FG TO BAN UNQUALIFIED AND UNREGISTERED TEACHERS FROM CLASSROOMS

President Muhammadu Buhari and Ministers of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu and Prof. Anthony Anwukah, have agreed to ban unqualified and unregistered teachers from classrooms, Registrar, Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN), Prof. Josiah Ajiboye has said.

He also said the Federal Government would not employ teachers without registration certificates and licenses from the TRCN under the 500, 000 teachers’ scheme.

Prof. Ajiboye said this during the 10th Education Conference in Abuja on Wednesday with the theme: “Improving Education Standards and Emulating the Global Perspective and Practices.”

Ajiboye said: “Presently, it has been accepted by the Federal Government, the President, the ministers of education have agreed that no one again that is not qualified, that is not registered with TRCN will stand in front of our classrooms.

“I can assure you that no one will be employed as a teacher by the federal government without license and registration certificate.

“We are calling on all teachers, if you know yourself and you refer to yourself as a professional teacher you must be registered with TRCN. You must carry our certificate and our license.

“At the last induction ceremony that was conducted last week in OAU, six professors registered with TRCN and 14 other academics were also inducted into the teaching profession.”

Prof. Ajiboye, who called on teachers both in public and private schools to ensure they are duly registered and licensed by the council, said Kaduna state government, had directed its teachers to obtain their licenses and registration certificates before they would be promoted.

The registrar, who said teachers in private schools, had started registering with the council, called on orders that are yet to register with TRCN to do so.

“Teachers in private schools are also expected to be registered and licensed by TRCN. According to the law establishing the council we are the ones who can talk about who is a teacher in this country.

“Currently, teachers in private schools are responding to TRCN’s call for them to come and register. Now we are in the level of persuasion when we move beyond this level we will go to the enforcement of the law.

“Kaduna state government has really gone out to tell the teachers that look if you are not registered with TRCN you cannot be promoted. This is what we want to encourage in all the states,” he said.

Earlier in her remarks, President of NAPPS, Dr. Sally Adukwu-Bolujoko, called on the federal government to invest 50 per cent of the budget on education.

“Government should invest 50% of the national budget every year for the next 20 years to revamp public schools from dilapidation and degeneration. From 2012 to date, all the budgets in education have just been about 11%. Whereas you know that UNESCO’s benchmark for developing country is 26%. Countries like Senegal, Ivory Coast have begun to give more than 26% and ourselves, with our large population, and the biggest economy in Africa, we have not reached half the mark of UNESCO.

“The state of our public school is appalling. It is not a place where value is given. It is a place where the values children acquire from good homes get eroded. We are asking that as a matter of strategy focus on education by funding it and having the political will to drive and to monitor our money till it delivers results.

“We are bothered that the Nigerian child’s education is poor, under the threes, dilapidated houses, sitting on bricks and on the floor. Every child should be captured in school. No longer should Nigerian child be at home or hawking when others are in school,” she said.

(THE NATION)