THE Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) has disclosed that no less than 15,000 teachers will on 14 October, 2017 sit for professional qualifying examination being organised by the Council.
The Council has also said that it has successfully registered about 1.8 million teachers across the country in the efforts to ensure professionalism of teaching in Nigeria.
Registrar of the Council, Professor Josiah Ajiboye, made this known in Abuja while briefing newsmen on the progress made so far in the last one year.
Professor Ajiboye also disclosed that with the involvement of the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) the Council successful distributed Teachers Bio-data forms to all the 774 Local Government Areas in the country.
He said,“the Bio-data will help to know the numbers of subject teachers and where they are located across the country and this will address the issue of dis-proportionate distribution of teachers”.
Ajiboye, identified the reintroduction of Professional Qualifying Examination (PQE) as a key progress, saying the examination which would now be Computer Based Test.
He explained that before his assumption into office on the 2nd of August 2016, only 1.5million teachers were registered with the Council, adding that within the period of one year of his being in office, 295,000 more trained teachers registered with TRCN.
The Registrar also hinted that the Council in the last twelve months has dispatched 21 letters of Professional Standing to Nigerian teachers seeking teaching jobs abroad.
He said within the period under review, 24 letters of Professional Standing requests were made by Ontario College of Teachers, Canada, Teaching Councils of Australia, UK and the U.S.
He said: “the letter is an article of faith and a Memorandum of Understanding Nigeria signs with other countries ,such agreement covers the anecdotal records, moral standing and the educational background of the prospective applicant.
“With letters of Professional Standing, trained and qualified and duly registered teachers with the TRCN don’t need to go through or sit for exams again abroad before commencing their teaching profession”
Speaking on accreditation and monitoring, Professor Ajiboye said that the council would by 2018 embark on active and and strict monitoring to rid out quacks out of the teaching Profession.
He explained that the mandate of TRCN covers both Private and public schools.
He said: “The era of using unqualified teachers is gone with both private and public education providers. As from 2018 TRCN will commence strict and active monitoring to rid the system of quacks”.
On induction at point of graduation, the TRCN Registrar said that the council successfully conducted induction in 31 Teacher training institutions across 17 states with 29,381 fresh teachers inducted.