TRCN and enforcement of professional teaching qualification

The Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) recently declared its intention to begin, by mid-February 2019, the enforcement of the policy on mandatory Professional Qualifying Examination (PQE) for teachers in the country. This was disclosed by the Registrar of the Council, Prof Josiah Ajiboye, at a meeting in Abuja with State Coordinators and Technical Committee […]

The Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) recently declared its intention to begin, by mid-February 2019, the enforcement of the policy on mandatory Professional Qualifying Examination (PQE) for teachers in the country. This was disclosed by the Registrar of the Council, Prof Josiah Ajiboye, at a meeting in Abuja with State Coordinators and Technical Committee on Instruments for monitoring the disengagement of unqualified teachers in the country.

After failing to meet several deadlines in the past, TRCN through the National Council on Education (NCE) finally set December 31, 2019 as the deadline for unqualified teachers to be weeded out of the sector. This is to rid the nation’s education sector especially basic and secondary schools of quacks and unprofessional teachers. The TRCN boss explained that the monitoring exercise was not in any way to retrench anybody but to ensure that only registered teachers are allowed to practice.

Ajiboye called on private schools to ensure compliance with government policy on PQE as the Council would come hard on those who failed to comply with its directives. “We are going to focus on the private schools when we start our enforcement by the middle of February,” Ajiboye said. He also said that a technical committee had been set up to swing into action noting that names of registered teachers had been computerised to serve as a guide during the enforcement exercise.

TRCN was established in 1993 to among other statutory functions regulate and control the teaching profession in all aspects. It is equally to open and maintain a register of qualified teachers. TRCN is also empowered to prosecute unqualified teachers found to be illegally performing the job of teachers which is in contravention of section 17(2) of the TRCN Act.

It would be recalled that ever since the federal government made the National Certificate in Education (NCE) the least entry qualification into the teaching profession in Nigeria, many unqualified teachers have continued to remain in the job. Many deadlines set under successive administrations for the implementation of this policy failed because of some obvious reasons. For instance, the absence of mechanisms to motivate qualified teachers to remain in the job remained a threat to this policy. Many of those who possess teaching qualification(s) use teaching as a stepping stone to other jobs where they would earn better pay. Many public schools also prefer to employ unqualified teachers because of the lower wages that such teachers take.

Soon after the federal government announced this policy, the National Teachers Institute introduced an upgrading distance learning programme with a view to providing opportunity for unqualified teachers already in the system to improve upon their qualifications and obtain the Nigeria certificate in Education (NCE). By May 31, 2017, TRCN discontinued the practice of registering teachers without subjecting them to any examination; hence the introduction of PQE, which for the first time took place in September 2017. Teachers who registered before May 31, 2017 were exempted from the PQE.

We believe that the enforcement of this policy as planned by TRCN would not pose any problems because faculties of education, institutes of education, colleges of education and the NTI periodically turn out large numbers of graduates with education background. They are there to fill the likely vacuum to be created when unqualified teachers are weeded out of the system.

For TRCN to succeed, Governors’ roles are strategic. For political reasons, some of them may not support the enforcement of the policy because of the imagined political consequences of sacking unqualified teachers. Similarly, employing qualified teachers would mean an increase in wage bill because the entry grade level for NCE holders and university graduates is higher than the grade level of those without professional teaching qualification.

We call on state governors to summon courage and support TRCN in its resolve to rid the system of untrained teachers. So much time has been wasted on the implementation of this policy. We must not continue to trust those who do not have what it takes to be a teacher with the future of our children. Only those professionally certified to teach should be allowed to do so.