As part of measures to get rid of quackery and enhance professionalism among teachers, the Teachers’ Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) has concluded plan to start issuing a brand-new Personal Identification Number (PIN) to teachers after revalidating their certificates with the Agency and granting license to be professional teachers.

The agency said teaching in Nigerian schools across levels would no longer be for everybody but for only those who passed through TRCN and got certified either in public or private schools.

The Registrar and Chief Executive of TRCN, Dr. Ronke Soyombo, dropped this hint in Lagos at the official launch of the “Go Public, Fund Education” campaign organized by the Nigeria Union of Teachers in collaboration with the Educational International and Friedrich Elbert Stiftung, both global educational development advocates, recently.

According to her, the PIN will serve as a unique number to each teacher, and this will enhance their recognition, credibility, mobility and standing as professionals in the country’s education system.

She said: “Your certification is not just a formality, but your identity, your shield of credibility, your passport to career progression and to leadership and respect your vocation deserves.

“That is why I’m appealing to every teacher in the country who is yet to register with TRCN or license by the agency to make the move and do so quickly in their own interest.”

She emphasized that “we cannot as a country continue to leave our classrooms for the unprofessional to teach our children.”

She disclosed that those who are currently teaching without possessing teacher education certificates are given just two years window to regularize by going for training in education postgraduate or ordinary diploma in teacher education.

After two years, she pointed out that TRCN would clamp down hard on anyone who remains as a teacher without going through necessary training.

She said: “The whole essence of these is to ensure that only qualified and professional teachers are allowed to stand in front of students teaching in any of the Nigerian schools.”

Soyombo also stressed the importance of the government putting adequate investment in education and especially on teachers.

According to her, when teachers are stretched beyond capacity, infrastructure crumbles, and learning becomes a privilege rather than a right, things will go wrong.

She lamented that public schools were where most today›s leaders attended but that most of those schools have lost their bearing because of inadequate attention by successive governments.

While declaring that even though privatization and commercialization of education are not inherently evil, their becoming a substitute for public responsibility risks the country of deep inequality and creating a two-tiered system where quality of life becomes the preserve of the few, while the majority suffer.

“So, as a regulator of the teaching profession, TRCN sees firsthand the link between the funding and the quality,” she said.

“You cannot demand excellence from teachers while denying them decent working conditions. You cannot expect innovation in the classroom when basic materials are absent. You cannot build a knowledge economy on the back of an exhausted, under-resourced teaching force.

“So, this campaign is not merely about budget, but about values and political will, about whether we as a society still believe that every child, no matter their background, deserves a fair start in life and to thrive,” she concluded. (Nigerian Tribune)