comes, the license should not be revoked but renewed, provided the teacher has met the requirements. In this way, the profession will not be treated as a lifetime qualification but one that demands continuous in-service training.
Q: What reforms would you propose to revamp teacher education in Nigeria, and how can digital tools be better incorporated into teacher training?
Dr. Bello :Kudos to the Kwara State Government and the Kwara State College of Education, Ilorin, precisely, for recognizing the need for smart teachers. They understand that a smart teacher must have digital literacy, because learning digital skills after graduation is the same as continuing the training. As such, at the Kwara State College of Education, we have incorporated digital skills through a computer training programme. Consequently, no student at the NCE level will graduate without digital skills, such as graphic design, with certification.
We are now running a dual mode: NCE and Diploma in Computer Science. The curriculum incorporates courses that deal with practical computer applications, taught in semester modules like graphics, coding, and Excel. Students come to school every Saturday for that training. This way, after graduation, when they are given any smart gadget to work with, whether a smart board or a projector, they won’t feel surprised. Instead, they will blend seamlessly, and that is what defines a 21st-century teacher.
We want other colleges to emulate this approach because if they do, they will also be producing smart teachers.
Q: If you could advise the Minister of Education directly, what three reforms would you recommend immediately?
Dr. Bello :Firstly, I will advise a re-reform, that is, to revert back to the status quo, and I will plead that the reform they are bringing in should be reversed immediately because it poses a danger since it is not yet prepared for. The CBT exam for WAEC and NECO is not yet time. Because, as of today, the best exams that test the children’s intelligence in terms of psychomotor and cognitive ability are WAEC, NECO, and NABTEB, due to the way the questions are structured. It is very okay as it tests students’ skills for manipulative, psychomotor, and cognitive ability. The exam is in two sections, which are A and B. Section A is for multiple choice, and Section B tests their literacy, literacy of biology, chemistry, and how they can write. The last section is the practical aspect of science with specimens for biology, physics, chemistry, home economics, and agriculture. With CBT, all these will be drained. It will be a very bad index for the economy because teachers will stop going to the lab for their students, and practicals will stop in secondary schools because they are not being tested again. All the science labs will be redundant because teachers will see no reason to take them to the lab for practicals when WAEC or NECO are not testing them for it again. Silently, they are killing the practical aspect of sciences, which will not go well with the country.
Secondly, if they actually want to migrate to CBT, the only CBT exam body is JAMB, and how well are they worth copying? They should stop looking at integrity for the exam. Integrity is not the only index of a good exam. Because the exam does not leak again does not mean it is the best. Meanwhile, when there is a rule and regulation, malpractice by a teacher or student can be punished. Integrity of the exam should not take over the credibility and capacity to affect the worth of the exam. Lastly, the danger of CBT is that it will remove the hands of teachers from marking, and when the teacher marks, they are involved in the assessment and give feedback to their students on areas of common error because they are the ones marking the scripts. It is a very good feedback mechanism, because sometimes they see their own faults in their teaching. All these are the dangers of turning the WAEC and NECO exams into CBT, regardless of the advantages. Nobody is disputing the good side of CBT, but not WAEC and NECO for now, because we have not reached where we can do practicals on a computer. We can do practicals on a virtual lab, but how many schools are trained to do practicals on a virtual lab? Until we are digitally improved and schools have virtual labs, we can now start doing WAEC and NECO with CBT, because practicals will be done on a computer. A lot needs to be done before migrating to the global standard of CBT exams.
Secondly, the NELFUND loan should be given as a grant, where students will be profiled with their BVN, rather than a loan that they will pay back, and which can still turn them into defaulters or be misused. But if they give a grant, it has a way that they can monitor it because grants have accountability processes, and everything they do for you will be free, but you cannot divert that money. But with a loan, you are paying back, and you cannot question the student on how they spend it. But in a grant, there is a formula and accountability mechanism on how to spend, and they revert back. Sometimes the credit facilities will be with me, but they cannot pay me directly.
Lastly, I hope for them to shorten the number of days we are going to school. We can have just 3 days for school, and vocational and technology skills for 2 days if they are serious about the technical program. There are those advocating for vocational teaching. So, Monday to Wednesday for school and Thursday to Friday for vocational training officially, rather than staying in the classroom learning theory. They should create many vocational centers like IV Tech Ajase-Ipo across the country. When they do this kind of program, it turns the student into a functional part of society, and the job hunt will not be there again. Most of them have been equipped, and there will be less tension on the government to create employment. Imagine if I learned woodwork from JSS1 to SS3, I would be a professional in furniture. Because the time they only have now is Saturday and Sunday, which doesn’t give them stability in that work. Formal education for 3 days, vocational for 2 days, and Saturday and Sunday for rest and chores. This will create less tension for everybody, and nobody will say school is a scam again, and everybody will be a functional member of their society.
