TRCN will soon launch new career path policy for teachers —Ajiboye

In this interview by JACOB SEGUN OLATUNJI, the registrar/chief executive officer of the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN), Professor Josiah Olusegun Ajiboye speaks about the mandate of the council, efforts to regulate the teaching profession and new welfare package for teachers. Excerpt:

 

Tell us about the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN)?

The Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria was established by an Act of parliament, under decree 31 of 1993 constitution which later on became Act III of 2004. The council was established to regulate the teaching profession in all its ramifications both in public and private schools. TRCN, as its acronym reads is not a union of teachers. We have the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) and other unions but the TRCN is a regulatory authority, just like you have councils that regulate other professions. So, we have the TRCN regulating the teaching profession in Nigeria in all its ramifications from the primary level to the tertiary level. Before its establishment, it was discovered that the teaching profession was fast becoming an all-comers affairs, where anyone can just come and practise but we said no! This is not right. For a job to be described as a profession, it must have its professional ethics, codes, as well as the regulatory authority that is actually monitoring its activities. These are the rationale for setting up TRCN. This idea is not peculiar to Nigeria, it’s a global practice and that’s why we have what we call International Forum of Teachers Regulatory Authorities and in Africa, the African Federation of Teaching Regulatory Authorities. These are intergovernmental organisations of teaching regulatory authorities in the continent. TRCN is not a union and that’s the idea we want people to understand. Whenever TRCN is speaking, it is speaking based on the law that established it. The law that established TRCN empowers it to regulate the teaching profession in its entirety. The law even makes provision for jail terms, fines, sanctions, among others.

 

December 31, 2019 was the deadline given unqualified teachers to regularise their academic qualifications. How have things fared in this regard?

That position is not the decision of the TRCN. It was that of the National Council on Education, which is the highest decision-making body on education in Nigeria. The council took that position as far back as 2006 but in 2017, they reiterated the position in a meeting held in Kano and as well as in 2018 at a meeting held in Abuja. Also, in 2019 they reemphasised it at a meeting held in Port Harcourt that by December 31,  whoever is not qualified, registered and licensed by TRCN would no longer be allowed to practise in the country.

People think the aim is to sack people. No! The aim is not to sack anyone, rather it is to sanitise the system. We can no longer want unqualified people in our classrooms.  For goodness sake, would you allow someone who is not trained as a medical doctor in the theatre? Since, it is impossible for anyone to do that, it is dangerous for the country to allow people who are not trained to do the job of teaching in our classrooms.  So far, Nigerians are now aware of this development. I think the major thing we have achieved is the awareness creation because before now, no one was doing anything about it and now it is very clear that the government is very serious about the whole thing. The next step now is to begin enforcement of the concept. We will begin to monitor our schools for compliance to ensure that those who teach in our classrooms are qualified, registered and licensed by TRCN.

 

What is now the minimum qualification to practise as a teacher in Nigeria?

The National Council on Education has prescribed the minimum qualification for teaching in the country and that is the Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE). The NCE is the minimum qualification for teaching in Nigeria; you can get other qualifications though. People who have qualifications in other cognate areas can do a Post – Graduate Diploma in Education (PGD). They have been given enough time to do PGDE or Professional Diploma in Education which are run in colleges of education and some universities. The professional diploma in education was put in place specifically to enable those who have degrees in other disciplines to get themselves qualified as professional teachers; they can avail themselves the opportunity through either the Post or Professional Diploma in Education at the various institutions.

 

Is the whole exercise only applicable to public schools?

No, because the law that established TRCN actually empowers it to regulate the teaching profession both in the public and private schools. We are going to start our monitoring exercise with private schools because we already have about 83 per cent compliance at the public school level. We do not have problems registering teachers in public schools. The problem is largely with the private schools where people want to make profit. Private participation in education is highly welcome but education cannot be commercialised; the  main reason teachers in private schools should be qualified, registered and licensed to practise. So, we’re going to the private schools.

 

So, how will you ensure compliance?

Very simple, we’ll set up teams. TRCN has its offices in all the states of the federation and initially we have collected data from about six states of both the qualified and nonqualified, as well as registered and unregistered teachers. We collected that data in 2018 but we are not going to rely on that alone. The Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) has also done personnel auditing and we have the result.

 

If I’m a graduate of education, do I still need to be licensed?

If you graduate with B.Sc in Accounting and you want to be a Chartered Accountant, you must go through ICAN, ditto with passing the mandatory TRCN’s qualifying examination before you are registered as a professional teacher. Before I came on board in 2016 I learnt teachers were requested to just bring their certificates and pronto they were registered and they became professional teachers. However, we felt this was abnormal; for you to be registered you must pass another gate – keeping exercise and that’s why we put the mandatory examination in place. The idea is not to extort anybody but the idea is to sift the chaff from the wheat to ensure quality.

 

Generally, are you encouraged by the responses?

Let me say that I am highly encouraged because when we started no one showed interest.  The Honourable Minister approved the idea and we stopped registration without examination in June 2017. We had our first professional qualifying examination in October 2017 and since then, the number has been increasing.

 

What have been the challenges so far?

Apart from teachers’ professionalism, TRCN is supposed to be involved in teachers’ welfare. I think we are doing well in the aspect of teachers’ professionalism, but we will have to focus more on teachers’ welfare. We have developed a new policy on teachers’ career path. The idea is to move teachers from the normal scheme of service to a separate career path, so that they can grow and excel more; unlike the normal scheme of service that does not give room for growth and progress.

The new policy has just been approved by the National Council on Education. It’s called ‘Teachers’ Career Path Policy.’ We are working on the implementation guidelines, when we are done with the publishing process, the Minister of Education will flag it off and present to the country.