Over 11,350 candidates took part in the first batch of the professional qualifying examination (PQE) organised by the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) on Saturday.
Josiah Ajiboye, TRCN registrar, disclosed the figure while monitoring the exercise at Sascon International School Maitama in Abuja.
Ajiboye said reports from various centres across the country showed the exam went smoothly in terms of participation and accreditation.
The TRCN registrar said Lagos state had the highest registered candidates for the examination with over 1,500 entrants, followed by Kano state and the federal capital territory (FCT) respectively.
According to Ajiboye, Kebbi state had the lowest participants in the exercise.
“Well, generally, all over the country, we have about 11,350 candidates who are writing the exam, with Lagos State having the highest with 1500 plus candidates, followed by Kano State and FCT, Abuja; then you have a state like Kebbi with the lowest number of candidates for the examination,” he said.
He said the examination started on Wednesday and was concluded in some states on Friday.
Ajiboye said the exercise is part of federal government’s efforts to weed out unqualified teachers.
“Even if you’re a professor in the university, you just have to write this examination before you can get the certificate and the licence. So, part of the process for weeding out this quackery in the profession is what we are on,” he added.
“And another thing that we are doing in that regard is also school monitoring. You will recall that in February 2020, we started the school monitoring programme.
“Monitoring is a continuous exercise. So, we are still on, we will not relent. And we have also processes for checking our certificates, the authenticity of those certificates. We have certain features in our certificates and the licence that actually will enable us to know whether it’s really a fake one or a genuine one. So, we are on top of it.”
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