ROLES OF OPEN AND DISTANCE EDUCATION IN THE PRODUCTION OF SCIENCE TEACHERS IN NIGERIA

The world still needs more and better qualified science teachers despite progress made since the 2000 Dakar conference on Education for All by 2020. UNESCO (2010) indicated that some 57 million children may still be out of school in 2015, while those in school may not have the taste of basic scientific literacy due to lack of adequate number of trained science teachers. It is against this background that this paper reviewed the current status of science teachers in Nigeria, and explored the role of Open and Distance Learning (ODL) system in producing effective and dynamic science teachers to fill the existing gaps in teacher supply. Nigeria has an urgent need of providing quality science teachers to train her teaming youth who are the driving force in the development of the country. Government has responded to this need by adopting a variety of strategies of which open and distance education is one. While the paper observed poor funding as the major pitfall in the production of science teachers, it advocated functional and effective open and distance education as a catalyst for the production of qualified science teachers; who would help to eradicate illiteracy and poverty among Nigerian youth and promote scientific advancement of the country.