The Teachers’ Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) has insisted that all teachers in Nigeria must get the Council’s certification and be licensed to teach in the classrooms, saying there is no going back on the professionalisation of teaching in Nigeria.

This is just as a total of 11,629 candidates who registered for the second batch of the 2022 Teachers Professional Qualifying Examination (PQE), sat for the examination nationwide during the weekend.

Director of Examination and Licensing in, TRCN, Dr Jacinta Ogboso, who monitored the exercise at SASCON International School Maitama, Abuja, insisted that TRCN as the regulatory body would continue to ensure that only qualified teachers are allowed to teach Nigerian children in classrooms.

“After academic qualifications, we have to make sure that those who actually go to the classrooms to teach our children are professionally qualified. This is why this examination is important. If you do not pass this exam, you will not be registered by the Teachers’ Registration Council of Nigeria and once you are not registered and identified as a teacher by TRCN, you, will not be recognised as a teacher in Nigeria and anywhere in the world,” she said.

Ogboso revealed that the Registrar of the Council, Professor Josiah Ajiboye, has done much to improve the conduct of the professional qualifying examination introduced in 2017 as well as the awareness being created around the importance of the professional examination.

She noted that this has led to an increasing number of candidates who register to participate in the examination, saying Abuja had the highest number of candidates for the 2022 October/November Diet with 982 teachers, while Lagos and Anambra followed; and Ondo and Kaduna had equal numbers of registered candidates.

“We have a total of 11,629 candidates who registered for this examination nationwide and in FCT here, we have 982 candidates who are registered,” she explained.

She disclosed that accreditation of candidates commenced at 8 am while they sat for the examination in batches, adding that there were biometric verifications of the candidates to eliminate impersonation.

“We had the May/June Diet and now is the second diet batch B of 2022. We have a total of 11,629 candidates who registered for the examination nationwide. In FCT, we have 982 candidates who are registered at this Centre,” Ogboso said.

Stressing the importance of the examination, she said apart from academic qualifications, teachers’ professional qualifying examination is important for teachers to obtain licenses for their practice.

Ogboso however noted that candidates who fail the PQE are given three opportunities to write, adding that no teacher who went through teacher education should fail the exam more than twice because it covers professional skills and the foundations of education that are taught in colleges of education and faculties of education in all the teacher education programmes.

“So, everybody who has gone through those teacher education programmes should not have a problem passing this examination.

“The result should be ready within 2 weeks. After this exam, the result will be extracted and analysed; and the management will set the cut-off mark and then we’ll look at it. There are processes in every civil service so the processes of approving the results will be done and then the result be released to the public,” she said.

On the crowd at the gate during the commencement of the exams, she said officials of the council did their best to ensure that there was no rowdiness but some candidates showed up 7:00 am while their exams were scheduled for 9:00 am and some whose exam was for 8:00 am equally showed for their exam at the same time.

“After addressing them, everywhere was calm because some of them thought that whenever they come, they can enter and write; we don’t even have a crowd here; our exam is doing well off,” she said.

According to her, the majority of the teachers now are registered and licensed, adding that those who sit for the PQE and succeed in being licenced have an improved self-esteem and self-efficacy. (Nigerian Tribune)

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