Prof. Josiah Ajiboye, Registrar, Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN), has advised teachers to ensure they were qualified and registered with the council in order to improve the quality of education in Nigeria.
He gave the advice on Tuesday in Abuja in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
He said that the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari was focusing more on the quality of teachers as it was central to improving the quality of education.
He added that the three years Education Strategic Plan of the Ministry of Education was focused on enhancing the quality of teachers’.
Ajobye said: “the teacher is very central; that is why the government is focusing more on them.
“We are focusing on making sure we improve the quality of teachers’ education, the quality of teaching and the teaching profession in Nigeria.
“Since this is the goal of the government, all our teachers must key into and embrace this drive.
“As professionals we must make sure our profession also rises beyond the ordinary.
“We must make sure we project our profession; we are happy with the response we are getting but we want this to continue so that everybody will come on board.’’
On the issue of ridding the profession of quacks, Ajiboye said the council was in ‘’persuasive stage’’ to compel teachers without the requisite qualifications to do the right thing.
He explained that though the council had `teachers investigative panel’ operating in all the states of the federation, it was given time for unqualified teachers to do the right thing before being sanctioned.
“We have what we call teachers tribunal in our act, so we are empowered to deal with quacks in the teaching profession but we are in a stage we call the persuasive stage.
“We are still persuading teachers to make sure they key into the vision of the present administration to improve the quality of education and the quality of teachers.
“There are no sanctions for now but when we finish with persuasion and we finish with other things, we will go to the level of enforcement,’’ he said.
Ajiboye said that as professional, teachers must wake up to their responsibility by ensuring they were registered and support the council in its efforts to rid the profession of quacks. (NAN)
