A former national president, Association for Formidable Educational Development (AFED), Mrs Ifejola Dada, has advised teachers to register and obtain the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) certificate before the December 2019 deadline.
Dada gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Thursday while reacting to the December 2019 deadline for all teachers to obtain the TRCN certification by the federal government.
The minister of education, Malam Adamu Adamu, had directed the council to disengage all those teaching without the requisite qualification by December 31.
The council made this known recently at the 6th Induction Ceremony of 400 newly- graduated teachers trained by the University of Jos.
Dada, however, said that the certification was good as it would help those who did not choose teaching as a profession initially but due to lack of job found themselves in the classrooms.
She said that the certification was in various categories and teachers should make effort to upgrade themselves on the job.
“The qualification is very important, though we deal with paper qualification in Nigeria instead of intellectual capacity.
“I and many of my members have the TRCN qualification already.
“We have gotten it already and we are still encouraging others to go ahead and get the certification.
“We do not have issues with the directive. If government decides to commence the implementation, we are fine with it,’’ she said.
Dada said that AFED as an association did not place much emphasis on paper qualification but intellectual capacity.
She gave the reason why people continued to say low income schools engaged secondary school certificate holders as teachers.Most of our school certificate holders after employing them, she said, become even better than the NCE and degree holders after two years due to in-service training and external training.
“We are not bent on paper qualification; we are bent on the intelligence of our teachers and what they can do.
“I advise teachers to go and get the TRCN certificate; I have my own and I still want to have the MSc qualification.
“The professional examination is not a big deal, teachers should do the right thing before the deadline.
“If everyone can go for the TRCN professional certification, it will help them a lot,’’ she said.
NAN reports that AFED is made up of private schools charging low fees from N5,000 per term, with the aim of providing affordable and quality education for all.
