FG bars unqualified teachers from 500,000 jobs scheme

The Federal Government has agreed to ban unqualified and unregistered teachers from classrooms nationwide, the Registrar/Chief Executive of Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria, Prof. Josiah Ajiboye, has said.
According to him, the government will not consider teachers without registration certificates and TRCN licence for its 500,000 teachers’ recruitment scheme.
He stated that already, the decision had been jointly endorsed by President Muhammadu Buhari; the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu and Minister of State for Education, Prof. Anthony Anwukah.
Ajiboye said this on Wednesday in Abuja during the 10th Education Conference organised by the National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools, with the theme, “Improving Education standards and emulating the global perspective and practices.”
He said, “Presently, it has been accepted by the Federal Government; the President, and ministers of education have agreed that no one again that is not qualified and is not registered with the TRCN will stand and teach in our classrooms.
“I can assure you that no one will be employed as a teacher by the Federal Government without licence and registration certificate. We are calling on all teachers to register, if you know yourself and you refer to yourself as a professional teacher, you must be registered with the TRCN. You must carry our certificate and our licence.
“At the last induction ceremony that was conducted last week in OAU (Obafemi Awolowo University), Ile-Ife, six professors registered with the TRCN and 14 other academics were also inducted into the teaching profession.”
While calling on teachers both in public and private schools to ensure they were duly registered and licensed by the TRCN, Ajiboye said the Kaduna State Government, had directed its teachers to obtain their licences and registration certificates before they could be promoted.
He said, “Teachers in private schools are also expected to be registered and licensed by the 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 register. Now we are in the level of persuasion when we move beyond this level we will go to the enforcement of the law.”
The President of NAPPS, Dr. Sally Adukwu-Bolujoko, called on the Federal Government to invest 50 per cent of the budget in education every year for the next 20 years to revamp public schools.
He added, “From 2012 to date, all the budgets in education have just been about 11 per cent, whereas you know that UNESCO’s benchmark for developing country is 26 per cent. Countries like Senegal and Ivory Coast have started to give more than 26 per cent. With our large population, and the biggest economy in Africa, we have not reached half the mark of UNESCO.
“The state of our public schools 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 a Nigerian child be at home or hawking when others are in school.”

SOURCE.. PUNCH