Over 20,000 candidates write Nigeria’s first teachers’ professional qualifying exams | EduCeleb
EduCeleb
15th October 2017
Over 20,000 potential teachers across the 36 States of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory participated in the First Teachers’ Professional Qualifying Exams on Saturday.
This is according to the Registrar of the Teachers’ Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN), Professor Josiah Ajiboye.
In his words,“in total we have 20,000 potential teachers who wrote this exam today. In Kano we have about 1,500; In Plateau state we have 1,600; In FCT we have over 430 individuals who sat for the exams.”
The registrar of the council, Josiah Ajiboye, said the present government wants only those that are certified and licensed to be allowed to practice the profession henceforth.
“Teaching is the mother of all professions, if we get teaching right we will get it right in all sectors of the economy. No country can rise beyond the quality of its education and no education can rise above the quality of it teachers,” Ajiboye said.
Monitoring the examinations organised by the TRCN, the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, said at one of the Abuja centres that the examination was part of efforts of the Federal government towards professionalising the teaching profession.
The minister who was represented by the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Education, Sunny Echono, said the exams were intended to assess Nigerian teachers and to certify individuals who succeed as qualified teachers.
He said the computer-based examination was an initiative of Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria, to ensure that teachers saddled with the responsibility of training Nigerian children have the right qualification, right attitude and right abilities to do the work.
The permanent secretary said most of the accreditation process can be done online since the examination is computer-based.
“We want to have a multi layer structure of this exam regardless whether you are a PHD holder, a masters holder or you have NCE,” he said.
“Whatever level you operate you should be able to operate at that pace and you have the opportunity of progression within the area. I am pleased with the arrangement of this exam which took place in many other states and with the report we got I think we are satisfied.”
The registrar said the exam would hold twice yearly, precisely in May and October.
Speaking on the result, Mr. Ajiboye said the results of the Saturday exams would be out within the next one week.