The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon Yakubu Dogara, has expressed support for the resuscitation of Teachers’ Colleges in the country, saying it will help to revive the decaying education sector.
Speaking when he received a delegation from Bauchi Teachers College Old Students Association (Class of 87) in his office yesterday, the Speaker said it was not enough for people to get secondary education to get into the teaching profession as they will lack the skills required to impart knowledge in their students.
He said: “Resuscitating Teachers Colleges is something that that I will support anytime because teaching is a specialised field, you can’t just get someone who graduated from a normal conventional secondary school and deploy him or her to the classroom. In most cases, they will have problems explaining certain things. For instance, if I were to teach 12 divided by 3, I can teach it in 5 different ways.
”The foundational teaching I got as a teacher really helped me in the study of law and eventually, made me a better lawyer and that is why I cherish the job you do.
“We were taught the teacher moulds and forms the foundation on which the life of an individual is built because we know that education is the only thing we can do, it is the most powerful, potent weapon we can use not only to transform the individual but the society.
“We have said it quite often that if we have an educated citizenry, even if you don’t have resources, the education will produce wealth. Concomitantly, if you have a very rich country and you don’t have capable manpower, educated people who will tap the resources, both the individuals that occupy that power and the resources will decay.”
He noted that the last and present Assemblies of the House of Representatives had passed motions on the subject and said they will now move further to compel the minister to put the resolutions into motion.
Earlier, the spokesperson of the delegation, Adamu Hassan Burga, urged the speaker to support the recent pronouncement made by the Minister of Education on the reintroduction of Teachers Colleges to boost the education sector by making it possible for it to be made an enactment of law.
According to him, the move will “check the rise of quack teachers in the country and improve public schools where most of the masses’ children attend.”
