Effect of Gender and Year of Graduation on the Quality of N.C.E. English Graduate Teachers

Abstract

Series of papers have been written on the diverse challenges facing English language teaching in Nigeria which has led to the poor performance of students in the English Language. A lot of these works have concentrated on the Senior Secondary Education. They have identified as part of the problems, English Language (L2) teachers that are not academically qualified to teach are found in the classroom handling the teaching of the language, lack of adequate teaching materials, among others. A lot of these papers have failed to look at the competent of the English Language (L2) teachers at the Primary and the Junior Secondary level where the foundation of learning the language is expected to be laid. The quality of the English L2 teachers that have been certified, through the Nigeria Certificate in Education(N.C.E.) to teach at these levels. As a contribution towards ameliorating the drawbacks being experienced in the teaching and learning of the English Language in Nigeria, this paper attempts to investigate the quality of already certified teachers of English (L2) holding the Nigeria Certificate in Education. The sample of the study were fifty English Language students in 200 level, selected purposively. The criteria for selection is completion of Nigeria Certificate in Education (N.C.E.) programme in the English Language (L2). The class of Ninety B.Ed. English Student is heterogeneous because it contains students who got admission through UTME and Direct entry (those who have done NCE before). The criteria for selection is completion of NCE degree. Common Error Tests in grammar usage was used as the instrument for data collection. Test items comprise grammatical errors ranging from commonly confused spellings and wrong usages of words, errors of preposition/particles. The result was analyzed using T-Test, Mean and ANOVA. The findings revealed that N.C.E English graduate teachers exhibit low performance in the English Language which they have been certified to teach. It further shows that gender has no influence on the quality of teachers produced but the quality of NCE teachers drop as the year progresses. It concludes that the quality of NCE teachers being produced at present cannot give the Students the necessary foundation that is expected in English Language (L2) learning which is expected to be built on at the Senior Secondary School level. This ineptitude cannot give the students the quality of English expected to be taught and used in the school system; as such cannot serve in attaining Nigeria’s educational goals and objectives for global challenges. This paper therefore recommends that the quality of Primary and Junior Secondary school teachers should be a concern for language educators. This should be improved upon by looking critically at the admission requirements into the College of Education as the three credits at one sitting that is being required at present can no longer stand the test of time. A policy that will encourage and attract intelligent students to seek admission into the College of Education system among others should be put in place by the government.