This document discusses teacher education and teaching practice in Nigeria. It begins by outlining the importance of education and the establishment of colleges of education to provide professional training for teachers. Teaching practice is described as an integral part of teacher education programs aimed at preparing new teachers. The document then discusses challenges with teaching practice in Nigeria and quality issues in public and private secondary schools. It concludes by recommending improvements to teaching practice, including longer durations and exposure to micro-teaching beforehand, to better prepare student teachers.

1. OKORO, NGOZI PRISCILLA

2. Introduction
Education is a very important aspect of human existence given the impact it
has on the ability of its recipient to adapt to the vagaries of life. Okorie (1986)
asserted that education is a conscious plan in human life, deliberately
controlled to enable the recipient gets certain experiences. Education is usually
planned according to individual and societal needs and it constitutes the most
veritable instrument for change in any society (Emereole, 2000).

3. Teacher Education
To provide professional education for teachers, colleges of education
have been established almost all over the world (Azeem, 2011). In
Nigeria, teacher education programme exists in consonance with the
various levels of education that is NCE and B.Ed. for colleges of
education and universities respectively. All the teachers training
institutions are not imparting just theoretical but also practical
knowledge and skill in teaching different subject to prospective
teachers.

4. Teaching Practice
Teaching practice occupies a key position in the teacher education
programme. It is an integral part of the teacher education programme
which is geared towards preparation of new entrants into the teaching
profession. According to Afolabi (1999), teaching practice exercise is to
acquaint student teachers with the practical knowledge of teaching and
learning process including lesson plan preparation, presentation, class
management, communication skills, evaluation and the required
personality of professional teachers. Nwanekezi, et al (2011) remarked
that teaching practice is the name of the preparation of student - teacher
for teaching by practical training.

5. The concept of teaching practice is made clearer by looking
at the objectives of the exercise as enumerated by Akbar
(2002). Some of which are:
 1. To provide prospective teachers with the opportunity of establishing an appropriate
teacher pupils relationship.
 2. To provide an opportunity of evaluating the students potential as a teacher and
suitability for the teaching profession.
 3. To develop personal relationship with others administrators, teachers, parents and
students.
 4. To provide the future teachers with experience in school to overcome the problem
of discipline and enable him/her develop method of control.
 5. To provide an opportunity to put theories into practice and develop deeper
understanding of educational principles and their implication of learning.

6. Challenges of Teaching Practice in Nigeria
In Nigeria, teacher- training institutions have been critiqued for
inability to produce teachers who are properly grounded in
pedagogy and content as well as ability to collaborate
professionally in the work environment. For example, educationists
observed that the transition from academic theories in universities
to classroom practice has often been very sharp suggesting that
student teachers are not often properly groomed to put into
practice current pedagogy and interactive skills that has been
theoretically learnt

7. Teacher Quality in Public and Private Secondary Schools
in Nigeria and Outcomes.
Education is germane in all societies. If education lacks quality however, it
will be a liability to the learners, the teachers and all stakeholders. The
issue of quality in the educational system has been a source of concern in
the society in recent times. Stakeholders in education especially parents as
well as the entire society are seriously advocating for quality in the
education system (Ofeimu and Kolawole, 2017). The reason for their
agitations can be traced to poorly trained students being graduated from
schools and higher institutions on a yearly basis despite the huge financial
investment expended on them (Madumere-Obike,

8. Recommendations
In order to make teaching practice more meaningful as an instrument
of professionalism among student-teachers who intend to teach in
public or private schools, the following recommendations were made:
Student-teachers should be exposed to proper orientation before
going on teaching practice exercise. Potential teachers should be
exposed to micro-teaching before being sent to face students. The
experience of practicing with their own colleagues will give them a
taste of what teaching feels like and motivate them to do it better
when they will be tested on the field.
Teaching practice exercise should not be a short term endeavour but
should span about six months to ground the aptitude, attitude and
competence of prospective teachers. More time should be devoted to
this very important aspect of teaching.

9. Conclusion
There are multiplicities of challenges facing teachers in public
secondary schools and the origin of these problems can be
traced in many cases to their nasty and discouraging
experience during the teaching practice exercise. The
teaching practice exercise was designed to teach teachers to
be teachers but the inadequacy of personnel and logistics to
implement it has made the exercise ineffective with regards
to achieving the goals for which it was set up.

10. Recommendations
In order to make teaching practice more meaningful as an instrument
of professionalism among student-teachers who intend to teach in
public or private schools, the following recommendations were made:
Student-teachers should be exposed to proper orientation before
going on teaching practice exercise. Potential teachers should be
exposed to micro-teaching before being sent to face
students.