TRCN set to license 250,000 non-professional teachers

By Mariam Abeeb

More than 250,000 unqualified teachers are set to benefit from the federal government’s new Accelerated Teacher Professionalisation Pathway (ATPP), a programme backed by the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) to help them obtain professional licences.

The ATPP, which will be conducted in cohorts, aims to equip untrained teachers in Nigerian public and private schools with the necessary skills and certification to teach.

A statement by the head of media, TRCN, Esther Chiwar, said candidates who pass the prescribed ATPP examination will be eligible to sit for the Professional Qualifying Examination (PQE) organised by the TRCN before they are registered as qualified teachers and issued licences.

The initiative, led by the Minister of Education, Dr Maruf Tunji Alausa, is being coordinated by a Technical Working Group chaired by Prof. Suwaiba Ahmad.

However, the TRCN, alongside the National Teachers’ Institute (NTI), Kaduna, will drive the implementation, with support from agencies including the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), the National Senior Secondary Education Commission (NSSEC), the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) and the National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE).

The six-month programme offers two routes: Postgraduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) for graduates in non-education disciplines and Professional Diploma in Education (PDE) for those from the National Diploma cadre.

Both combine four months of blended learning, self-paced online modules, virtual facilitation and assessments with two months of supervised teaching practice in the teachers’ own schools.

Successful participants will then sit the TRCN Professional Qualifying Examination (PQE), with certification and licensing covered by the programme fee.

Officials said the ATPP would engage about 250,000 teachers nationwide, mapped across federal, state and local levels.