‘Tackling challenges in teacher training is our mission’

Registrar, Peaceland College of Education, Enugu, Enugu State, Dr. Patrick Ugwu, has assured of the institution’s commitment to through its unique programmes tactfully combat mounting challenges of teaching and learning in the sector.

Speaking during the 2017 Cultural Fiesta of the school,Ugwu said that studies have shown that many Nigerian youths are unemployable as a result of poor teaching methodology, adding that the college is determined to produce teachers who can impact knowledge and compete with their peers in others parts of the world.

He stated that the college established in 2014 with focus on teacher education and affiliated to Anambra State University, has continued to empower its students with the needed skills to confront world problems.

He said, “If you have a teacher with the right skills, definitely, it will impact positively on a student but the reverse is the case when you
have a teacher without skills. It is therefore imperative for the federal government to also provide special grants for private colleges of education to enable them embark on research in areas of teaching and learning and be able to come out with suitable solutions to our educational problems.

“We keep graduating and producing teachers, who in turn go to the classrooms to teach; but in the end, they produce graduates who cannot be employed anywhere or whose technical knowledge are so hollow that they cannot make good use of their skill. This is what the Peaceland College is trying to correct and we have done so by ensuring that we do not only take them through practical skills, but also expose them to opportunities that would make them competitive.

“We are predominantly certified to award NCE certificate, but because we are not folding our arms to see our competitors riding
over us, we have forged ahead to get ourselves affiliated to a local university and even a foreign university. In this area where we are now, we are running a programme on NCE, we are running the degree and PHD all in education. Our challenge here is funding. We need funding for expansion,” he said.

Also, the Director of Post Graduate Schools, Dr. Flex Ugwuozor, highlighted the need for entrepreneurial orientation in academic programmes, saying that the school has incorporated other extra-curricular activities to produce students that could face the changing world.He stated that part of the problem being experienced in teaching and learning presently was that majority of those handling the students lack technical skills, adding that products of such arrangement would always suffer in competitive environment.