Fred Ezeh, Abuja
Federal Government has promised to give special consideration to teachers with professional certification from Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) but are not gainfully employed.
The government said the teachers would be used to replace the ones that would be evicted from classrooms by December 2019, for not having TRCN certificates.
Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Sonny Echono, disclosed the planned action in Abuja, on Saturday, shortly after monitoring the first batch of 2019 Professional Qualification Examination (PQE) organised by TRCN.
The Permanent Secretary said: “TRCN and NTI have been directed to compile a database of certified teachers who are unemployed. That’s ongoing. We will use them to replace those uncertified teachers who would be evicted from classrooms by end of December 2019.”
He said the December 2019 grace period for uncertified teachers is sacrosanct. “It marks the end of period for teachers without professional certificate in our classrooms.
“We have huge dearth of qualified and certified teachers in our school. So, it will be unwise and counter-productive to allow TRCN uncertified teachers in our classrooms while those certified by TRCN are unemployed.
“We have upgraded our mechanism to enhance our strict enforcement. First, we upgraded our Quality Assurance Department into full Inspectorate with offices in states of the federation.
“Secondly, we have re-established secondary education commission that will take off after the working modalities are concluded. The commission will help us enforce standards,” he said.
TRCN Registrar, Prof. Josiah Ajiboye, said there was impressive increase in recent applications. He said that not less than 30, 000 people sat for the examination in over 50 centres across Nigeria.
He confirmed that Kaduna State with 3, 258 applications, had the highest number of candidates. Imo, Katsina, Plateau, Bauchi are among states with the high number of application, while Sokoto State with 185 applications, was among states with the lowest applications.
He, thus, encouraged teachers who are yet to get TRCN certificate to use the remaining window in October or risk eviction from classrooms by the end of December 2019 deadline.