Federal Government says it will sack teachers without requisite teaching qualifications, competencies and practicing license from the Nigerian Teaching Service and employ only graduates with First Class and Second Class degrees.
The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Sonny Echono, made this known in Abuja while monitoring the conduct of the 2020 October Diet Batch B Teachers’ Professional Qualifying Examinations,PQE.
Echono, who disclosed that the Federal government is more interested in learning outcomes, also made known that a National Implementation Committee on teachers revitalisation/resuscitation plan would be inaugurated before the end of November 2020.
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According to him, “By 2021 ,we will not engage people as teachers if they don’t meet particular threshold , we are now limiting entry point of teaching only to the best who are qualified , we will engage individuals with second class upper and first class divisions”
” We will make arrangement for conversion programmes for people who have people with this categories of result from other field , they need to learn pedagogy, methodology , through the NTI and the TRCN ,they will under go specific programmes that will empower them to teach”
He added that the entry level will be higher and they will get better remuneration with peculiar allowances.
Echono further stressed that concerned education agencies are finalising figures with National Income Salaries and Wages.
“We must enforce Mr President’s directive that only qualified teachers will be allowed into our classrooms.
“The Professional Qualifying Examinations is going on smoothly across 34 states ,the feedback as been good,” he stated.
Our reported gathered that a total of 17, 602 teachers from across 34 states and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, participated in the exam as against over 46,000 candidates that sat for the March 2020 PQE, due to the impact of COVID-19 pandemic.
The Registrar of TRCN, Professor Josiah Ajiboye, said the council has created a smooth atmosphere for teachers including those in diaspora for the exams, saying that the drop in figure was due to the effect of COVID-19 that distorted activities globally.
A candidate who sat for the 2020 Oct Diet PQE at SASCON international school, Sunny Hiji, said it was his second time of sitting for the examination.
According to him, ” most of us are not computer literate, we need computer training like two weeks before the exam date , I wasn’t used to computer so It contributed to my failure my first attempt to write the exam , but before this very one I attended a short computer lesson so that I could get use to Computer system”.