THE CONCEPT, AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF TEACHER EDUCATION IN NIGERIA.

    Education like many other concepts is not easy to define. Its definition is much related to many variables. Such variables include the purpose of the learner, the aims of the teacher and the problem or level of technology of the society concerned. To many people, education means only what goes on at school through which the teacher leads the Learners to be able to read and write.

Scholars in this category come up with such definitions as

i.  The ability to read and write.

ii.  The quality of being able to read, write, perform skills and become acceptable to one's society.

iii.  Hornby (1974) sees education as "a systematic training and instruction, knowledge and abilities, development of character and mental powers resulting from such training. "

    Scholars here believe that education is a process whereby someone ( teacher) imparts or tried to impart knowledge, information, skills, values, attitude etc to another person or group of peoples assumed to be relatively inexperienced and unskilled in a manner that is acceptable and pedagogically efficient.

    Other scholars, however, hold the view that education is more than what goes on within the four walls of the school. One of such scholars is Castle (1971) who describes education as "what happens to us from the day we are born to the day we die. "

The following may be seen as a summary of other views on what education should be or what it does.

i.  A preparation for a happy and useful living.

ii.  A process of learning to live as a useful and acceptable member of the community to which one Belongs.

iii.  An all-round development if a person - physically, intellectually, morally and spiritually.

iv.  A full exposure to the all-round experiences of life. 

    From the foregoing, one can see that education is concerned with the individuals and their social, physical address and spiritual (moral) environment. Across the world, education is a vital process in human development and environment management. Education is a process of transmitting, refining and preserving the collective values embedded in the culture of the society. This, education is the society's cultural reproductive system (Farrant, 1980). By education, a network of Knowledge, skills and habits is passed on to the next generation for effective citizenship and collective benefit of society.

    Education is a cooperative teaching-learning process of preparing an individual, from birth and all through his/her life, for a happy and useful living in the society within the context of his/her culture and resources (Oyekan, 1994). It follows that education is a social service which ensures refinement of human behaviour un terms of his/her processes of reasoning, feeling and doing things in a happy expectancy. The major characteristics of education from the above definition are:

.   Total development of individual's potentials or talents;

.    Preparation for happy and useful living in the society and

.    Life long learning from birth and all through an individual's entire life.