12,586 Teachers Take Qualifying Exams Nationwide

Kuni Tyessi in Abuja

Twelve thousand five hundred eighty-six candidates sat for the Teachers Professional Qualifying Examination (PQE) conducted by the Teachers’ Registration Council of Nigeria in 35 States, including the Federal Capital Territory.

Director, Certification, and Licensing at the TRCN, Dr. Jacinta Ogborso, who announced this, also disclosed that no candidate registered for the PQE in Zamfara State because of the security challenge.

She spoke while monitoring the exercise in the FCT with the Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, and the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Sonny Echono.

Ogborso attributed the reduction in the numbers of candidates who registered for the November 2021 PQE to the previous surge the council had registered.

Nwajiuba revealed that plans were underway to begin the Teachers Exchange Programme with the Federal Ministry of Communication and Digital Economy to develop the digital literacy capacity of teachers in Nigeria.

According to the minister, the education and communications ministries are working out details to use digital bridge institutes across the six geopolitical zones to enhance the computer knowledge of teachers.

Nwajiuba also disclosed that the TRCN had been mandated to work with the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) to activate the One Teacher One Computer programme.

Echono, who also monitored the PQE at SASCON International School Maitama Abuja, hinted that the career path progression for teachers in Nigeria had been approved at the government and National Council on Establishment level.
“We decided to resuscitate teaching profession in Nigeria through additional incentives and career paths. This is to ensure that teachers are actually specialised in specific areas; individuals in the teaching profession will now follow through a particular career path, we will now have people who will make specialise in school administration, curriculum, and special skills.”