GASPRO International Journal of Eminent Scholars

The Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE) programme was created in line with the Ashby Report on Education in 1959, which emphasized the need for the training of middle level manpower for our educational institutions. Initially, graduands from Colleges of Education, that is to say, NCE holders were employed to teach in secondary schools (both junior and senior secondary), but with the abolition of Teacher Training Colleges (who hitherto produced teachers for primary schools), NCE holders were thus redirected to teach mainly in the Basic Education years (primary and junior secondary schools). Colleges of Education (C.O.E.) as the name suggest are meant for those who want to go into teaching line. C.O.E. usually award Nigeria Certificate in Education. From the name, it is a certificate that will be recognized in any part of the country. N.C.E. serves two main purposes: one can use it to apply for teaching job, especially in primary and junior secondary schools, and the certificate can be used for admission into 200 level in degree awarding institutions. A close look at most of the programmes run in Colleges of Education shows that these Courses or Programmes are not structured to meet the new academic needs and demands of pupils in primary schools and students in junior secondary schools. NCE students are still trained as if they are to teach in both junior and senior secondary schools. Thus, this work is primarily concerned with the need to restructure the programmes run in the College of Education to enable it serve the present need for which it is meant to meet. It is on this premise that this study advocated that curriculum experts and National Commission for Colleges of Education should urgently restructure NCE programmes, (not only in Federal Colleges of Education), to address its present status and to meet the needs of the society.