The Faculty of Education came into being in 1962 when the then Institute of Education (founded in 1957) and the Department of Extra-Mural Studies (founded in 1949) were merged together and called "Faculty of Education and Extra-Mural Studies". It was based in the present Faculty of Arts until it moved to its present site in 1967.  In the year of its inception in 1962, the Institute of Education started the Bachelor of Education Programme and was renamed the Department and Institute of Education that same year.

From 1974/75 session, new departments were created from this initial set-up. These were the Departments of Physical and Health Education (1975/76) - now called Human Kinetics and Health Education, Educational Management, Guidance and Counseling and Special Education, all in 1976/77 session. The former Department and Institute was then re-designated the Department of Teacher Education. Thus, the department is not only the mother department; she remains the centre of both academic and professional activities within the present Faculty of Education till 2015/16 academic session. The department further broke into three departments namely Early Childhood and Educational Foundations, Arts and Social Sciences Education and Science and Technology Education. These new departments are conceived on demand by the National University Commission. The Department was mandated by National University Commission (2017) to change the nomenclature of the degree to B.Sc. (Ed) in all the Science subjects: Chemistry, Physics, Biology and Mathematics. This mandate was as a result of global practices and that for a qualification as a science teacher, prospective candidate must offer 75.0% of courses from the cognate discipline.