By Jumoke Olaitan
The Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) says about 250,000 serving non-professional teachers are to be licensed through the Federal Government’s Accelerated Teacher Professionalisation Pathway (ATPP).
This is contained in a statement issued by the Head of Media, TRCN, Esther Chiwar.
Chiwar said the initiative, led by the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, and the Minister of State for Education, Prof. Suwaiba Ahmad was designed to provide unqualified teachers with the required professional training and a pathway to licensing.
According to her, the ATPP will be implemented in cohorts and is targeted at serving teachers in public and private schools across the country.
She said the programme would equip untrained teachers with the skills and certification required to meet professional teaching standards while allowing them to remain in service.
She said candidates who successfully completed the prescribed ATPP examination would be eligible to sit for the Professional Qualifying Examination (PQE) organised by TRCN.
“Candidates who pass the PQE will be registered as qualified teachers and issued professional licences,” she said.
She added that TRCN, in collaboration with the National Teachers’ Institute (NTI), Kaduna, would drive the implementation of the programme.
She said other agencies supporting the initiative included the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), National Senior Secondary Education Commission (NSSEC), Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) and National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE).
Chiwar said the ATPP was designed to address the challenge of teachers who were currently teaching without recognised professional qualifications or licences.
She explained that some of the affected teachers possessed degrees in subject areas other than education but had not undergone recognised teacher training programmes.
According to her, the lack of professional qualifications has affected the career progression of some serving teachers and exposed them to possible sanctions.
She added that ATPP would provide such teachers with an opportunity to acquire professional qualifications without leaving their jobs.
”The six-month programme offers two pathways: the Postgraduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) for graduates of non-education disciplines and the Professional Diploma in Education (PDE) for those in the National Diploma cadre.
”Both pathways will combine four months of blended learning with two months of supervised teaching practice in the participants’ schools,” she said.
She said the blended learning component would include self-paced online modules, virtual facilitation and assessments.
She said the supervised teaching practice would enable participants to apply their training in real classroom settings while remaining in service.
She said successful participants would subsequently sit for the Council’s Professional Qualifying Examination, adding that their certification and licensing would be covered by the programme fee.
She explained that about 250,000 teachers had been mapped for participation across the federal, state and local government levels. (NAN) www.nannews.ng
Edited by Funmilayo Adeyemi