IBADAN – Teachers’ Registration Council of Nigeria, TRCN, says the December deadline for the Teachers Professional qualifying examination has lapsed but there is an opportunity for interested candidates to enroll again for the next examination.
The Registrar/Chief Executive TRCN Prof Segun Ajiboye revealed this in an interview with ametrocopy in Ibadan.
He said the council is also proposing to have the examination quarterly as against the two times a year.
“I normally tell people, the deadline has passed, but that is not the end of professional qualifying exam. It is a continuous thing.”
“If you fail ICAN, you write it so many times, the same thing, if you fail the professional qualifying examination, you will rewrite. And those who have not registered before, opportunities are there for them to register.”
“In fact, we are thinking of having the exams four times in a year, as against the two times we are proposing or the three times we had it in 2019. We want to have the exam four times a year starting from 2020.”
Prof Ajiboye also clarified that the December deadline was not set by TRCN but by the National Council on Examination, which is the highest decision making body on Education in Nigeria for all teachers to get qualified, registered and licensed by the TCRN. He said the TRCN will commence the process of ensuring compliance and monitor.
”This week, there’s going to be series of meetings in our headquarters in Abuja first with a small group of experts from University and other tertiary institutions who are going to lead our technical team of monitors.”
“We have developed a monitoring guideline and we are going to use this.”
Prof Ajiboye said the National Personnel Audit carried out by UBEC has provided the details of all the teachers across the country both in private and public schools.
The TRCN boss said the list of unqualified teachers will be submitted to the state government for further action adding that over 5,000 candidates wrote the last exam in Oyo state.
“We are going to compile the list and the state government will have to determine what they are going to do with it.”
He, however, insisted that the federal government will no longer allow unqualified or unlicensed teachers in the classrooms.
Prof Ajiboye wondered why the teaching profession should not be regulated considering how important it is to the overall development of the nation as according to him, the quality of teachers accounts for 70 percent of the quality of students.
