Correlation between Character Development in African Traditional Education and Character Worthiness in the Award of Nigeria Certificate in Education

Abstract

Looking at the character exhibition of some NCE teachers, which is at variance with the curricular content of their training and assertion that they have been found worthy in character and learning at the point of certification, the study investigated the teachers’ character in their schools of teaching in Kaduna State Nigeria. Representative schools across the three (3) senatorial zones of the State were used for the study. In all, three hundred and thirty 330 participants, one hundred and ten (110) from each zone, were used for the study. The research design for the study was a survey method. The instruments used include questionnaire, interview, and observation. The data collected were subjected to statistical tests to get reliable results. For instance, t-test was used to compare the effect of character development in African Traditional Education and character exhibition of the NCE teachers. The three (3) research questions were answered in the affirmative that the little traditional education learnt in the NCE curriculum had positive effect on their graduation character development and exhibition. Similarly, the three (3) null hypotheses show significant differences. Hence, their rejection. The conclusion of the study advocates inclusion of comprehensive character development programs within teacher training curricula and the integration of traditional educational values.  Part of the recommendations is an integration of blown character development course in the NCCE Minimum Standard for the NCE programme. Suggestions for further research were also given, among which is to replicate the study in other states or regions of the country.