The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria

  • Nigeria can afford over 6,000 teachers for Liberia

    The Registrar and Chief Executive, Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria, (TRCN),  Professor Segun Ajiboye on Tuesday responded to the request made by the Liberian President, George Weah that his country needed over 6000 Nigerian teachers to kick start the education sector of Liberia.

    The Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria boss said that Nigeria can afford to give Liberia more than 6,000 qualified professional teachers.

    It would be recalled that during his visit to President Muhammadu Buhari, Liberian President George Weah had asked for 6000 or more teachers to jump start the education of the country.

    Ajiboye said the request for Nigerian Teachers to develop the educational sector of Liberia was a marker to the international recognition of the quality that a Nigerian Teacher is made of.

    Read Also: Liberia seeks 6,000 teachers as Buhari, Weah meet in Abuja

    Ajiboye who said the Council has registered 2million qualified and certified professional teachers, said only those certified by the Council shall be processed for such transnational request.

    While fielding questions from newsmen at the University of Ibadan on Tuesday, Ajiboye noted that the TRCN has a standing Memorandum of Understanding with the Directorate of Technical Aid Corps consequent upon which no Teacher can be sent out to teach without being qualified, registered and duly licensed by TRCN.

    Ajiboye who noted that TRCN has achieved in the area of Teacher information System (TIS), and School Monitoring Project in Six states added that it was heart-warming that Nigeria Teachers are valued internationally saying the Council will not rest on its oars to ensure that teachers become truly professional to improve their worth.

  • Induction not a licence to teach, says TRCN

    Induction not a licence to teach, says TRCN

    Only graduates who pass the Professional Qualifying Examination (PQE) will be issued licenses to teach, Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) has said. The regulatory body said its new guidelines would no longer allow graduates’ induction as qualification for teaching, emphasising that only graduates who pass through PQE will be licensed to teach.

    The council’s Registrar, Prof Josiah Ajiboye, disclosed this during the 6th induction held for the graduates of the College of Education, Nsukka in Enugu State. The school is running Professional Diploma in Education (PDE) and Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE) in affiliation with Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University (COOU) in Uli, Anambra State.

    Ajiboye said the screening was aimed at ensuring that those to be issued operating licences are those that met the standards set by the regulatory body.

    The registrar, represented by the Director of Professional Operations, Mallam Adamu Bello, added that the PQE, which started last month, is a Computer-Based Test, pointing out that teachers without competent knowledge of computer operation might encounter problem in the examination. He advised prospective teachers to be computer-compliant.

    Ajiboye said: “Knowledge is supreme and all sectors are expected to be manned only by individuals whose capabilities and comprehension of the sectors are not in doubt. This implies that teaching, just like other professions, requires that only those who are adequately prepared in knowledge and skills shall be entrusted with the task of managing our education.”

    He noted that Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, had given a marching order to TRCN to hand over “Professional Standards for Nigeria Teachers” to all governors and Commissioners of Education. The document, he said, contains everything professional teachers must know and put into practice.

    The registrar advised the graduands to access vital documents regarding professionalisation of teaching to be properly guided while in practice.

    The Acting Provost of the college, Dr Okwudili Nwosu, said the presence of non-professionals and unqualified teachers remained the bane of education, noting that it was time the teachers’ regulatory body purged the profession of quacks. According to provost, teaching is a calling and it should be guarded jealously for the interest of the education.

    In his induction lecture titled: The teacher as a moral agent: A look at the overlooked, Prof A. Akubue, who is the Dean of Faculty of Education of Ebonyi State University (EBSU), said present crop of teachers had abandoned the moral side in teaching, which, he said, involves “what is good, right and virtuous” .

    He said majority of teachers did not believe the values they take into the classroom may have impact on the Intelligent Quotient (IQ) and Moral Quotient (MQ) of their students. He advised teachers not leave bad impression in the profession, urging them to be role model and moral advisers in building good mannered generation.

    A total number of 346 graduands were inducted at the ceremony, with 278 graduated with NCE while 68 had PDE.

  • Army officers take PDE oath

    Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) has taken intensified its campaign against quackery in the teaching profession.

    Some top officers of the Nigerian Army School of Medical Sciences, Ojo Cantonment, Lagos took oath of matriculation into the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) Professional Diploma in Education (PDE). This is in furtherance of the ongoing campaign by TRCN to rid the nation of quacks in the teaching profession.

    The oath was conducted at Topmost College of Education (TOPCOED), Ayobo Ipaja, where the officers are to run the programme.

    Provost of the institution, Dr Mabel Odunayo, urged the matriculating students to take full advantage of the PDE programme which in the end makes them  professional teachers, having acquired teaching training’’ as well as being custodians of TRCN certificate.

    “You are a professional teacher who can legally parade yourself as a lecturer depending on the level of institution you find yourself. The TRCN professional certificate in addition to your academic qualifications put you in a vantage position to lecture inside and outside the country,”Odunayo said.

    She said one of TOPMOST core values is the passion for education, adding that, that informed it’s marriage with TRCN in the former’s bid  to sanitise the teaching profession.

    The immediate past Commandant, Nigerian Army School of Medical Sciences, Ojo Cantonment, Brigadier-General Solomon David, said the matriculants comprised instructors across various disciplines being offered in the school, which according to him, runs technical and technician programmes up to HND level,

    He said the school runs courses such as Dental Technology, Environmental Health, Health Information Management, Dental Therapy, and technician-oriented programmes such as Physiotherapy, Radiography, Pharmacy, Medical Lab Science Technician, among others.

    “Talking about professionalism, the Chief of Army Staff who is like our father in the Nigerian Army , also spoke about being professional in anything we do;  and I felt teachers of these courses should also be professionals because a time may come where TRCN, as a regulatory body may come to the school and close it down because our instructors are not certified.  In order to avoid that as law abiding officers , we decided  to key into the vision of TRCN to ensure that all our teachers are certified with the correct teaching techniques.

    Going down memory lane, Lagos State Director of TRCN, Mr Gbolahan Enilolobo, said PDE followed an earlier call by the National Council of Education (NCE) the highest policy-making body on education during one of its sessions in 2006, when it fixed as same year as deadline for unqualified teachers in Nigeria to get requisite teaching qualificationss or leave the system.

  • NUT directs teachers to register with Council

    The Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) has directed its members to register with the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria to entrench professionalism in the teaching profession.

    The NUT National President, Mr Micheal Olukoya, gave the directive in a message to the 6th Quadrennial (11th) State Delegates Conference of the NUT in Kotangora, Niger on Tuesday.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the two-day conference is tagged: “Improving Teachers’ Quality, Enhancing our Educational Standards’’.

    Represented by the Borno Chairman of NUT, Mr Bulama Abiso, the NUT national president advised teachers to identify with the professional body of the union so as to obtain the teaching license.

    Olukoya said that the registration process would commence in May with a minimum of National Certificate of Education as a requirement for registration.

    He said that the registration programme was geared toward improving professionalism among teachers in the country.

    Olukoya warned that those who failed to register within the specified period would be made to sit for an examination as part of the criteria to qualify them for the registration.

    He appealed to the Federal Government to fully implement the minimum wage of teachers so as to improve the standards of education and living.