The Registrar, Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN), Prof. Josiah Ajiboye, has called on stakeholders including the media to join forces with the council to eliminate quackery from teaching profession.
Ajiboye made the call in abuja, at a one-day Workshop organised by TRCN for education correspondents with the theme: “Sustaining Gains of Certification in Nigeria’s Teaching Profession.”
He said that no nation could grow without quality education provided by quality teachers, hence the need to focus on education quality in the country. According to him, teachers hold the key to development as they produce all other professionals, and quality education is driven by quality teachers.
“In countries like Finland, the qualification for teaching is a Master’s degree and they select their teachers from the secondary school.
“They selected the best of the best. It is a stringent process to get into teaching there, In our country, we have to be interested in the quality of teachers. We should not allow politicians to bring unqualified persons into teaching.
“This is not right; the country cannot progress in this way and that is why we have started certain programmes in the past few years,” he said.
The registrar commended President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration for ensuring that teaching profession was given a facelift through the approval of welfare packages for teachers.
He said the council had also increased the training of teachers in 24 states across the country from 30,000 to 45,000 teachers to provide 21st century education and ensure professionalism in the sector. “The minister has approved 45,000 teachers to be trained across 24 states. It was initially 30,000.
“We have done the first leg of the training of 7,500 teachers. “We must join forces to rescue this nation from quackery to deliver 21st century education to the country,” he added.
The Chairman, Education Correspondent Association of Nigeria (ECAN), Mr Chuks Ukwuatu, commended the council for promoting excellence in the sector through effective registration and licencing of teachers. Ukwuatu said that the efforts of TRCN had helped in promoting professionalism and restored sanity in the system.
