The Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) has described as misleading claims by the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) that the council is asking people holding its certificates to rewrite professional qualifying examinations.
In a statement in Abuja, the Registrar of TRCN, Professsor Josiah Ajiboye, who was reacting to the claims contained in a letter by the Senate President of NANS, Comrade Akinteye Babatunde, said the allegation was unfounded.
Ajiboye explained that a TRCN certificate is obtained once in a lifetime, adding that once the certificate is acquired, it is valid for life, and that only a TRCN licence is renewable every three years, as it is being done in other professions.
Babatunde, in a letter, alleged that TRCN was embarking on a certificate renewal policy, raising concerns that it would further impoverish Nigerian teachers and lead to a shortage of teachers as many may fail to renew their certificates.
He had stated that reasons for the non-collection of certificates from TRCN within the year may vary, calling on the council to release all withheld certificates to their bearers and immediately expunge the alleged insensitive policy of its system.
“Apart from the fact that this insensitive policy of yours is a time waster, it will also in no time add salt to the nation’s injuries of joblessness and poverty.
“Furthermore, the policy has raised concerns about its impact on the quality of education in Nigeria. If teachers are forced to leave the profession due to the undue expiration of their certificates, there will definitely be a shortage of qualified teachers, which will have a negative impact on the quality of education.
“It would also lead to a decline in the quality of education in Nigeria, which is already in a state of crisis. The TRCN needs to remove this policy, taking into account the present delicate economic realities of the country,” he said.
But Ajiboye clarified in his response that TRCN’s new policy is on the validity of the Council Professional Qualifying Examination results and not the renewal of its certificates.
According to him, the new policy is that the TRCN professional qualification examination will now be valid for the year within which candidates were expected to complete the registration processes and obtain the TRCN certificate.
He added that once that one-year validity period lapses, the candidates who were unable to complete the process to obtain their certification would have to retake the examination.
“Hitherto, we have noticed that many people who passed the TRCN examination failed to register immediately to collect their certificates. Some who passed the examination for several years held on to the results and refused to register (2018, 2019 …up to 2022 results).
“The management of TRCN met late last year and directed our state coordinators to inform all institutions and other stakeholders that TRCN results will now be valid for one year. If you pass the PQE, you must register within 1 year, and if you fail to do so, it means you will write the examination again.
“So, I wouldn’t know where the idea of failure to collect a certificate leading to another examination is coming from. For clarity, the new policy is that the TRCN PQE result is only valid for 1 year for anyone to obtain a TRCN certificate,” he said.
