THE ROLE OF TEACHER EDUCATION AND NIGERIAN TEACHERS: IMPLICATION FOR SUSTAINABLE NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

ABSTRACT The study examined the role of teacher education and Nigerian teachers as a catalyst for sustainable national development. The study adopted a correlation survey design. Three research questions and three hypotheses guided the study. The population comprised all the 3,507registered teachers in Abakaliki education zone of the state. A total 400 registered teachers constituted the sample using proportionate stratified random sampling technique to select 200 male and 200 female register teachers. A researcher developed instrument entitled “Role of Teacher Education and Nigerian Teachers for Sustainable National Development questionnaire (RTENTSDQ)” was used for data collection. The Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient was used to analyze the data using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) while the null hypotheses were tested at the probability value of 0.05 alpha level of significance the results indicates that there is a positive relationship between Nigerian teachers' professional roles and sustainable national development. The study recommends that Teacher Registration Council of Nigeria should be empowered financially and legally to control and regulateentrance into teaching profession to avoid employment of non-professionals into the system for the purpose of sustainability of the system.