Teachers Council to License 250,000 Unqualified Teachers

The Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria, TRCN, has endorsed the Federal Government’s Accelerated Teacher Professionalisation Pathway, ATPP, to provide more than 250,000 serving but unqualified teachers with a route to professional certification and licensing.

Under the programme, untrained teachers in public and private schools will undergo structured training and sit for the prescribed ATPP examination.

Those who successfully complete the programme will proceed to the TRCN Professional Qualifying Examination, PQE, before being registered and issued professional teaching licences.

The initiative, led by the Minister of Education, Dr. Maruf Tunji Alausa, is being coordinated by a Technical Working Group chaired by Professor Suwaiba Ahmad.

TRCN and the National Teachers’ Institute, Kaduna, will lead implementation, with support from the Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC; National Senior Secondary Education Commission, NSSEC; Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council, NERDC; and the National Commission for Colleges of Education, NCCE.

The six-month programme is aimed at addressing the longstanding challenge of teachers working in classrooms without recognised professional teaching qualifications or licences.

It will also provide a pathway for graduates with academic qualifications in other disciplines who lack formal teacher-training credentials.

The ATPP offers two routes — the Postgraduate Diploma in Education, PGDE, for graduates from non-education disciplines, and the Professional Diploma in Education, PDE, for candidates from the National Diploma cadre.

The programme combines four months of blended learning with two months of supervised teaching practice in participants’ schools.

Officials say the programme will be implemented in cohorts and cover about 250,000 teachers nationwide across federal, state and local levels.

Successful participants will proceed to the TRCN Professional Qualifying Examination, while certification and licensing costs will be included in the programme fee.