The pioneer Vice-Chancellor of Osun State University, Prof. Sola Akinrinade, a former Dean, Faculty of Agriculture, Obafemi Awolowo University, Prof. Funso Sonaiya and a former Head of Department, Foreign Languages, OAU, Prof. Remi Sonaiya have lamented the inability of some lecturers in tertiary institutions to effectively deliver and communicate their lectures to their students.
Speaking during a pedagogical skills upgrade workshop for lecturers at the Kwara State University, Malete on Tuesday, they said that inefficient and infective communication had contributed to the poor standard of education and mass failure in some examination of some students. They canvassed for improvement in lecturers’ communication capability and other capacity building in institutions.
The dons also appealed to all stakeholders to invest more in the advancement of communication capacity building, infrastructure and other logistics in the tertiary institutions.
Sonaiya, who is currently the Lead Associate, QRS, said there was a need for more exposure of the instructors at the tertiary level to the use of English language for more effective communication.
“Some of the instructors cannot communicate well in English. The solution is training. The tertiary institutions need to note that the training for Phd is not sufficient training for instruction. Even if somebody has a PhD, there may be need to deliberately train him in communicating ideas to young people and the public,” he said.
Sonaiya, who is currently an independent researcher and consultant, noted that effective communication was as important as clarity of thought to academic endeavour.
She added, “If thoughts are clear, they must be clearly communicated.”
She urged stakeholders to be mindful of the fact that what happens in the classroom is important for the overall development of our nation.
“We have not paid enough attention to that in the country. You see other nations developing. It is education that advances society.
“It is true that some of our instructors in tertiary institutions cannot communicate well. There has been a general decline in the standard of education so that we are talking about lecturers who were not well trained. We have gotten a crucial stage in the matter for the quality of education we are giving out to students in our institutions and we need to tackle those problems,” she said.
Akinrinade, who is a visiting professor with the National Universities Commission, said the workshop was to ensure that many lecturers employed in tertiary institutions were equipped with teaching skills and ability to manage their classrooms and engage the students in effective learning process.
Akinrinade described teaching as a crucial component of the duties of academic staff.
He stated that teaching could only be said to have been successfully carried out when learning had taken place.
He said that unfortunately many academics, even with the best of intentions could not communicate with their students because they lack the requisite pedagogical skills that would enable them to perform maximally.
He stated that it was imperative to train lecturers in communication and class management for efficiency and improvement in the quality of education.
“What KWASU has done is to ask us to come and work with them and pass the pedagogical skills into their staff such that they will be able to teach, communicate and achieve the purpose of engaging with the students, interact with them and ensure discipline in the classrooms and ensure that learning is taking place,” he said.
