Jane Salihu
The National Teachers’ Institute (NTI), Kaduna, has taken the lead in coordinating the Federal Government’s Accelerated Teacher Professionalisation Pathway (ATPP), a six-month programme designed to help serving teachers without professional teaching qualifications obtain recognised credentials.
The initiative, introduced by the Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, is targeting about 250,000 Nigerian teachers and is expected to be formally launched in October 2026.
Under the arrangement, NTI will serve as the Coordinating Secretariat, working with the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN), Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC), National Senior Secondary Education Commission (NSSEC), National Universities Commission (NUC) and other relevant agencies.
The ATPP is designed to tackle a major qualification gap in Nigeria’s education system by providing serving teachers who lack professional teaching credentials with a structured route to professionalisation, rather than removing them from the classroom.
The programme will operate through two pathways: the Postgraduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) for serving teachers with degrees in non-education disciplines, and the Professional Diploma in Education (PDE) for teachers entering from the National Diploma cadre.
Both pathways will combine digital learning, virtual facilitation, structured assessments and supervised teaching practice. The teaching practice will take place in the teachers’ own schools and will be verified through mentors and supervisors.
Unlike a programme focused solely on obtaining certificates, the ATPP places particular emphasis on what teachers do in actual classrooms. Candidates will be required to provide evidence of teaching practice, pupils’ work and lesson activities, alongside documented supervisor assessments.
The programme will run for six months, comprising four months of intensive instruction followed by two months of supervised teaching practice.
According to the programme design, NTI will coordinate curriculum development, content management and quality assurance in collaboration with UBEC and the ATPP Steering Committee.
The academic preparation for the programme has already reached an advanced stage, with curriculum frameworks for the PGDE and PDE routes reviewed, validated and finalised. A national panel of about 40 content experts from universities, colleges of education and participating government agencies contributed to the development of the modules.
The programme architecture has also been mapped across the federal, state and local government levels, while work is continuing on digital curriculum delivery, teaching practice arrangements and engagement with partner institutions.
The media and communication strategy for the initiative was recently considered by the Sub-Committee on Media and Communication headed by the Executive Secretary of the NSSEC, Dr. Iyela Ajayi. NTI was represented at the deliberations by its Head of Public Relations and Protocol, Mal. Yusha’u Ahmed.
The Federal Government says the ATPP is intended to provide a credible, affordable and time-bound opportunity for serving teachers to close their professional qualification gaps and obtain TRCN-recognised qualifications.
With NTI coordinating the process through existing education institutions rather than establishing a parallel project structure, the initiative is expected to place professional development closer to the teachers and, ultimately, shift attention from qualifications on paper to improved teaching practice in Nigerian classrooms.
