From Aloysius Attah, Onitsha
The number of qualified teachers in the teaching profession in Nigeria swelled recently.
At an event at the auditorium of Nwafor Orizu College of Education, Nsugbe (NOCEN), Anambra State, the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) inducted 835 graduates of various educational disciplines and certificates from the institution into the profession
The ceremony, the third session in the college, featured presentation of certificates and the capping and decoration of the inductees.
Registrar/ Chief Executive Officer of TRCN, Abuja, Prof. Josiah Olusegun Ajiboye expressed optimism that the inductees possessed the mental ability to spring positive surprises at critical times in the quality of teachers needed in Nigeria today.
The Registrar, represented by the Director, Professional Operations, Ibrahim Dahiru Roni, noted that today’s teachers must not only fit into the demands of contemporary life, but must be at shoulder level with every other professional groups functioning in the wider context of a knowledge-driven economy.
While describing teaching as the noblest and oldest professions in the world, he said from the induction exercise, all the inductees had been accepted into the teaching profession without the rigors of undergoing all the cycles of professional qualifying examinations.
“I want to appreciate the Provost, the College Authority and the induction committees for the teamwork to make this induction exercise a continuous one. Today’s occasion is yet a signage demonstration of zeal to improve the process of teaching and learning. It is common knowledge that this college has been playing a significant role of producing high-level manpower for the teaching profession. These products have the elastic mental ability to spring positive surprises at critical times, such is the quality of teachers we need as a nation today.
“All other professionals and practitioners are educated and taught by the teacher, hence everybody who is anybody was taught how to be somebody by a teacher. Therefore, teaching should be accorded its rightful exotic place of prominence through inculcation of best practices which induction is here to promote
“The professional teacher must embrace radical paradigm shift from the content and method model to the broad knowledge base model which incorporates the essential ingredients of professionalism,” he said.
Provost of NOCEN, Dr Cordelia Ego Uzoezie noted that the inductees comprised graduands with various qualifying degrees like Post Graduate Diploma in Education, PDE, Bachelors in Education, B. Ed and National Certificate in Education (NCE).
She described education as an important instrument for national development and praised the efforts of TRCN in repositioning the teaching profession. In her words, no educational system could rise above the quality of its teachers.
The provost noted that the world is changing while fresh challenges continue to emerge. She noted the need for professionalism in the teaching career so as to develop skills and competence through continuing professional development (CDP) to enable the teachers address the emerging problems.
“The efforts of TRCN in repositioning the teaching profession can never be over-scored. Today, quacks are being flushed out of the system and we teachers who remain in the noble calling feel proud and motivated.
“To the inductees, it is worthy of celebration that you have achieved your dream. You toiled and persevered these years to be fully equipped to face the future. Remember the factual statement that the competent teacher is he/she who knows what to teach (content), how to teach (methodology) and why he/she is teaching (objectives),” she said.
The Director of Academic Planning, NOCEN, Dr Ken Azubike, in a chat, described the task of moulding and producing teachers as a difficult one owing to several challenges. But she praised efforts of such bodies like TRCN, which, she said, had come up with a benchmark and had been working hard to ensure that only qualified teachers were given to the society to handle the business of education.
He boasted that Nwafor Orizu College of Education, Nsugbe had been meeting up with the challenges, adding that the quality of teachers produced by the school was very high.
Azubike clarified that the new inductees comprised teachers with several academic qualifications like Phd, MSc, B.Sc who enrolled for the programme because they needed some qualification in education.
The Chairman of Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union, COEASU, NOCEN, Law Egbomuche Okeke, who was one of the inductees, described the qualification into the teaching profession as stressful, since the inductees had to start from completely different disciplines. But he said he felt great feeling to finally see himself among the assemblage of qualified teachers.