The Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) has declared that the federal government’s December 31, 2019 deadline for the phase out of unqualified teachers in the country is sacrosanct.
Registrar of TCN, Prof. Josiah Ajiboye, who made the disclosure during the 2020 budget defence meeting with the House of Representatives Committee on Basic Education and Services, also ranked Edo as the state with record highest qualified teachers in Nigeria, adding that the Council has identified six other states with largest number of unqualified practitioners.
According to hm, the ongoing repositioning of the teaching profession “will take teaching from normal scheme of service to a new level and will be able to give them their own specialized scheme of service whereby teachers will be motivated and able to enjoy the benefits of their services and ultimately be motivated to do better in the profession”.
On the efforts at improving the quality of teachers travelling abroad, he said: “TRCN is a member of African Teaching Regulatory Authorities and also a member of the International Forum of Teaching Regulatory Authorities; these two bodies are the ones that regulate teaching in Africa and globally.
“And TRCN is a strong member and because of that we have an Article of Faith that has been agreed upon by all Member-nation, and this is what we called Letter of Professional Standing. Any Nigerian that is interested in teaching in any country of the world, what they need to do is to approach TRCN for that Letter.
“And when we issue that letter of Professional Standing they are given the same recognition as a professional teacher in any country where they want to teach, so its really working well”.
Speaking earlier, Chairman of the committee, Prof. Julius Ihonvbere, who applauded various initiatives and ingenuity of the Council, also said there was need to improve its revenue generation efforts.
