By Godfrey AKON
The Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria, TRCN, says it is seeking a prosecutorial fiat from Office of the Attorney General of the Federation to commence prosecution of unqualified teachers in private schools.
Registrar of TRCN, Prof Josiah Ajiboye, who disclosed this during an interactive session with journalists on Monday in Abuja, maintained that less than 50 per cent of teachers in private schools are qualified as against over 80 per cent in public schools.
Ajiboye said the focus of the council will shift towards eliminating the problem of unqualified teachers in basic and secondary schools in Nigeria’s private schools in 2024.
According to him, the idea of teaching as a job for the boys is drastically reduced as the council has registered 2.3 million professional teachers, out of which over 400,000 have been licensed.
Speaking on challenges of delivering quality education in schools, the TRCN boss also said part of the problem lies with school leadership, adding that TRCN has developed a policy on school leadership with support from the British Council to address the situation.
He also expressed concerns over government’s plan to stop funding TRCN and some agencies, and called for support from teachers and other stakeholders to ensure that the council survives, adding that government has, however, assured that no staff of the agency will be sacked.
On achievements of TRCN in 2023, he said all professional qualifying exams administered by the council were conducted successfully without hitches in all centres across the country and the results released.
“We have conducted Professional Qualifying Exams (PQE) in more than 100 tertiary institutions nationwide; we have conducted PQE online for Nigerians in diaspora, and conducted inductions for more than 100 institutions, including universities and colleges of education; some twice during the year,” he said.
Ajiboye also disclosed that the council was collaborating with Instil Education and had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with South African based organization and it was about to release its form to TRCN for training of Teachers to commence.
The TRCN registrar also announced the result of the PQE conducted on Saturday, November 25, 2023, stating that 10,636, representing approximately 72.9 per cent teachers passed the exercise while 3,963 teachers, representing 27.1 per cent failed.
He said the council also carried out cancellation of some results belonging to candidates who engaged in exam malpractice.
Recall that a total of 15,750 teachers sat for the examination which was held in 38 centres across Nigeria.
