Lagos Commissioner Urges Varsities to Improve Lecturers’ Teaching Capacity

Dike Onwuamaeze

The Commissioner for Education in Lagos, Mrs. Folashade Adefisayo, has urged Nigerian universities to provide their lecturers with support training to turn them into superb teachers.

Adefisayo made this remark last week iat the Lagos Education Fair (LEF) that was organised by the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) with the theme ‘Transforming Education: Enhancing Access to Qualitative Tertiary Education’.

She explained that every stakeholder should be “concerned with the quality of teaching that we have in the tertiary institutions,” which she said is largely responsible for the poor quality of Nigerian graduates” who can barely “string a comprehensible sentence in the English language.

“The most critical is that nexus between teaching and learning borders on the relationship between the lecturer and the undergraduates. This is one place I would like our universities to look into because I have the feeling, and forgive me if I am wrong because I left the university many years ago, but it appears that anyone with a PhD can teach. No! Teaching is a skill, and like all skills, it can be taught, it can be learned, and it can be mastered.”In her goodwill message, the Vice-Chancellor of the Lagos State University (LASU), Prof. Ibiyemi Olatunji-Bello, said that LASU would not send lecturers to the classrooms without first equipping them with basic teaching skills.

The Vice-Chancellor of Anchor University, Prof. Sam Oye Bandele, who delivered the keynote speech on ‘Enhancing Access to Quality Tertiary Education’, called for restricted access to ensure that only quality students are admitted into tertiary institutions to ensure quality education.

“I am seeing in the mirror the reintroduction of a Higher School Certificate (HSC) in our institutions. I believe it can create a quality of access to tertiary institutions. Other climes do not rely on O’Level alone,” Bandele said.
He also said that the Nigerian University Commission (NUC) should move from policy formulation to policing the implementation of its policies by tertiary institutions.

The President of the LCCI, Dr. Michael Olawale-Cole, said that Lagos Education Fair underscored the importance of ensuring that more pupils can enrol in tertiary institutions and enjoy excellent learning opportunities.

Similarly, the Chairperson of Education Group of LCCI, Mrs. Modupe Onabanjo, emphasised the need to articulate “an integrated educational, social and economic agenda to promote equitable access, broadened participation and success in higher education.”