The Lagos State wing of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), has suggested that the Teachers’ Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) prosecute school owners who recruit unlicensed teachers to teach.
Chairman of the NUT Lagos, Segun Raheem, told newsmen on Wednesday in Lagos that no person should take-up teaching job without having the professional requirement.
He said the Teachers’ Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) should clampdown on all unregistered teachers as well as their employers; prosecute them to serve as a deterrent to others.
The union leader noted that all over the world, teaching is regarded as one of the best professions because of its contributions to the lives of children and adults.
“Decree 31 of 1993 that establishes TRCN states that every person, who wants to practise teaching, must be certificated and licensed,’’ Raheem said.
He expressed dismay at some school owners, who were still employing persons to teach without the prerequisite teaching qualifications or experience.
“It is the duty of TRCN, as a regulatory body, to certify someone as a professional teacher.
“NUT as a member of that council, will make sure that any school owner that recruits any person to teach, without being licensed, be prosecuted.’’
The unionist said that no fewer than 90 per cent of teachers in Lagos State had been certificated by TRCN.
“As I am talking, more than 60 per cent of them had paid for their licences to practise teaching in the state.
“We support TRCN and we had asked all our members to register and the process had begun,’’ he said.
Commenting on the crisis in Kaduna State, Raheem urged Gov. Nasir El-Rufai to have a re-think on his plan to sack some of the teachers from the state’s civil service.
“As a teacher and as an evaluator, I think when you conduct an examination for 23,000 teachers and over 21,000 failed, that test is a failure.
“I don’t blame the government because Gov. El-Rufai is not a teacher and he may not know.
“I think it behooves on his advisers on education to know that, that is not the best way to go.
“However, I must be very frank to say that government does not have the power under the law to test teachers because it is not the regulatory body.
“It is not the duty of a state government to test, to affirm, to re-affirm and confirm that this teacher is qualified to teach or not. So, that test is null and void.”
Raheem said the union’s leadership would resist any move to sack the teachers and employ others as replacement.
“NUT has written a letter to the governor that if he does that, the entire teachers in the whole of this country will stop work.
“He does not have that legal backing to sack them based on a frivolous test,’’ he said.
