Lecturer Quality, Quantity and Gender in Colleges of Education in Nigeria
The quality and quantity of lecturers in Tertiary institutions to a great extent determines the quality of graduates. To ensure quality and quantity the Colleges of Education in Nigeria have established internal and external mechanisms. Quantity is determined by the number of students to a given lecturer. Despite the mechanism put forward to ensure quality and quantity, the strength of a good Educational programme is not the beautiful buildings, adequate equipment/facilities, sound curriculum but the quality and quantity of the Academic Staff. Thus the paper examined Lecturer Quality, Quantity by sex in the 56 Federal and State Colleges of Education in Nigeria during the 2002/2003 sessions. The study adopted an ex-post-facto research design. Data for the study were adapted from the statistical digest of Colleges of Education. The data were analysed using frequencies, percentages and means. Findings revealed that the quantity and quality of Lecturers by sex in both Federal and State Colleges of Education, as bottom heavy. 4177 (50%) of lecturers in Colleges of Education were first degree holders. 3142 (38%) of these lecturers had professional first degrees of which 753 (24%) were females. 2450 (29%) of these lecturers had postgraduate professional degrees. The female lecturers in this category were 538 (22%). Lecturers with non-professional first degree were 1035 (12%) with 148 (14%) as females. Those with non-professional postgraduate degrees were 1237 (15%) and Ph.D holders were 465 (6%) with 97 (21%) as females. Findings revealed only about 1848 (12%) of Lecturers in Colleges of Education as females as compared to the male Lecturers which was recorded as high as seven times the number of female lecturers. On Lecturers quantity, findings revealed a total of 8329 Lecturers in the 56 Federal and State Colleges of Education of which 184 (22.18%) were reported to be female lecturers. Findings revealed that the computed Lecturer student ratio in Federal Colleges of Education was 1:28 while that of the state was 1:27. Arising from the findings, the quality and quantity of Lecturers to a great extent determines the quality of graduates. The Colleges and all governmental bodies must establish some form of quality assurance mechanisms to ensure uniformity in the assessment of quality and quantity in all Colleges of Education in Nigeria. Both Federal and State Colleges of Education should embark on recruiting lecturers with postgraduate professional degrees; those with first degrees in the system should be encouraged to acquire postgraduate degrees. The Federal and State Colleges of Education should evolve a policy to reduce the serious gender gab by employing more female lecturers. The government should engage the services of more lecturers to reduce the lecturer student ratio in areas where they are lacking. ********** The quality and quantity of lecturers in tertiary institutions to a greater extent determines the quality of graduates from any institution. In Nigeria, there is the concern about the quality of graduates from tertiary institutions. Evidence from research reports showed that 25% of respondents indicated that university and polytechnic graduates were of good quality while 50% of the respondents reported same of Colleges of Education graduates (Educ. Sector Analysis, 2004). As a result of this concern, most tertiary institutions in Nigeria including Colleges of Education have established some form of quality assurance mechanisms. Today, we have both internal and external mechanisms to ensure quality in higher educational institutions in Nigeria At the College of Education level, external mechanism is constituted by accreditation teams organized by the National Commission of Colleges of Education. This commission is charged by a Decree No 3 of 1989 which was amended as Decree No 12 of 1993, to establish and maintain minimum standards for all programmes of Teachers Education and accredit their certificates and awards. …