Science enrolment in public Colleges of Education in Nigerian Colleges of Education

What is it about?

The article critically reviewed the decline in science students’ enrolment in Nigerian Colleges of Education, causes and the solutions. The research evidence abounds that the students’ enrolment for science education in the Nigeria colleges of education reduces every year. The causes for this drawback are the crux of this article. The Nigerian college of education is an institution saddled with the responsibility of training teachers for primary and secondary schools. Nonetheless, the colleges had been criticised for lack of standards in their admission policy and also of qualified academic personnel. The reviewed literature indicates that there are many challenges confronting colleges of education in Nigeria. Some of these are teachers’ inadequate pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), out-of-field teaching and low teachers' self-efficacy. The paper however observed that this problem and others are the results of bad governance experienced in the nation. Consequent to these challenges, the student's enrolment in science education continues to decline every year unabated. The paper identified many causes of the students’ enrolment among these are, the proliferation of private Colleges of Education, loss of interest by the students, lack of science equipment and many others. The paper suggested some recommendations to raise the standard of the Nigerian colleges of education and improve science education students’ enrolment. Among these suggestions is the full government commitment to the funding of the Colleges of Education’s academic programmes.

Featured Image

Photo by Julia Koblitz on Unsplash

Photo by Julia Koblitz on Unsplash

Why is it important?

This study contributes to the existing literature on science enrolment in Nigerian colleges of education. Principally, it provides an insight into the causes of the low enrolment in the Nigerian colleges of education. Essentially, suggestions for improving students’ enrolment was made at the end of the paper

Perspectives