Ekwuluobia—The management of Federal College of Education, Technical, Umunze, Anambra State in collaboration with National Commission for Colleges of Education, NCCE, has organised a three-day capacity building workshop for Teacher Educators on Early Childhood Care and Education in the college. The workshop followed public outcry over the poor quality of Nigeria Certificate in Education, NCE, graduates, who are alleged to be incapable of effectively delivering teaching instructions at the primary school level.

The workshop, with the theme, “Towards Enhancing Quality Standard of Teaching and Learning in Colleges of Education,” was aimed at building the capacity of the teacher educators on the best global practices of training using Indigenous Early Childhood Care and Education Modules to support the successful implementation of NCE’s Early Childhood Care and Education, ECCE curriculum.

Speaking on the occasion, the Head, Quality Assurance, QA, Unit, NCCE, Abuja, Dr. A. Y. Abdulkareem, noted that the workshop would enable the participants understand the structures, contents and methodologies of the new NCE curriculum as well as the implications of restructuring of the Colleges of Education.

Abdulkareem added that the participants would be guided to identify the most effective ways of transforming the QA Unit into effective organs in the college, so as to guide and support them in articulating the most effective strategies to promote a culture of quality and mainstream standards.

He said the Commission had reviewed its teacher education curriculum by aligning it with that of basic education to make it more relevant to teaching at the basic education level. He also said that the review had led to expansion of NCE Minimum Standards to include five new level specific NCE programmes, including Primary Education Studies, ECCE, Junior Secondary School Education, Adult and Non-Formal Education and Special Needs Education to produce specialist teachers for each of the five focal areas.

Earlier in his welcome address, the Provost of the College, Professor Josephat Ogbuagu, said the workshop was aimed at building the capacity of early childhood teacher educators in the country. “The objective is to build the capacity of our teacher educators on the best global practice of training indigenous early childhood care and education modules in support of NCE minimum standards and ECCE curriculum.

“This is in line with regional efforts in ensuring a culturally relevant early childhood education approach that is both African in orientation and affordable to the local population in Africa,” he said.