IMPROVING TEACHERS’ QUALITY IN BUSINESS

EDUCATION PROGRAMME IN NIGERIAN COLLEGES

OF EDUCATION: AN EFFECTIVE WAY TO BOOST THE

ECONOMY

ENWERE J.O
ACCOUNTING EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
SCHOOL OF BUSINESS EDUCATION
FEDERAL COLLEGE OF EDUCATION (TECHNICAL),
UMUNZE.

ABSTRACT

Improving teachers’ quality in business education in

Nigerian colleges of education is an effective way of boosting
the economy of the nation and also helping individuals to
effectively combat unemployment and poverty. This paper
examines the concept of teachers’ quality, factors affecting
teachers’ quality, and the effects of poor teachers quality on
NCE graduates of business education. It finally
recommends, among others, that structures should be put
in place by appropriate authorities, the Dean of school of
business education in Nigerian colleges of education and
supervisory team from National Commission for Colleges of
Education (NCCE) to monitor and supervise what business
teachers teach their students to ensure quality teaching in
business education programme in Nigerian College of
Education.

Introduction

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 Business education, is an integral part of vocational

and technical education. it is a form of vocational education

according to Idialu (2007) that is directed towards

developing the learner to become productive in teaching,

paid employment and self-employment. Tema (2007)

postulated that this type of vocational education prepares

learners for gainful employment and sustainable livelihood.

Amor and Udoh (2008) noted that business education plays

significant role in the economic development of any nation

by providing knowledge and skills to the learners thereby

enabling them to adequately impart knowledge into others,

and handle sophisticated office technologies and

information systems.

The goal of business education is primarily to produce

competent, skillful and dynamic business teachers, office

administrators and businessmen and women that will

effectively compete in the world of work. At present, the

caliber of students that graduate from business education,

especially office education option, according to Amoor

(2008), have the problem of inadequate exposure to modern

office technologies, information systems and the rudiments

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of office administration. Nwokolo in Uzo-Okonkwo (2007)

opined that insufficient number of qualified business

teachers in the school system, absence of instructional

gadgets such as computers, typewriters, shorthand

laboratory, dictaphones and office machines, insufficient

number of indigenous business education textbook, and

magazines, poor teacher’s quality, in experience in skills,

student’s poor attitude towards business studies,

insufficient funding by government are responsible for this

unfortunate trend. This paper examines the concept of

teachers’ quality, factors affecting teachers’ quality and the

effects of poor teachers’ quality on students.

Concept of Teacher Quality

Dasko (2002) defined a teacher as a person that

imparts knowledge to people, teaches them how to read and

write, and explains how problems are solved. A teacher

guides the children and advices them on different matters in

relation to their studies and life. Furthermore, Dasko (2002)

noted that a teacher is sometimes a parent to students who

provides for them what they need in class and shows care

when the need arises and he possesses the following traits:

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patience, kindness, loving, caring, honesty down to earth,

friendly, calm, alert and smart. This is because a teacher

has a lot of responsibilities to take care of and must be able

to adapt to different personalities and situations around

him.

Quinton (2002) also noted that a teacher is more than

someone who passes on knowledge but also provides the

interaction, relationship, understanding and encouragement

to enable a person or child to reach the full potential. She

further said that, a teacher provides opportunities that

allow the learners to learn by themselves since learners do

not learn by being told but by finding out for themselves,

just like university students doing independent research.

Webster (2003) defined teacher as one that teaches,

especially the one whose occupation is to instruct. In a

nutshell, a teacher is a person who teaches, guides,

instructs, trains or helps another in the process of learning.

A teacher is a key to the learning process of students in the

classroom. The success of any educational reform depends

largely upon having good quality teachers.

Idialu (2007) described quality as standard of

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something as compared to other things. That is the degree

of goodness or excellence. In his contribution Leigh (2007)

said that teachers’ quality means the ability of the teacher

to raise students’ performance on tests as well as skills, and

also work well with other teachers and school

administrators for the purpose of raising the performance of

the students. Based on these definitions, it is pertinent to

say that teacher quality entails effective and excellent

teaching that improves students learning and satisfaction. It

also ensures that learners possess adequate knowledge,

skills and competences that are appropriate for their areas

of responsibility that would meet the needs of labour

workforce.

A quality teacher, implies a teacher who masters the

subject he teaches, understands how students learn and

what to do when they are having difficulty and who is able

to use effective teaching methods for those who are learning

easily as well as those who have special needs. Teacher

quality is an important determinant of student outcomes.

Factors Affecting Teachers’ Quality in Business

Education Programme

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 The following are factors that affect teacher quality in

business education programme in Nigerian Colleges of

Education:

1. Shortage of Qualified Teachers

Shortage of qualified teachers is a very serious problem

in business education in Nigeria. The need for technical

manpower in the present stage of development is very

important as one strive towards being a self reliant nation,

no meaningful development can take place without a

conscious effort to develop manpower. Most of the graduates

of business education do not like to teach, they prefer to

work in the industry, and those who are ready to teach are

most of the time not employed. The effect of this is that

some business subjects are not offered in schools, while

some are offered and taught by unqualified teachers. For

example, teaching of shorthand by an accounting teaching,

this can greatly affect the quality of teaching (Enwere &

Anyaele, 2012). Qiang and Shiyan (2007) observed that

teachers in vocational education are always too busy

because they have to teach many students, evaluate and

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supervise more than ten students. These inevitably affect

the quality of teaching in vocational education.

2. Teachers Qualifications and Experiences

The educational qualifications of teachers and their

experiences affect teacher quality. Unqualified teachers will

not be able to perform efficiently. This is the case in most of

our colleges of education where part-time teachers are hired

instead of full time teachers. Closely related to this is the

inexperience of teachers. Inexperienced teachers do not

know how to and what to teach and when to teach them

(Uzo-Okonkwo, 2007). These factors constitute poor teacher

quality. In business education, teachers are expected to be

well equipped with high level of theory but also a strong

operational ability. Therefore, in a situation where a teacher

lacks one, it may result to poor teacher quality.

3. Lack of Supervision of Teachers

It is observed that once a business teacher is

employed, he is assigned courses to teach, and nobody

cares to monitor or supervise what he teaches. If such a

teacher is inexperienced, and not supervised, the students

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are at risk of learning things that may not lead to the

desired knowledge, skills and competence.

In another dimension, some academic staff take up

visiting appointments to two or more colleges of education,

thereby ignoring their primary assignments where they take

up tenure appointment. This can seriously affect teacher

quality.

4. Poor Image of Business Education Programme

There is still poor image of vocational and technical

education in the eyes of the general public. Idialu (2007)

stated that the new policy document on education in section

6, subsection 47 recognizes the general public attitude that

regard vocational and technical education as somewhat

inferior to other types of education. Idialu (2007) stated that

there is still a strong tendency towards white collar jobs as a

result of low status associated to vocational education. He

stressed further that most parents want their children to be

medical doctors, accountants, lawyers and so on, this

attitude of people toward vocational education significantly

contribute to the problem of teacher quality.

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Effects of Poor Teachers’ Quality on Graduates of
Business Education

Poor teacher quality causes serious damages on the

graduates of business education in Nigerian colleges of

education in the following ways;

 It hinders the graduates from developing intellectual

skills and knowledge that will equip them to contribute

significantly to the society and nation at large.

 It denies graduates the ability to satisfy requirements of

the labour market. This causes unemployment and

subsequently graduates are engulfed in poverty and

crime.

Conclusion

Based on our discussion on factors affecting teachers’

quality in business education programme, it is concluded

that shortage of teachers, lack of supervision of teachers,

teachers qualification and experience and poor image of

vocational and technical education affect teacher quality in

business education programme in Nigerian college of

education.

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Recommendations

In order to effectively improve teacher quality in

business education programme in Nigerian colleges of

education, it is recommended that:-

1. Both Federal and State governments should create

special allowances to enhance teachers salaries as it is

obtainable in the medical profession. This will entice the

subsequent graduates of business education to take up

tenure appointment as teachers in business education

department instead of rushing to industries for

employment. Once this is put in place, it will reduce the

workload in teaching and supervision of students by few

available teachers thereby, creating more time for the

teachers to conduct research, to improve the quality of

teaching and learning.

2. Colleges of education management should ensure that

only qualified and experienced teachers that posses very

high level of theory and strong operational ability are

recruited to teach accounting, marketing and office

education courses. Subsequently, they should be

encouraged to participate in at least one international

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 conference in a year and several local conferences and

seminars to update their knowledge, skills and

competencies.

3. Business education teachers should be supervised. A

structure should be put in place by the Dean of school of

business education in Nigeria colleges of education and

supervisory team from National Commission for College

of Education (NCCE) to monitor or supervise business

teachers to ensure quality teaching. Business teachers

should not be allowed on their own to teach anything

they feel. The curriculum should be strictly followed and

implemented. All business teachers should be made to

compulsorily use teaching aids to teach their students.

4. Government should educate the public on the usefulness

of business education to individuals, community and the

nation at large; and should provides all the necessary

teaching and learning equipment and possibly award

scholarship to business education students.

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