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 ýto 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 ýsomething 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.
ý”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 ýmost 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.ý
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
Educationý 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.”