THE Federal Government has expressed renewed commitment to improve on the quality of teachers in Nigeria while also ensuring that quacks and unqualified teachers have no place in the classrooms in Nigeria.
Registrar of Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria, (TRCN) Professor Josiah Ajiboye, who stated this also, revealed that the council had approached the National Assembly for the review of the Act establishing the TRCN in order to strengthen its regulatory authority in the fight against quackery in the teaching profession.
Ajiboye, who spoke in Abuja as guest lecturer at the 24th annual seminar of the Nigerian Academy of Education with the theme: ‘Professionalisation of Teaching in Nigeria, Past, Present and Future,’ noted that the council needed more regulatory powers so as to eliminate quackery in the teaching profession in Nigeria.
He lamented acute shortage of teachers in some states of the federation, noting that some state governments have not employed teachers in the last 10 years.
He also observed that in some states where teachers were recruited, unqualified persons are engaged due to “political patronage.”
He noted for instance that “27 percent of teachers in the South West part of the country are not qualified, and if that is happening in the South West, you can imagine what is happening elsewhere.”
Ajiboye said that “though the TRCN conducts the registration of teachers, it also performs other regulatory functions in terms of ensuring quality, monitoring and accreditation of programmes as well as organisation of training programmes for teachers.
“Part of the things we are looking forward to in the future is a change in the name of the Teachers’ Registration Council of Nigeria to the Teachers’ Regulatory Council of Nigeria; it is still the same TRCN. The idea behind that is that when people hear ‘Teachers’ Registration Council, they usually think that the function of TRCN is limited only to registration of teachers.
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“We do more of regulation than just registration of teachers. Our roles are not limited to registering teachers alone. It is the ‘Teachers’ Regulatory Council that would actually capture the essence of what we do at the level of TRCN. And that is why we are making that proposal to the House Committee on Basic Education,” he said.
On how far the House Committee on Basic Education had progressed with the amendment, he said it had organised a public hearing on it and the council is looking forward to seeing the amendment through.
Ajiboye noted that the teaching profession is the major driver of the education system as teachers are the determinant of quality education in any country.
According to him, the teaching profession in Nigeria has attracted a lot of criticism, stating that Nigeria is the only country where people, who are not qualified, are employed to teach the children.
He warned that “in a society, where their best brains do not want to be teachers, their children would be taught by idiots.”
He said that the Nigerian government had discovered the danger of engaging quacks and the benefits of the professionalisation of teachers, adding that teaching in Nigeria is now legally recognised as a profession, courtesy of the TRCN.
While stating that the major criteria for any occupation to be called a profession is to have a regulatory body, he said graduates of all the teacher training institutions in Nigeria now write the teachers professional qualifying examination administered by the TRCN.
He further stated that the council had been able to prop about 1.4 million teachers from its database and currently has about 1.8 million registered teachers in its database nationwide.
He enumerated other achievements of the council to include the new salary scale for teachers which had been approved by President Muhammadu Buhari, in addition to the 65 years retirement age for teachers which was recently signed into law.
He said: “we are looking at a future where all our teachers are licensed and certified professionals.”
While emphasising the use of technology, he noted that “technology will not replace teachers, rather teachers who know how to use technology to replace those who do not know how to use technology.”
He said President Buhari had given approval for TRCN to train 40,000 teachers on digital literacy across the country.
Also speaking, the President of the Nigerian Academy of Education, Prof essor Kabiru Isyaku, said that “if Nigeria wants to catch up with the rest of the world, it has to develop its teaching profession as that is where human capital development begins”.
Isyaku emphasised the need for quality teachers as well as ensuring dedication and welfare of teachers, adding that if the country wants quality in education, it has to pay for it.
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