IMPACT ASSESSMENT OF PROFESSIONAL DIPLOMA IN EDUCATION: A CASE STUDY OF PDEIN FCE ZARIA

Abstract

Within the restructuring agenda of Nigeria, the National Educational Agenda’s target was to upgrade and reskilling teachers. This led to the conception of the Professional Diploma in Education (PDE). Within this
programme, re-skilling of these educators was targeted to assist the educational department in implementing its
new school curriculum. Although many cohorts in earth related courses such as geography have graduated from
the programme, questions are still being asked of the programme’s effects on them. This study therefore assessed
the Impact of Professional Diploma in Education PDE in FCE Zaria. The objectives are to; ascertain the effects
of Professional Diploma in Education (PDE) on teacher’s personal life, investigate the effects of PDE on
teacher’s professional life, assess the contributions of PDE on teacher’s efficiency, ascertain the extent to which
PDE improve student’s academic performance and evaluate how qualified graduates of PDE programme
contributes to the academic achievements of their students. Data were Purposive collected from 85 respondents
who are graduates of the FCE Zaria PDE programme, using the kobo toolbox. The data obtained from the study
were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as Mean, Standard deviation were employed for data analysis
using SPSS on the other hand inferential statistic T-test was used to test the hypothesis of the study. The findings
of the study provide noticeable change in the personal and professional lives of graduates teachers’ in areas of:
teaching methodology, classroom management, provision of teaching aids, confidence boost. It recommended
that more emphasis should be made on school based tasks (teaching practice) because it gives educators an
opportunity to experiment what has been learnt in the contact session and also salary and allowances of the PDE
enrollees should be increased etc.