Enforcing teachers’ registration

A report released last week by the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria that only 1.5 million teachers across the country are registered is not only shocking but strange, considering the numbers of Colleges of Education and universities which offer specialized training on the teaching profession. The new Registrar of the Council, Professor Josiah Ajiboye, who […]

A report released last week by the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria that only 1.5 million teachers across the country are registered is not only shocking but strange, considering the numbers of Colleges of Education and universities which offer specialized training on the teaching profession. The new Registrar of the Council, Professor Josiah Ajiboye, who disclosed the figure, noted that the number falls below what is required.
The need for teachers to be registered and adequately monitored was also emphasized when the Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, addressed newsman on the sidelines of the presentation of a draft roadmap tagged “Education for Change: A Ministerial Strategic Plan 2016-2019’’ to education stakeholders in Abuja. He maintained that only qualified teachers, who were duly registered, would be allowed to teach in the country to ensure professionalism.
Adamu noted that the teaching profession had declined and there was need to ensure professionalism to improve the quality of education. “Teacher education itself is dying simply because non-professionals have now become teachers. Therefore, the professionalisation and registration of teachers will help make sure that the profession is reorganized and quacks kicked out. So nobody should be employed as a teacher if he or she does not have a teaching qualification; there is no magic if you are not qualified as a teacher: you cannot teach,”Adamu said.
The need to ensure that only qualified and duly trained persons are recruited as teachers cannot be over-emphasized, as the level of development of any nation depends largely on the level of education of the populace.  Over the years, the nation has been witnessing a decline in the quality of education, with poor results recorded at the Senior Secondary School Examination. This leads to the situation in which half-baked graduates are being churned out of the nation’s university. There is no better way to address this problem than to go back to the roots; which is checking the quality of teachers. If the government is serious about revamping the education sector, the issue of quality and quantity of teachers cannot be overlooked.
If all teachers in the country are registered, it would be easy for the authorities to hold them accountable for their unprofessional and unethical conducts.  Proper documentation will also enable the authorities to identify those who require training and in what areas. Sadly, today the teaching profession has become an all-comers’ affair due to poor checks.
The teaching profession is too important to be used as a stop-gap measure by anyone. There have been several cases of illegal teachers in schools across the country as well as teachers aiding students in examination malpractice.  The only way erring teachers can be sanctioned is when they can be identified; and that can only be done where there is proper documentation. The council should not stop at registration of teachers; it should coordinate and harmonize teachers across the country; monitor postings and ensure that the right curriculum is being followed. The council must also update the requirements for qualified teachers in line with the Ministry of Education, so that anyone registered is assumed to have met that the requirements and is qualified to go into the classroom. Also, the Council must launch teachers’ registration drive using diverse approaches and working hand-in-hand with the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) and institutions offering courses in education.
 It should go further by making registration a prerequisite for employment, such that applicants would be expected to present some form of clearance or evidence of registration before he or she is given the job. The package for teachers at the moment leaves much to be desired. The government should upgrade the standard of the profession by making the package more competitive so that it can attract only the best.