Restore dignity, quality of teachers, Prof Mrs Okebukola tells government

Success Damian:

The need for the restoration and improvement of the quality of teachers in Nigeria has been stressed

Prof. (Mrs) Foluso Olutoyin Okebukola, a distinguished professor of Language Education made the recommendation at the 70^{th Lagos State University}  Inaugural Lecture, which took place at the university campus at Ojo on Wednesday.

At the Lecture titled, “Light Dawns on Literacy, Illiteracy, Alliteracy and e-literacy, the erudite Professor stated that the Policy Makers and Government need to restore the dignity and quality of teachers by reducing the workload of teachers; improve teacher training and; avoid overcrowded classrooms. 

To achieve the recommendations she stated that government should establish a national working committee to discuss and debate the shape and design of literacy policy, pedagogy and curriculum at all levels of education; adopt the proposed model of emergent level reading programme designed to focus on the needs of the learners.

Speaking further she said “Government should embark on language policy enlightenment campaign on the mass media to educate parents on the benefits of introducing literacy in the mother-tongue; organise conferences and seminars for teachers to allay their fears. They should be allowed to air their views on the logistics and modalities for implementing the language policy: recruit teachers of indigenous languages to teach in the primary schools,” Okebukola recommended.

She also has recommendation for students at both Secondary and Tertiary Institutions levels. She said there is need for introducing Newspapers and Magazines into the Library, Virtual Libraries, Reading Clubs/Reading Tutorial Classes, Introduction of Information Technology, Establishment of Reading Clinics, Publication of Students' Writing, among others.