LAGOS – The National Teachers’ Institute (NTI) on Wednesday called for more commitment to teaching practice to enhance teachers’ abilities to translate knowledge.
Mr Moses Akinmurele, Lagos State NTI Coordinator, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that teaching must be participatory, inclusive and pupils-centred for effectiveness.
According to him, all prospective teachers should be able to use the approach in order to translate knowledge to pupils.
He said that practice was aimed at ascertaining the effectiveness of prospective teachers in communicating to pupils.
The coordinator said that practice would also equip prospective teachers with the ability to translate knowledge to pupils.
“Teachers are regarded as a bundle of knowledge; so, they should be able to translate such knowledge to pupils.
“Some teachers are very intelligent but are not able to communicate to pupils,’’ he noted.
He said that NTI had made teaching practice mandatory for all its final year students because of its importance to education development.
He said that the students were already in their third week of teaching practice, warning that any student who did not complete it satisfactorily would not graduate.
“Children learn faster through participatory mode of teaching, which sticks into the mind of the child.
“Gone are the days when the method of teaching was one-sided and not participatory.’’
He said that a primary school teacher should be properly groomed, trained and sound in participatory method of teaching.
“All these are measures to improve the quality of education especially at the primary level.
“The institute will not graduate anybody who is incapable of translating knowledge to students through communication.
“If a teacher is computer literate and properly translates it to pupils, the pupils will be computer literate.
“That is the purpose of teaching practice — to turn out seasoned and articulate teachers who will be able to deliver,” he said.
He advised the government to invest more in teachers for facilitated national development. (NAN)