Jane Salihu
The Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) says about 250,000 serving teachers without recognised professional teaching qualifications are set to benefit from a new pathway that will enable them obtain professional certification and teaching licences.
The council, in a statement approved by its Head of Media, Esther Chiwar, said the Accelerated Teacher Professionalisation Pathway (ATPP) would provide serving teachers with the opportunity to acquire the required professional training without leaving their current jobs.
Under the programme, candidates who successfully complete the prescribed ATPP examination will be eligible to sit for the Professional Qualifying Examination (PQE) conducted by TRCN, after which successful candidates will be registered as qualified teachers and issued professional licences.
The six-month programme is designed to address the long-standing challenge of teachers working in classrooms without recognised professional teaching qualifications, including graduates who obtained degrees in other disciplines but did not undergo formal teacher-training programmes.
The ATPP will be implemented in cohorts and offers two professional training routes — the Postgraduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) for graduates from non-education disciplines and the Professional Diploma in Education (PDE) for candidates from the National Diploma cadre.
The programme combines four months of blended learning, comprising self-paced online modules, virtual facilitation and assessments, with two months of supervised teaching practice in participants’ respective schools.
According to TRCN, the arrangement is intended to allow serving teachers to acquire professional teaching skills and certification while remaining in service.
The council said it would work with the National Teachers’ Institute (NTI), Kaduna, to drive implementation, alongside agencies including 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).
The initiative is being coordinated by a Technical Working Group chaired by Professor Suwaiba Ahmad and led by the Minister of Education, Dr Maruf Tunji Alausa, CON.
TRCN said the programme would help address gaps created by the presence of teachers who possess academic qualifications in their subject areas but lack recognised professional teacher-training credentials and licences required for career progression.
It added that the programme fee would cover certification and licensing for successful participants, with the overall target mapped across federal, state and local government levels.
The council said the ATPP represents an opportunity to strengthen teacher professionalism by providing a structured route through which serving but unqualified teachers can obtain the training and regulatory certification required to practise professionally.
