The Federal Government on Tuesday declared that there will be no more room for unregistered or unqualified teachers in both public and private schools in Nigeria as from January 2018.
Minister of State for Education,
Minister of State for Education, Professor Anthony Anwukah, dropped this hint in Ibadan while declaring open a three day workshop on “Training of the Trainers (ToT) capacity building” on implementation of professional standards for Nigerian teachers, organized by the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN), held at the University of Ibadan Conference, Ibadan.
The Minister disclosed that all the necessary measures are now in place to stop the usage of unqualified and quack teachers both in public and private schools across the country.
Professor Anwuka said as far as the present administration in the country was concerned, professionalism and quality in the teaching sector will continue to be the benchmark of the profession.
“The time is now to make sure that unregistered teachers or unqualified have no room in our schools again, paving way for our children to be trained by not by registered teachers in Nigeria. When we ensure quality in our schools, the private schools have no choice than to comply” he said.
The Minister added “because we have little challenges here and there in our primary school sector forced most parents into patronizing alternatives being provided by private schools” saying.”the
issue will sort itself out.”
“Those who are running private schools should please get the signal in good time that the time is up. No more recruitment of unqualified teachers because they want to maximize their profits. That will not happen No more in this country. The oversight function of government will reach the private schools. This must be ensure that education at whatever level, private or public must meet the required and acceptable quality.”
Emphasizing that ‘quality teachers are central to overcoming the challenge of low quality education in Nigeria,’ Professor Anwkar pointed out that ” it is reoccurring that the quality of education in a country cannot rise above the quality of its teachers.”
The Minister maintained that “Federal Ministry of Education is encouraging any attempt at improving the quality of teachers and as such commends the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria for developing and publishing the professional standards for Nigerian Teachers and the Teachers Code of conducts as instruments for quality assurance in the teaching profession”.
“Teachers quality and professional development is a cardinal policy directive of this administration, as clearly spelt out in the address of Mr President during the August 2015 International Teachers day commemoration.”
The Registrar/Chief Executive, Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria, (TRCN), Professor Olusegun Ajiboye said “TRCN will leave no stone unturned, and that after succeeding in the area of professionalism of teachers profession, welfarism will be the next point on their agenda”.
“Teaching in Nigeria has become a profession as it has acquired such features that have to be protected and projected which have been clearly and precisely defined to include the minimum set of knowledge, skills, values, attitude, conduct, rights and privileges and obligations expected of qualified teachers referred to as professional standards.Teachers are dual professionals; they are subject and/or vocational specialists and experts in teaching and learning. They are committed to maintaining and developing their expertise in both aspects of their role to ensure the best outcomes for their learners.”he said.
In his remarks,National President, Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Comrade Micheal Olukoya lauded the TRCN for its determination towards sanitizing the teaching profession, saying, the gesture was a welcome development which will rank Nigeria at par in practice as done all over the world.
” This new development, sincerely we teachers in Nigeria welcome it and we are going to partner with the TRCN to move the state of teaching in this country to a state of eldorado,” Alugba stated.
He added that “the new development being espoused by the Chief Executive of TRCN is a right step in the right direction. It is going to bring about change in attitude, in previous conception which is going to improve the quality of education in Nigeria. In teaching profession, there should be no room for quacks, because quakes will go into the classroom, damage the children damage the children and leave them more confused than they were before. So, we have a responsibility as NUT to ensure that this does not happen.
