400,000 Likely To Go As TRCN Begins Screening Of Unqualified Teachers

Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria, TRCN, will today begin a nationwide screening of teachers in public and private primary and secondary schools, with a view to weeding out unqualified/unregistered persons from the system.
Prof. Josiah Ajiboye, the Registrar/Chief Executive of the council, said the exercise would start in 33 states of the federation and Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja.
According to Ajiboye, Adamawa, Yobe and Borno are excluded for now because of security challenges in the areas. He added that the first phase would end on March 17 for an assessment of the situation, followed by constant monitoring.
Ajiboye also frowned on the situation where some states see possessing TRCN certification as an added advantage while employing teachers, when the certification ought to be the first criterion.
He said with the December 31, 2019 deadline given by the Federal Government for teachers to get registered with the council lapsing nearly two months ago, nothing would stop the council from getting rid of quacks from the teaching profession.
He said: “We recently held a meeting of our technical team and we have got the data to work with. We are using the Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC, National Personnel Audit 2018 as our baseline. We will start visiting schools from the last week of February. It is not going to be a once and for all thing.
“We are constituting teams in all the states of the federation and Abuja. Apart from our staff and others, the team in each state will include a Professor of Education from a univeristy in that state or the Provost of a College of Education in that state. Our teams may go out daily for, may be, two weeks and then assess the situation and go out again.”
On what they would be asking teachers during visits to schools, Ajiboye said teachers would only need to show their Teachers Licence and evidence of registration with the TRCN.