The Dean of the Faculty of Education, University of Ibadan, Prof Clement Olaniran Kolawole, is seeking the re-introduction of teacher training colleges.
The professor of Language Education also canvassed for Education to be extended to a five year course in the university.
Delivering the maiden Faculty of Education Lecture of the Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko, Ondo State, entitled: Imperatives for quality and quantity in teacher preparation for the 21st Century Educational Institutions in Nigeria, Kolawole, advised that course content for producing teachers should be the same.
“There is an urgent need to harmonise all the academic content and professional teaching practice of all the programmes being used in teacher preparation programmes in Nigeria to promote uniformity of content and the practical aspects of the programmes.
“To facilitate this, the bachelor’s programme in education should now become five years so that four years can be used to expose the students to adequate content knowledge while the fifth year will be devoted exclusively to professional practice,” he said.
Kolawole also called for the re-establishment of the Grade II Teachers Colleges, which were abolished decades back, to replace the programmes being run by the National Teachers Institute.
He said: “The intensity of the training and the depth of the physical, mental, moral and academic exposure at the Teachers Grade II programme is incomparable with what both the National Teachers Institute and the colleges of education carry out today in their teacher education programmes.”
Kolawole recommended that Teachers Grade II colleges be made the starting point for the training of teachers for other higher levels in the country.