FG to Increase Minimum Qualification for Teachers’ Employment to 2nd Class Upper.
The federal government of Nigeria has stated that only professional teachers with First Class and Second Class (Upper) certificates will be employed into teaching vacancies as from the year 2021.
This was disclosed by the Permanent Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Education, Arc. Sonny Echonu, during a monitoring exercise of the Professional Qualifying Examination (PQE), organised by the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN).
Echono, who stressed that the decision was aimed at having only the best brains in Nigerian classrooms as teachers, explained that the measure was part of its renewed efforts to improve the quality of teaching and learning in Nigerian schools.
According to him, a national implementation committee would be inaugurated in the coming week to ensure federal government’s agenda on teachers registration and revitalisation was achieved, especially, the entry qualification for teachers in schools.
In his words: “With effect from next year, we will not admit or engage people as teachers if they don’t meet a particular threshold. We are now limiting entry to only the best.
“You must have a first class or 2:1 as minimum and if you have qualification in other subjects that is not in education, we will arrange for a conversion programme to be administered by NTI, TRCN and any university that has faculties of education or this programme because you also have to learn ways of communicating and managing students.
“We are migrating teachers who are not qualified or do not have the requisite qualifications, competency, not licensed or registered to pseamless.out of our classrooms to make way for qualified personnel because we want to achieve learning and teaching and learning occurs in our schools.”
Impressed with the conduct of the PQE, he encouraged teachers who were yet to sit for the examinations to do so, adding that government through the TRCN, would continue to conduct the examinations for teachers.