Teachers’ Capacity Building: A Genuine Mechanism for Achieving Human Capital Development in Nigeria

This study examined teachers’ capacity building as a genuine mechanism for achieving human capital development in Nigeria. This study adopted the descriptive survey design. A purposive sampling technique was used to select 330 respondents from the secondary schools in Lagos East Senatorial District. The instrument for this study was a researchers-designed questionnaire, and three Educational experts validated it. The instruments were pilot-tested, and Cronbach alpha formula was used to test the instrument's reliability, and the coefficient was 0.81. Three research questions were raised and answered. The results of the findings revealed the extent to which teachers’ capacity building can enhance the achievement of human capital development in Nigeria is very high. The study also indicated several challenges militating against teachers’ capacity building in Nigeria and that the itemized strategies are laudable for improving teachers capacity building in Nigeria. Therefore, the study concluded that the extent to which teachers’ capacity building can enhance the achievement of human capital development in Lagos East Senatorial District of Lagos State is high. Therefore, the study recommended that attention be paid to development programmes that would make teaching career appealing and geared towards achieving human capital development in Nigeria. Government should also devise more strategies that will enhance the capacity building of teachers’ Educational administrators, and policy formulators should implement policies that would surmount the challenges facing teachers’ professional development in Nigeria.


INTRODUCTION
Education in every sense is one of the fundamental factors of development. No country can achieve sustainable economic development without substantial investment in human capital. Education enriches people's understanding of themselves and the world. It improves the quality of their lives and leads to broad social benefits to individuals and society. Education raises people's productivity and creativity and promotes entrepreneurship and technological advances. In addition, it plays a very crucial role in securing economic and social progress and improving income distribution. Its major objective is to make an individual learn how to level with society by developing intellect, equipping oneself to deal with the reality of life and facilitating the realization of selfpotential and latent talents of an individual. Education encompasses teaching and learning specific skills, positive judgment, well-developed wisdom and profoundness. A successful teacher is required to be equipped with the characteristics like mastery of subject matter, current professional skills, sound physical and mental health, devotion and dedication to his profession to impact learners and society.
Teachers have one of the most demanding vocations in the world. To fulfil their important roles with excellence, they need training, motivation, and regular mental, emotional and spiritual rejuvenation. Educational systems all over the world recognize the importance of the teacher. Building an effective model and mechanism that would develop and enhance the teachers' capacity and provide them avenues for professional development should be a priority.

Statement of Problems
The changing classroom practice with a technologically changing learning environment requires teachers to keep abreast with these global experiences and improve students' learning achievement. Teaching changes with changing trends. Teachers need to improve their teaching competencies, skills and knowledge of teaching practice by undertaking capacity development and taking advantage of available professional development opportunities. Neglects of this vital necessity have hunted the quest for achieving human capital development in Nigeria. Industrial development has been on its lowest ebb; the national economic indicators of GDP, inflation, unemployment, foreign debts, export etc., are at their worst possible rates. Inflation shrank at 17.85%, GDP contracted by 2.06% and the economy by 0.36%. Exchange rates with other major currencies have depreciated more than 40%, per capita income has been all-time low, and the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Nigeria shrank. The needs for education training, particularly for teachers, are vital to improving the quality of education. Teachers are crucial in implementing educational reforms in accordance with the aspiration of the National Philosophy of Education. The success of a school curriculum is closely related to its effective implementation. Teachers have to be personally aware of the school curriculum, improve and enhance the necessary skills to interpret the concepts accurately, and implement the modified curriculum according to its requirements, aims, and objectives. These underscore the need for capacity building for Nigerian teachers.

Concept of Education for Human Development
Educational indicators are of various types, and those that are monitored relate primarily to inputs-that is, investments in education in terms of resources and time. UNESCO, for example, collects data on numerous inputs such as enrollment numbers and rates, repetition rates, and pupil/teacher ratios (Bloom, 2006). On outputs-the direct results of the education process-UNESCO measure literacy rates and education stocks. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement collect other output data on average years of schooling and test scores in mathematics, science, and reading. Education is recognized as a basic human right, and better education improves people's welfare. As an instrument of development, education fosters and enhances work skills and life skills such as confidence and sociability. These skills in individuals promote economic growth on a societal level via increased productivity and, potentially, better governance (Hannum and Buchmann, 2006).
The role and importance of education in the development of individuals, communities, cultures, and state has been emphasized by many. Amartya Sen points out that Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and China are good examples where better educational atmospheres have played a crucial role in achieving respective levels of development. Similarly, with only a 50 percent literate population in1991, India is lagging far behind in the development index (Sen, 2000). And, it"s only "literacy rate", just one of many aspects of education. From Plato and Aristotle to postmodernist thinker Foucault, many have argued that "knowledge is a virtue" and "knowledge has power" or "knowledge is power", in one or different ways. From employment to scientific-technological developments and innovations and strategic advantages, everywhere education is a determining factor today. Due to these, education has become one of the highest preferences of the nation"s today. HDR 2000 explains that health, nutrition and education have intrinsic and extrinsic worth-"on human capital, productivity and capabilities for participation and social interaction". Particularly education (of the husband and wife) has a positive role in solving the problems of domestic violence. HDR shows that education empowers women as well as change the dynamics in households and thus changes norms. Education is one of the basic indicators and scales based on which the framers of HDRs analyse and explain human development in a particular country or region. Mahbub ul Haq talks about "enlarging people"s choices" as the basic objective of the human development process (Haq 2000;UNDP 1990). Enlarging people"s choice has two aspects-first, to build such an environment with a large number of better and easily accessible choices and second, to make every individual capable enough so that they can acquire what they need from available (and enlarged) choices. In this globalised world, education is among the powerful factors that determine and expand the horizons of qualitative and quantitative choices of individuals. In particular, better education enables a society to generate and make available.

Roles of Teachers in Human Capacity Building
Teachers are the bedrock for all human learning, and they are the hub around which individual citizens are made to realize their full potential to serve their nations (Adu, 2005). The changing classroom practice with a technologically changing learning environment requires teachers to keep abreast with these global experiences and improve students' learning achievement. Teaching changes with changing trends. Teachers need to improve their teaching competencies, skills and knowledge of teaching practice by undertaking capacity building and taking advantage of available professional development opportunities. Equipping teachers with necessary teaching competencies will contribute to the effective implementation of education reforms.
Teachers play a vital role in society, and they are an indispensable ingredient in national development. Obanya (2010) posited that teachers remain essential actors and catalyst for change in all efforts to promote quality education in schools. As agents of change, teachers can promote quality education and improved students' performance in secondary schools.
The success of any educational programme depends on the quality and competence of teachers who are the epicentre of the teaching and learning process. No educational system can grow above the level of the teachers in the system. The number of trained teachers is insufficient and devoid of necessary skills and is not regularly exposed to professional development and training programme (UNESCO, 2005). Obanya (2010) argues that teachers require opportunities for continuous self-improvement, both career-long and career-wide opportunities that will enable them to acquire skills, knowledge and techniques needed for quality on the job performance. Darling-Hammond (2012) noted that realization of student achievement gains requires teachers to have; strong content knowledge; pedagogical knowledge, and skills of how to teach others; understanding learners and their development; having general abilities for organizing, observing, explaining ideas, thinking diagnostically and having adaptive expertise for making a judgment in light of student needs in a given context. However, despite the well-stated education goals, schools continue to post poor students' results. Empirical evidence and synthesis of literature show that many factors contribute to poor performance by students both in internal and external examinations. Yara and Otieno (2010) explained that the causes of poor students' performance, especially in mathematics, are due to poor planning by teachers, inadequate teaching and learning resources and teacher shortages. In addition, poor students' performance has been blamed on teacher preparation. Educational stakeholders must build teacher capacity by organizing seminars, workshops, and conferences and organising mentorship and coaching programs for teachers to develop their capacity (Amede, 2016). However, according to IR Global Rankings News Bulletin (2013), seminars and workshops allow participants to explore new ways of doing things, create value, adopt best practices, trends, technology and build networks. It is considered handy in efforts aimed at improving teaching skills and students' performance. However, teacher's capacity building through workshops is considered to be of short term nature, low intensity and unfocused activity (Cole, 2012).
For more than 59 years of independence, Nigeria is yet to achieve meaningful development.
Our educational system has not witnessed significant growth in its contributions towards economic, social, political and educational development. The curriculum remains at variant with the societal needs, obsolete teaching method, poor teaching materials, and teachers at the epicenter of our educational system clustered with unqualified personnel. The country remains an exporter of raw materials and commodities. Over 90 percent of export earnings and 70 percent of government revenues are derived from crude oil export. Prioritizing capacity building for teachers' education can help to correct the anomalies bedevilling the current curriculum and transform the national economy. Efanya (2015) averred the future of Nigerian greatness lies in the effectiveness of our schools and the quality of our education. But what is quality education without competent teachers? It is an illusion to think that meaningful developmental stride can be achieved without access to competent teachers.

Human Capacity Building
Human capital development has been identified as a tool to promote economic growth and stimulus for industrial development. Its significance and relevance through acquiring necessary skills are also prerequisites for socio-economic transformation (Amede, 2018). According to him, the wealth and prosperity of a nation rest upon the development of people and the effective contribution to national development, stating that human resources constitute the ultimate basis for the wealth of nations. According to him, any country, which cannot develop the skills and knowledge of its people and utilize them effectively in the national economy, would encounter the challenge of sustaining economic growth and industrial development. Quality skills training for teachers tends to increase productivity and competitiveness in a knowledge-based economy by imparting requisite knowledge to students. It would help direct how employments, skills, and economic development policy areas could generally be integrated to maximize benefits for the economy and society and foster business development and the enhancement of skills and social inclusion.
Quality teachers use ICT based learning interventions to produce high-quality graduates. There is an emerging paradigm in the world today to shift towards science and technology. Science courses should be encouraged in schools and harmonise education policy with that of other sectors of the economy (Jegede, (2015). Clearly and incontrovertibly, mathematics, science, and technology hold the key to Nigeria's present and future development and occupy the major driver towards economic recovery.
Quality teachers encourage the acquisition of creative skills and capacity building for products of our schools' system. Adams (2016) stressed that Nigeria needs technical manpower with sound innovation, creativity and the ability to take the risk to help the nation move forward. It is disheartening to note that the crude oil that sustains our economy is under the control of foreign expatriates. It is expected that our educational system should develop skilful personnel in engineering, agriculture, health, technocrats, administrators etc. to mention just a few.
Quality teachers can train our youths to become agro entrepreneurs and use Agriculture to tackle unemployment problems and economic recovery. Nigeria has 910,768 km2 of arable land, 13,000 km2 of water and over 21 agricultural research institutes. We have good weather condition with abundant rainfall and sunshine all year round. We have a large and healthy population of which about 60 percent comprises youths under 35 years of age. The land is fertile and has different ecological zones to grow different types of plants. Quality education teaches youth's modern skills of farming. Youths are taught how to use herbicides, insecticides, pesticides, fertilizers and current farming innovation in animal and crop production. Well-trained teachers will help engage the teeming unemployed youths and improve the much talked about internally generated revenue. Ogbonna (2016) noted that the solution to graduate unemployment is not atomic science but a matter of mindset and orientation to encourage young entrepreneurs. Youth entrepreneurs are reliable engine for economic growth. The generation of new wealth encourages exportation and hit a glass ceiling in terms of income. Entrepreneurs bring about discoveries, innovations and creativity in the country, thereby engineering a multiplier effect into the economy. Entrepreneurs contribute to the economy through job creation, use of technologies, production of goods and services, creating a new market, added wealth, and raising the nation's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and earning foreign exchange.
Competent teachers can develop technical skills for youths and encourage self-employment. Nigeria is one of the top three countries globally with the largest population of poor people, with more than half the population living in less than one dollar a day. National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) (2014) asserted that a staggering 112.519 million Nigerians live in relatively poor conditions. The figure represents 69% of the country's total population, estimated to be 180 million. According to Osinbanjo (2016), 110 million Nigerians, implying 6 out of 10 Nigerians live in abject poverty. The sociological consequences are social deprivation, insecurity, criminality, kidnapping, street urchins and beggars, which abound across the country. Quality education has the potentials to revamp the economy and create job opportunities that will eventually reduce poverty in Nigeria. It can be achieved through the empowerment of youths by availing them access to quality education, useful skill acquisition, creating an enabling environment for developing their potentials and equipping teachers with pedagogical knowledge.
The research findings in many studies have shown that the role of the teacher in determining students' performance is significant (OECD, 2009). Equipping teachers with necessary teaching competencies will contribute to the effective implementation of education reforms. In order to develop a responsive and effective teacher capable of undertaking the foregoing, Obanya (2010) argues that teachers require opportunities for continuous self-improvement, both career-long and career-wide opportunities that will enable them to acquire skills, knowledge and techniques needed for quality on the job performance. Sanyal (2013) noted that an effective teacher could only be developed by quality professional preparation resulting from quality career-long professional development.
The poor quality of teachers' education in Nigeria has multiplying effects on the social, economic, moral and political indices. Nigerian educational system prioritizes paper qualification at the expense of vocational skills. For instance, most engineers cannot perform simple engineering feats. University graduates are dependent on white-collar jobs. Agricultural graduates lack farming methodologies and techniques, etc. It is because the Nigerian educational system, according to Gamalier (2018), is an expired one. Only competent teachers con reverse the trend. This study aims to determine teachers' capacity building as a genuine mechanism for achieving human capital development in Nigeria.

Purpose of the Study
The main purpose of this study is to examine determine teachers' capacity building as a genuine mechanism for achieving human capital development in Nigeria. Specifically, the study intends to: 1. Examine the extent to which teachers' capacity building can enhance the achieving human capital development in Lagos East Senatorial District of Lagos State.

Investigate the strategies for improving teachers' capacity building in Lagos East Senatorial
District of Lagos State.

Determine the major challenges militating against teachers' capacity building in Lagos East
Senatorial District of Lagos State.

METHOD
The descriptive survey design was adopted in this study. A descriptive survey involves asking the same set of questions that are often prepared in the form of a written questionnaire or ability test to many individuals either by mail, telephone, or in-person. The population of this study covers all school teachers in Lagos East Senatorial District of Lagos State. Purposive sampling technique was used to select 3 out of 9 local government areas that constituted Lagos East Senatorial District of Lagos State. Twenty-five schools were selected using the simple random sampling technique, of which about 14 teachers were purposively taken from each school. A sample of 330 teachers constituted the study.
The major research instrument adopted in the study was the questionnaire titled: Teachers Capacity Building Inventory (TCBI). It was constructed by the researcher. The questionnaire was divided into four sections. Section A seeks to find out the respondents' bio-data, B teachers' Capacity Building and human capital development in Nigeria), Section C addresses strategies for improving teachers' capacity building. In contrast, Section D has issues relating to challenges militating against teachers' capacity building. Sections B -D have ten items each to which the respondents were expected to provide answers. The liker type scale of strongly agreed [SA] 4 points, agreed [A] 3points, strongly disagreed [AD] 2 points and disagreed [D] 1point was used to rate the reaction of the respondents to the items contained in the questionnaires.

Validation of the Instrument
A sample of the instrument was shown to some research experts for corrections. Their comments were incorporated into the final draft of the instrument to ensure that it had content validity. The instrument's reliability was determined by administering it on a sample of 30 teachers in the Apapa local government area of Lagos state, which was not part of the original sample population. The data from the tests were analysed with Cronbach alpha. The coefficient of reliability average was estimated to 0.81, indicating that there was consistency and reliability in the questionnaire items.

Data Collection
A total of three hundred and nine (339) questionnaires were administered to teachers in the twenty selected schools. The researchers and two research assistants administered the questionnaires to ensure that copies of the questionnaire got to the respondents at the right time and subsequently retrieved. In each of the twenty selected schools, teachers who were capable, available, and could give the needed responses promptly were purposively selected by the researchers and were given a set of questionnaire each to respond to. Some of the respondents completed and submitted their questionnaires the same day, while others asked the researchers to come for it later. Three hundred thirty copies of the questionnaires administered to the respondents were correctly filled and retrieved, which constituted 97% success.
The data collected were collated, coded and analyzed using basic frequency and descriptive statistics because of their appropriateness to the study. The data were processed and analyzed with Microsoft excels and the SPSS statistical analysis software. Weighted mean was used to answer the research questions. A mean below 2.5 was considered to be low, while above 2.5 was taken as high.

Results
This chapter presents the findings of the study. The results of the statistical analysis with reference to the research questions are presented. A total of 339 teachers were administered with questionnaires. Three hundred thirty of the questionnaires were returned and duly completed. The response of questionnaires analyzed was 330, which was equivalent to 97 %.

Characteristics of respondents
The researcher collected personal information from the respondents to define the teachers' demographic characteristics, and for that matter, they were tabulated into categories.

Gender distribution
The gender of respondents was tabulated and presented in Table 2.     Table 6 above revealed the extent to which teachers' capacity building can enhance the achievement of human capital development in Lagos East Senatorial District of Lagos State. Teachers' capacity building enables teachers to produce students with practical skills that will encourage industrial establishment to top the list with an average mean of 3.48. Teachers' capacity building helps teachers to inculcate entrepreneurship mindset in students (3.41); again by Teachers' capacity building enables teachers to encourage skill acquisition for self-determination (3.29). Next was Teachers' capacity building allows the teacher to develop knowledge economy on students (3.26) and lastly by Teachers' capacity building enables teachers to maintain quality education that will facilitate the industrial revolution with an average mean score of 2.88. The total sum was 10659, and the average means was 3.23. It should be noted that the average sum of all the items on the questionnaire falls above the average benchmark of 2.5. The implication is that the extent to which teachers' capacity building can enhance the achievement of human capital development in Lagos East Senatorial District of Lagos State was very high.
Research question 2:What are the major challenges militating against teachers' capacity building in Lagos East Senatorial District of Lagos State?  (2012), who noted that realization of student achievement gains requires teachers to have; strong content knowledge; pedagogical knowledge and skills of how to teach others; understanding learners and their development; having general abilities for organizing, observing, explaining ideas, thinking diagnostically and having adaptive expertise for making a judgment in light of student needs in a given context. Lamanauskas and Vilkoniene (2006) opined that acquiring appropriate high school science teachers' competencies is a guarantee for successful lesson delivery. Obanya (2010) posited that teachers remain essential actors and catalyst for change in all efforts to promote quality education in schools. In order to develop a responsive and effective teacher capable of undertaking the foregoing, Obanya (2010) argues that teachers require opportunities for continuous self-improvement, both career-long and career-wide opportunities that will enable them to acquire skills, knowledge and techniques needed for quality on the job performance.
Research question 2 sought to examine the major challenges militating against the major challenges militating against teachers' capacity building in Lagos East Senatorial District of Lagos State. The finding showed that several challenges are militating against teachers' capacity building in Lagos East Senatorial District of Lagos State. This conclusion agrees with Yara and Otieno (2010). They explained that the causes of poor students' performance, especially in mathematics, are due to poor planning by teachers, inadequate teaching and learning resources and teacher shortages. In addition, poor students' performance has been blamed on teacher preparation Research question 3 state: What are the strategies for improving teachers' capacity building in Lagos East Senatorial District of Lagos State? The finding showed that teacher' agreed that the itemized strategies are laudable for enhancing teachers' capacity building in Lagos East Senatorial District of Lagos State. This outcome correlates with Amede (2018) assertion, who echoed that it is imperative for educational stakeholders to build teacher capacity through defined strategies by organizing seminars, workshops, and conferences and organising mentorship and coaching programs for teachers for the overall development of their capacity. According to IR Global Rankings News Bulletin (2013), seminars and workshops allow participants to explore new ways of doing things, create value, adopt best practices, trends, technology and build networks. It is considered handy in efforts aimed at improving teaching skills and students' performance. However, contrary to the finding, teachers' capacity buildings through workshops are considered short-term, low-intensity, and unfocused (Cole, 2012).

Counselling Implications
Counsellors should use their lofty positions in the school system to encourage and motivate teachers to undergo professional development. They should regularly ensure the induction of new teachers through orientation and organize seminars, conference and workshops for old ones. These programmes, when effectively and judiciously implemented, would help to build teachers capacity.

CONCLUSIONS
The study examined teachers' capacity building as a genuine mechanism for achieving human capital development in Nigeria. The study's outcome revealed that the extent to which teachers' capacity building can enhance the achievement of human capital development in Lagos East Senatorial District of Lagos State is high. Several challenges are militating against teachers' capacity building training in Lagos East Senatorial District of Lagos State, and that the itemized strategies are laudable for improving teachers' capacity building. However, the government should make an effort to provide enabling environment for teachers to enable them to participate fully in the in-service training programme to enhance their intellectual and moral capacity.