FG sounds warning on teacher qualifications

By Emmanuel Awosika

The Federal Government has announced that only qualified teachers will be permitted in classrooms from next year.

According to the government, this move was to increase quality in the nation’s academic sector.

Per new regulations, only graduates with first class degrees or second class upper degrees will be receive certification as teachers.

This was made known by Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Sonny Echonu, while addressing journalists after the conclusion of the Professional Qualifying Examination (PQE), organised by the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) on Saturday.

The National Council on Education had ordered teachers in the country to register with the TRCN before Dec. 31, 2019 in order to get certified.

Echonu said the closure of schools in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic had stalled implementation of the the order, adding that the FG was making plans regarding teachers registration and revitalisation in the country.

“With effect from next year, we will not admit or engage people as teachers if they don’t meet a particular threshold. We are now limiting entry to only the best.

“You must have a first-class or 2:1 as a minimum and if you have qualification in other subjects that is not in education, we will arrange for a conversion programme to be administered by NTI, TRCN and any university that has faculties of education or this programme because you also have to learn ways of communicating and managing students.

“We are migrating teachers who are not qualified or do not have the requisite qualifications, competency, not licensed or registered to seamless out of our classrooms to make way for qualified personnel because we want to achieve learning and teaching and learning occurs in our schools.”

Echonu advised teachers yet to write the certification exam to do so immediately, stating that the TRCN would continue to conduct the exams.

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