In 1969, the Nigerian union of teachers (NUT)
formulated professional code of ethics for Nigerian teaching profession. The
main purpose of the ethics is to regulate the behaviour of teachers. Ethics is
the study or the science o morals. It is the rules or principles of behaviour.
It has to do with moral uprightness in dealing with others. When
applied to a profession, it refers to moral principles or rules of conduct or social control mechanism that governs the actions of members of an occupation. Ingvarson (1998) state the ̳Ethical conduct deals with the standards of right and wrong in the relationships between the professional and his client. The professional code of ethics stipulates rules and regulations which are intended to guide and regulate the conduct of the members of the profession.
applied to a profession, it refers to moral principles or rules of conduct or social control mechanism that governs the actions of members of an occupation. Ingvarson (1998) state the ̳Ethical conduct deals with the standards of right and wrong in the relationships between the professional and his client. The professional code of ethics stipulates rules and regulations which are intended to guide and regulate the conduct of the members of the profession.
The teaching
profession code of ethics consists of the rules of conduct. The code of ethics
can be divided into five major principles or areas outlining the teachers‘
commitments to students, parents, community, employer and to the profession.
In the preamble to the code of ethics, NUT
emphasised as follows:
We members of the Nigerian Union of Teachers
believe that whoever is teaching as career assumes the obligation to conduct
himself in accordance with the ideal of the profession. As a guide for the
teaching profession, we members of the NUT have adopted this code of
professional ethics and since all those engaged in education in Nigeria
The five major principles as enumerated by
follows thus:
The first principle is the commitment to the
student. The primary obligation of the teaching profession in Nigeria
The second principle is the commitment to
parents. It goes thus:
We members of the teaching profession share
with parents the task of shaping each student‘s behaviour towards socially
acceptable ends. We share with all other citizens‘ responsibility of the
development of development of sound public policy. We are accountable for
participating in development of sound educational programmes and policies and
of interpreting them to the public.
Teaching is dependent
upon the healthy relationship with the home and the community.
The third principle is commitment to the
community. Teaching profession in Nigeria occupies a position of public trust
involving not only the individual teacher‘s personal conduct, but also the
interaction of the school and community.
Education is most effective when these many
relationships operate in a friendly cooperative and constructive manner.
The fourth principle is commitment to the
employer. The members of the teaching profession in Nigeria
The fifth principle is commitment to the
profession. The teaching profession is a unique occupation and we believe that
the quality of the services of the teaching profession in Nigeria Nigeria
‘Apart from the code of ethics formulated by
the Nigerian Union of Teachers t
he Federal Ministry of Education (1987) published a
code of conduct and guidelines for the teaching staff in the Nigeria teacher‘s‘
service manual.
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