In a bid to shore up the standard of education in the country the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) has taken a hard stance on registration and issuance of license to teachers, KEHINDE OSASONA writes.
For a job to be described as a profession, it must have its professional ethics, codes, and regulatory authority that monitor its activities.
Over time, the teaching profession had become an all-comers affair, where anyone could just come and practice.
It was against the background that the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) was established by an Act of parliament, under Decree 31 of 1993 constitution which later became Act III of 2004.
TRCN, recently, raised the alarm that more than 50 per cent of those teaching in primary and secondary schools nationwide were not qualified to be in the classroom.
Consequently, the council has since swung into action to address the situation, a development that led to the issuance of deadline to teachers to get certification.
At first, it was tough as many teachers did not give it the necessary attention, claiming it was another ploy by government to fleece them of their hard-earned money.
However, TRCN Registrar/CEO, Professor Josiah Olusegun Ajiboye, quickly came in defence of the government policy; saying the situation was worse in private schools.
He stressed the need for all to embrace the new policy and save the country’s education system from imminent collapse.
According to him, apart from the fact that many of the teachers, particularly those in private schools, were not qualified, they were simply not registerable by the council.
He regretted that the teachers in that category do not have basic teaching qualifications, which is the National Certificate in Education (NCE), as stipulated by the National Policy on Education.
“Whoever is to be engaged as a teacher in any school in the country, either public or private, must possess a minimum of NCE plus TRCN Certificate.
“The two certificates are mandatory and none is optional for teachers’ recruitment as evidence has shown that professional teachers perform their duties more committedly.
“So, those without these two certificates are not supposed to get teaching employment, let alone be in the classroom teaching.
“School owners are aware of this policy and wonder why they have continually flouted it, knowing it is the standard practice in developed countries and Nigeria cannot be an exception.
“Some school owners, especially private-owned, are not complying with the policy as they still engage secondary school leavers as teachers,” Ajiboye said.
Naming, shaming quacks
Will ‘naming and shaming’ suffice?
As part of ongoing efforts to enhance the system TRCN had decided to remove unqualified teachers by adopting what is now known as ‘naming and shaming’.
The move according to TRCN would enable state governments know the number of teachers in their employ that are not qualified.
“The certification is to make teachers relevant in the 21st century technology world. The country needs technologically savvy teachers to be able to cope with developments in the sector and achieve her potential.
“If you graduate with B.Sc in Accounting and you want to be a Chartered Accountant, you must go through ICAN, ditto with passing the mandatory TRCN’s qualifying examination before you are registered as a professional teacher.
“Before I came on board in 2016 I learnt teachers were requested to just bring their certificates and pronto they were registered and they became professional teachers.
“However, we felt this was abnormal; for you to be registered you must pass another gate-keeping exercise and that’s why we put the mandatory examination in place. The idea is not to extort anybody but the idea is to sift the chaff from the wheat to ensure quality,” he stated.
Ending quackery
When TRCN released its 2019 May Diet of the Teachers’ Professional Qualifying Examination (PQE) 22,454 teachers who wrote the examination qualified to register for teaching licenses.
The development was a relief for government and stakeholders in the education sector. The result, which was approved by the TRCN Governing Council, indicated that 27,725 teachers out of 29,898 that registered participated in the examination.
At the end of the exercise, 80.99 per cent of candidates passed while 19.01, which is 5,271 candidates failed.
The examination, which was conducted in 42 centers across the country in 2019, started on June 7 in states that had large numbers of candidates and ended on June 8.
While commenting on the result, Prof Ajiboye described the outcome as very encouraging; even as he justified the council’s position stating that though PQE was not an achievement test, it was important to ensure that people were registered as professional teachers.
He maintained that the council would not issue teachers’ certificate and license to any teacher without the person writing the examination.
“Looking at the state performance, the teachers from Ogun state recorded the highest pass of 95.40 per cent followed by Anambra state with 94.79 per cent and Lagos state with 94.64 per cent.
“The performances of the candidates from other states are also very encouraging and the Federal Ministry of Education and TRCN governing board are happy with it,’’ he said.
FG backs TRCN
Giving boost to efforts by to TRCN to sanitise he teaching profession the federal government had also insisted that no teacher would be allowed into the classrooms without certification and license from the council.
The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Sonny Echono, had disclosed that the federal government after monitoring the May diet of the PQE for teachers, that no state has any excuse for harbouring unqualified teachers in their schools.
“We have qualified teachers around the country, some of whom are not yet employed. So, no state has any excuse for harbouring unqualified teachers in their schools when there are teachers across states that are qualified and yet not employed,” he said.
Echono assured that the Ministry of Education would ensure that the examination was held regularly as a prerequisite for recruitment of teachers.
Ajiboye had read a riot act to defaulters when the deadline issued for teachers to get certified expired in 2021, stating that the council would clampdown on unqualified teachers nationwide.
The TRCN boss followed the statement up with a warning that the council would start visiting schools to ascertain their level of compliance to the Act.
Ajiboye said the move became necessary following the council’s determination to maintain high education standard in the country.
He expressed worry that despite TRCN stance and campaign there was still record of many unqualified teachers in school across the country.
According to Ajiboye, “We have about 2.2 million teachers that are registered with TRCN and the figure is still extremely low because from available statistics, we have about four million teachers in the country. That means a large number of them are still not registered.
“We cannot achieve the expected quality education without competent teachers and school administrators, well equipped with the desirable knowledge, skills and effective operations of the education system.”
Expert’s take
Justifying the government’s position in an exclusive interview with Blueprint Weekend, Mr Segun Adeniran said the registration and issuance of license to teachers by the government would help give the profession a good tone and integrity like other professional bodies in the country.
Adeniran, who was a teacher for many years, insisted that every profession would be recognised based on its regulations.
“Yes. It’s a normal thing to register any practicing Teacher for some cogent reasons. It will assist the organization vested with its regulations to know those who are qualified for membership.
“By so doing, the profession will no more be opened to every dick and Harry, not only that, discipline will be possible based on the rules and regulations guiding the profession and only those with statutory qualifications will be admitted into the profession and as such quackery would be discouraged and standardization would be enhanced,” Adeniran said.
On those who refuse to comply, Adeniran said: “With these new developments, any erring member would easily be detected and meted with appropriate discipline for the purpose of sanctity in the profession.”
