Only Teachers' Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) can lawfully and legally administer professional examination on teachers.
An informal, unprofessional and non-standadized test (examination) is not only lacking in validity and reliabilty, but also can not be the basis of taking any formal decision.
The problem started when teachers were forced to take the informal, unvalidated test by those with neither the professional authority nor legal competence to administer test. This is the bastardization of the teaching profession from the political administrators' side.
Teaching is a specialized and technical profession. It has its own specialist methodology and techniques of carrying out every part of its professional tasks. Not every examination is good and relevent for everybody. For instance, saying the National anthem is part of the syllabus of class one in primary school. How many of our Governors, Commissioners, SAs, PAs, Dirctors and other members of cabinets, can say the National Anthem correctly? They will almost all fail this class one examination. Does that mean they know nothing, they lack patriotism, and are bad administrators? This is the question of validity. Validity in the field of professional teaching refers to capacity of a test or examination to measure what it is supposed to measure. If a test meant to measure growth is administered for development, such test lacks validity. If a class one test item of National Anthem , which probably Governors, Senators and Ministers will fail, is given to an administrator to test his competence in administration, it is a test with zero validity.
There is more to examination than mere passing and failing.
Teaching is not all about ability to remember details. A teacher may not be able to recall everything or even anything at all; that does not mean he or she could not teach with books and material close by to remind him. That is why, for every lesson, a teacher is required to consult books, take notes and plan the lesson. A good teacher, especially at O' Levels, is expected to make research on every topic, be it for Primary one or SS3. The ability to teach concept from memory is of less importance in teaching than the skill of delivery. A teacher who forgets everything but has mastery of methods and strategies is professionally, head over shoulder, above a teacher with higher memory, but poor methodology and strategies. We must not confuse lack of instant recall or memory with lack of knowledge. I can not remember is not the same as I do not know. That is why teachers are required to go to classes with notes and text books to aid memory and supply details.
90% of the El-Rufai's ''class 4'' Questions test only memory. In teaching there are three domains of intelligence. The Cognitive, the Affective and the Psychomotor domains. The Cognitive has to do with mental ability. The Affective refers to behaviours and attitude, and the Psychomotor encompasses physiological coordination and mo
Comments