The Teachers Registration Council Of Nigeria (TRCN) has decried the lack of qualified teachers in Nigeria as one of the reasons for the drop in educational standards in the country.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Council, Dr Ronke Soyombo, raised the alarm while appearing as a guest on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief on Monday, in celebration of the 2025 World Teachers Day.
While speaking on this year’s theme, ‘Recasting Teaching As A Collaborative Profession’, Dr Soyombo noted that while there were teachers without required qualifications, there were also those with genuine interest in the profession but could not be enrolled due to lack of qualifications.
She, however, said the Council is currently taking steps to tackle shortage of teachers in the profession.
“There are many unqualified teachers in the profession. We have those teaching in classrooms but don’t have the teaching qualifications, particularly in private schools.
“Again, it is one thing for you to say you have been to teacher’s college, and it is another thing to be able to break it down to the level of the students to soothe their specific needs. This challenge has to be addressed, and as soon as we have the accelerated programme, that is going to bring a lot of teachers in, because they don’t want to come to public schools. And what is stopping them is that they don’t have education degrees.
“We currently have about 1.4 million teachers registered with the TRCN, and our target in the next two years is to get to 20 million. What we have done is to digitise our systems, so that more people can be able to register.
“Every teacher has a gift which is different from one person to another. But what we are propagating in education is for everybody to come together and plan lessons together.
“You might be three teachers teaching a particular year group, but if you come together and plan lessons together, you are bound to come up with something richer than when you work in isolation.
“When you also look at the 21st-century education itself, it is very important that we pass the culture of collaboration down to our children.
“We need to allow our children to collaborate with mixed ability groupings. Teachers are really eager this year to see how they can build more on collaboration in their schools.
“On leadership as well, teachers can go to other schools to see which ones are performing well, and take the good practices to their various schools.”
The First Lady of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, on Sunday celebrated teachers worldwide, urging a renewed focus on addressing the pressing global teacher shortage.
Tinubu described teachers as “true heroes, shaping minds, nurturing dreams, and guiding generations.”
While speaking, Soyombo also decried shortages of teachers in the country, and highlighted what the government was doing to tackle the menace.
“There is no doubt that we have shortages of teachers, so what we are doing with this particular government is to accelerate professional diploma in education. For people who don’t have it, now is the time they will be able to have access. We are accelerating the course to six months for experienced teachers, so that as soon as they are through, they can have experience. This will make us have enough hands in the teaching line.
“We are going to have enough teachers coming into the teaching line, because people are now eager to come into the profession.
“What the TRCN is also doing is looking at how we can upgrade teachers. We are also supporting them with resources in classes, because some teachers are very good, and are looking for how to plan lessons to support other teachers, and that will also encourage other teachers to come in,” she said.
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