By Ngozi Nwankwo
Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria TRCN has decried the high rate of unqualified teachers in the Nigerian private schools.
Disclosing this during an interactive session with journalists, the Registrar of TRCN, Prof. Josiah Ajiboye, assured that TRCN would tightening its commitments in tackling quacks especially in private schools come 2014.
Ajiboye noted that less than 50 percent of teachers in private institutions were not qualified.
While explaining that COVID 19 outbreak in 2020 posed serious challenge in meeting its mandate on zero tolerance for unqualified teachers in teaching profession, the TRCN boss reiterated the Council’s commitment to improving the teaching profession in Nigeria and ensuring that only qualified individuals are allowed to teach.
The Registrar also disclosed the council’s resolve to get a fiat from the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation,AGF, to empower the Council on enforcement and compliance through the prosecution of unqualified teacher.
“We are working with the AGF to get a fiat. It will help us to prosecute, go after erring institutions because the law establishing TRCN utterly gives us the power to prosecute. But we need the fiat to be able to do that.
“We are discussing with the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation to be able to prosecute. And when we get that, it will not be difficult for us to be able to go after some of these institutions.
“The problem we have is that education is on the concurrent list. These private schools are not registered by the federal government, they are registered by state governments,” he said.