Nigerians Slam Teachers’ Registration Council of Nigeria Chief
Nigerians Slam Teachers’ Registration Council of Nigeria Chief
By: Collins Mbakwe
Nigerians from virtually all walks of life have slammed the Registrar and Chief Executive of the Teachers’ Registration Council of Nigeria [TRCN], Prof. Josiah Ajiboye.
Recall that TRCN boss, Prof. Ajiboye recently, in an interview with Tribune Online said that the council would soon resume the monitoring and enforcement compliance of the policy of teachers’ registration with the council, which started in February 2020 and halted midway due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the general lockdown.
According to him, more than 50 percent of teachers currently in all private primary and secondary schools nationwide are still not qualified to be in the classroom teaching, as many have failed to register with the council or are not registrable. His words:
“Those without these two certificates [NCE AND TRCN] are not supposed to be engaged as teachers much less be in front of students teaching anywhere in the country…We are only waiting for more time for people to come out significantly from the adverse effect of COVID-19 crisis to continue the exercise and sanction schools and teachers that are not complying”.
Prof. Ajiboye’s comments since then have been met with backlash by most Nigerians. The backlash and unprintable names directed to many Nigerians on various streets of Nigeria and the social media spurred Our Nigeria News Magazine into massive interviews with many Nigerians across the country.
While fielding questions from our reporter, a senior teacher in Gombe State who spoke on condition of anonymity, expressed deep concern on the state of affairs in the country.
He opined that the country’s leadership has lost its bearing, adding that it has become a common practice in Nigeria for leaders to ignore true causes of problems and engage in exercises that would further impoverish the citizens. Furthering, he stated that the TRCN policy on teachers’ registration is nothing but a calculated attempt to further Nigerians in the private schools. His words:
“My heart bleeds with the way the leadership of the country collects money from its citizenry in the guise of one otiose exercise or another. If TRCN means well for the common man in the country, the registration should be made free to all”
Speaking to Our Nigeria News Magazine, Mrs. Ndahi Ibrahim expressed regret over what she calls misplacement of priority and described the situation as unfortunate. Continuing, she stated that the government has failed to properly address the lapses in the country’s educational system, especially in the public schools, adding that the only schools where quality education is realizable in Nigeria are private schools.
She further noted registered or not registered, registrable or not registrable, most private teachers are better experienced and committed to teaching than most of their counterparts in the public schools. Her words:
“I am perturbed by the government’s insensitivity. They pay lip service to proper education delivery and pretend to care. Instead of supporting the private schools and having an upward review of teachers’ salaries, they are busy implementing counter-productive policies. It is ridiculous that they are finding a way to get many Nigerians out of jobs and thereby, rendering private schools ineffective, simply because they want to make money through TRCN registration”
Dr. Abba J.U, a retired civil servant, said that the exercise of the TRCN is fruitless, nothing that most teachers in the private schools who did not go through the rigorous of education at the tertiary level are even better teachers. “Most of them have intrinsic teaching abilities which formal education cannot provide,” he stressed.
Hundreds of others who spoke on condition of anonymity questioned the morale behind the TRCN policy. They expressed disappointment that the same private schools they abandoned and left to their fate during the pandemic are the ones that are out to destroy their businesses under the pretext of attempting to weed out unqualified teachers from the country’s educational system.
