NCCE Targets 80% Colleges of Education for Dual Mandate by 2031
By INCNews247
The National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE) says it is targeting the enrolment of at least 80 per cent of Colleges of Education in Nigeria into the dual mandateprogramme by 2031.
The Executive Secretary of NCCE, Dr Angela Ajala, disclosed this on Tuesday in Abuja during an interview with the Association of Corporate Online Editors (ACOE), where she outlined ongoing reforms to reposition teacher education and make the teaching profession more attractive to young Nigerians.
Under the dual mandate policy, Colleges of Education are empowered to award both the Nigeria Certificate in Education and Bachelor of Education degrees.
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Ajala described the policy, signed into law by President Bola Tinubu in 2023, as critical to the survival and transformation of teacher education, noting that negative perceptions surrounding the NCE qualification had contributed to declining interest in the profession.
She said the policy would strengthen the capacity of colleges to produce qualified teachers and improve the status of the teaching profession.
“Teacher education is at the centre of national development because every other profession sits on teacher education. If you don’t prepare your teachers well, you cannot expect to have excellent manpower,” she said.
The NCCE boss commended Tinubu for approving the policy and acknowledged the support of the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, in its implementation.
She disclosed that the commission had removed NCE admission from the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board process to ease access, arguing that JAMB was a placement examination rather than an achievement examination.
On concerns about maintaining academic standards, Ajala said the NCCE had reviewed the curriculum in collaboration with the National Universities Commission, which regulates the degree component of the programme.
She added that colleges must meet specified requirements covering infrastructure, staffing and other institutional resources before being approved to operate the dual mandate.
According to her, about 20 Colleges of Education are currently ready to commence degree programmes, while others will be admitted in phases.
She explained that state-owned and private colleges would also require the necessary legal backing through their respective state Houses of Assembly before implementing the programme.
Speaking on curriculum reforms, Ajala said the commission had adopted a competency-based approach, with 70 per cent of training devoted to practical activities and 30 per cent to theory.
She added that the revised curriculum had introduced specialised areas in Computer Education, including artificial intelligence, robotics, data analytics, cybersecurity and coding.
The executive secretary said skills certification had also been incorporated into the programme to equip students with additional competencies and entrepreneurial opportunities.
She explained that the five-year programme comprised three years for the NCE and two years for the degree qualification, with skills acquisition integrated into the training.
On the commission’s 2026–2031 strategic plan, Ajala identified staff training, institutional capacity building, partnerships and advocacy as major priorities for achieving the target.
She noted that government funding alone would not be sufficient to finance the reforms, disclosing that the commission was collaborating with development partners, including the European Union, UNESCO and the British Council, while Oxford University was supporting aspects of the initiative.
Ajala further disclosed that the commission had established a Reform Delivery Unit to provide quarterly reports and was developing a digital dashboard to monitor activities in Colleges of Education nationwide.
She said the proposed platform would provide real-time information on implementation, strengthen accountability and enable the commission to identify areas requiring timely intervention.
The NCCE boss, however, said it was too early to determine whether the reforms had increased student enrolment, explaining that the current admission process had commenced only about two weeks earlier.
She maintained that the success of Nigeria’s education system depended largely on the quality of its teacher preparation.
“Nigeria cannot build a world-class education system with second-class attention to teacher education. If you miss it with teacher education, you miss it with Nigeria,” she said.
