Principals support clampdown on unqualified teachers

All Nigerian Confederation of Principals of Secondary Schools (ANCOPSS) on Wednesday gave support for the proposed clampdown on unqualified and unregistered teachers.

The National President of ANCOPSS, Mr Anselm Izuagie, expressed the support in an interview in Lagos.

The proposed clampdown is being made by the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria’s (TRCN).

Izuagie said that the clampdown would improve the standard of education.

According to him, unqualified teachers are making teaching unproductive.

“When there is standard in the quality of teachers, there will be quality in the output.

“We are tired of the negative reports that the profession is unproductive due to non-regulation of the system.

Izuagie said that the TRCN had the legislative enablement to carry out the task.

He added that recruitment of non-professional teachers would be eliminated if the schools that employed them would be closed down, de-registered and had their licences withdrawn.

According to him, governments, especially some state governments, are not doing enough to improve the quality of teachers and boost their morale.

The union leader urged that governments should be determined to carry out necessary reforms in the education sector to improve standards.

He said that poor funding, policy somersault, infrastructure decay, insecurity and misplaced appointments were some challenges in the sector.

Also in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos, Mr Tajudeen Tijani, Education Secretary of Lagos Mainland Local Government, said that the clampdown was long overdue.

He said that it would go a long way to improve teaching and learning.

Tijani urged the TRCN to ensure professionalism in teaching.

The TRCN Registrar, Prof. Olusegun Ajiboye, had in April warned that the Federal Government would not allow any teacher without the professional certificate of the TRCN to teach beyond 2017.

Ajiboye said that the policy was part of the three-year Ministerial Strategic Plan designed by the Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu.

According to the registrar, the council will stop the present registration system that does not entail any examination by the end of May 2017, while the first professional qualifying examination of the TRCN will take place at the end of September 2017.