…as Prof. Okebukola condemns educational paradigm shift
By Adebayo Adenrele
The Founder and Chancellor of Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti (ABUAD), Chief Are Babalola has charged the Lecturers of the Institution to place premium on application of more effective teaching methods for the improvement of the Students.
Babalola posited this at the ABUAD Academic Staff Capacity Development Programme Workshop themed: “Teaching Methods and Pedagogy”, adding that they should not see teaching as a means of making ends meet alone.
Aare furthered that for a Lecturer to be a good one which he termed “a Teacher properly so called”, such must have interest in teaching which must be seen as a vocation and must be firm, frank and friendly with the Students.
In his words, “A Teacher properly so called must employ more effective methods to be Students so that they can understand what he or she is teaching better.”
“A teacher properly so called must be master of the subject matter and must not see teaching as a means of making ends meet only.”
“You must have interest in teaching and must take teaching as a vocation. You must be an Apostle of the 3Fs: you must be firm, frank and friendly.”
Delivering his keynote address at the event, former Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission(NUC), Prof. Peter Okebukola, berated educational paradigm shift, whereby Nigerian Authors cite more British Experts in their Books to total negligence of the Indigenous Intellects in the Country.
Okebukola, who spoke on the topic: “ABUAD: Leading all the Way”, praised the university for working in tandem with NUC’s recommendations, saying the institution was already aligning with the minimum curriculum standard that will be released by the federal government soon.
Okebukola also urged the Institution’s Lecturers to always be circumspect of the major concepts of “How we learn, teaching and learning strategies and practical applications”, to make the university largely a result-oriented institution.
On her part, the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Smaranda Olarinde, stated that the lecturers as teachers of the future leaders must be professional and practical-oriented, to make graduates relevant under the current economic system.
She added that ABUAD’s ranking as number one in Nigeria and one of the best 400 in the world must be enhanced further, by sharpening the mental capacities of lecturers to be able to discharge their duties, by being innovative, skilful and ICT-compliant.