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From Fred Ezeh and Vikky Uba, Abuja
The Federal Government has said that it is determined to end quackery in the teaching profession, insisting that going forward no “teacher” would be allowed into the classrooms without a certification and license from the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TCRN).
The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Sonny Echono, reaffirmed the position of the Federal Government after monitoring the May diet of the Professional Qualifying Examination (PQE) for teachers, which was organised by TRCN in Abuja, yesterday.
Echono encouraged teachers without the certificates to take advantage of the available window to get certified by TRCN before the opportunity elapses.
He said: “We have qualified teachers around the country, some of whom are not yet employed. So, no state has any excuse for harboring unqualified teachers in their schools when there are teachers across states who are qualified and yet not employed”.
The permanent secretary while addressing newsmen on his observations of the examination, described the process as seamless with credit to ICT, which helped in improving efficiency and credibility.
He said that the federal Ministry of Education believes that the examinations would hold regularly, and would continue to serve as a prerequisite for recruitment of teachers.
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Echono, therefore, commended the President Muhammadu Buhari on his initiative to improve the welfare package of teachers in the country, which was announced during his last annual teachers’ day speech.
He said: “This has been most encouraging. Surprisingly, the remuneration for teachers is now higher than that of the civil servants. The service year is also five years longer than that of the civil servants.
“We have commenced the implementation of the new salary and service packages, and we are working closely with the Office of the Head of Service as well as the Salaries and Wages Commission to achieve the goal.
“We are also computing all allowances to ensure that teachers get their rewards here on earth and not in heaven as used to be.”
Meanwhile, the acting Director, Certification and Licensing, TCRN, Jacinta Ogbosor, disclosed that 17,141 candidates registered for the PQE exercise across 43 examination centres nationwide.
She added that the implementation of the deadline for teachers to acquire the TRCN certification, which was supposed to have commenced in 2020, was held back due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
