.As TRCN Chief laud CCED for producing skillful, well qualified and equipped teachers
Corona College of Education (CCED) Lagos, has assured of its commitment to ensuring value and technology- driven education system to enhance development of the sector.
This is as a total of 150 students of the college received various certificates for the 2020/2021 academic session.
The Provost of the College ,Dr. Olajumoke Mekiliuwa, disclosed this at the fourth convocation ceremony and third public lecture, organised by the institution.
At the Convocation Ceremony, the College presented a total of One Hundred and Fifty (150) students for the award of certificates, diplomas and prizes, representing 125 in Professional Diploma in Education, 08 in Nigeria Certificate in Education and 17 in Professional Diploma in Early Childhood Care and Education
Themed: Image-Making, Rebranding And Re-Evaluation Of Teaching As A Profession In Nigeria Professor. S. A. Oyebade from the Department of Educational Management, Faculty of Education, University of Lagos, Akoka who is the Guest Lecturer and other participants urged the federal government and all relevant stakeholders in the education sector to build a school system that is sufficiently equipped with all modern technological infrastructure on which 5G tools can thrive.
According to Prof. Oyebade there is need for consideration of some capacity upgrade requirements of teachers and other educationists to remain relevant in the new era. Especially now that artificial intelligence, among other educational competences, can handle multiple and diversified learners beyond what a subject teacher can attempt to handle in a life time.
He assured that 5G technologies are not a substitute for teachers in class but they are constant in any learning system, either digital or traditional, in any particular fields of research, educational technology, curriculum design, learning design, soft skills facilitation, guidance and counseling, etc.
He called on the 21st century teachers to have a 5G technology mindset, because technology does not come with learning contents; but is mainly concerned about the process consisting of the learning media and the methodologies.
He said that in the face of the technological driven academic environment, there still need for experts to design the contents of the subjects and their evaluation criteria.
Mekiliuwa, in her address, reminded the graduating students that beyond the knowledge and skills they have acquired in the classrooms, there are skills that employers are looking for in them.
She urged them to be agents of change, light-bearers, solution providers and pathfinders in confronting the numerous challenges bedeviling Nigeria education system and the nation at large.
Expressing her dissatisfaction with declining enrolment into Teacher education, occasioned partly by societal perceptions of teachers and poor reward systems, Mekiliuwa affirmed that there is need for a review of the teacher’s roles and image for the sake of rebranding the profession.
She said the lecture became imperative to establish an academic tradition for the college in information dissemination to generate discourses around pertinent issues in the sector to galvanise change in the education sector.
Speaking further, she maintained that the lecture avails the graduating students opportunity to know that they need to build competences, skills, adaptability, creativity into themselves and go out there to make a change in the schools they are teachers.
Also speaking, the CEO of Corona School’s Trust Council, Mrs Adeyoyin Adesina called on the federal government to consider the issues of support for private colleges who are bridging the gap in the attainment of tertiary education for our youths , as they are ameliorating the declining quality and standard of education in the country.
She noted that such support can come via Tertiary Education Trust Fund(TETfund) through staff training, sponsorship ,human capital development and other relevant interventions.
She maintained that the college is committed to its vision and mission of being the best provider of teacher education in Nigeria, with premium quality and standard. for the training of globally competitive graduates.
The CEO enjoined the graduating students to be agents of change and solution provider to the numerous challenges bedeviling the sector.
Also in his remarks, the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria, (TRCN), CEO/ Registrar’s, Prof. Josiah Ajiboye who inducted the graduating students commended the management of CCED for producing skillful teachers who are well qualified and equipped to impart the society.
He lamented that more than 50 per cent of those currently teaching in primary and secondary schools nationwide are still not qualified to be in the classroom, and urge all that are yet to be certified do all it takes to get certified .
According to him, teachers in this category do not have basic teaching educational qualifications, which is the National Certificate in Education (NCE) as stipulated by the National Policy on Education.
The TRCN chief said the two certificates are mandatory and none is optional for teachers’ recruitment, as evidence has shown that professional teachers perform their duties more committedly.
“So, those without these two certificates are not supposed to get teaching employment, let alone be in the classroom teaching,” he stated.
