Abuja, Lagos, Anambra Record Highest Number of Participants in Teachers Qualifying Exam

Kuni Tyessi in Abuja

No fewer than 11,629 candidates participated in the second batch of the 2022 Teachers Professional Qualifying Examination (PQE) conducted by the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) nationwide.

The Council Director of Examination and Licencing, Dr. Jacinta Ogboso, who monitored the exercise at SASCON International School in Maitama, Abuja, disclosed that Abuja had the highest number of candidates with 982 teachers, while Lagos and Anambra States followed; and Ondo and Kaduna States had equal number of registered candidates.

According to her, “We have a total of 11,629 candidates who registered for this examination nationwide, and in FCT, we have 982 candidates who are registered.”

Speaking on the importance of the exercise, she said apart from academic qualifications, teachers’ professional qualifying examination is important for  teachers to obtain licences for their practice.

Ogboso said: “So, we no longer depend on the academic qualification; after the academic qualification, we are sure that the people who are going to the classroom to teach our children are actually professionally qualified. So that is why this examination is important.

“If you do not pass this examination, you would not be registered by the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN), and once you’re not registered and identified as a teacher, you would not be recognised as a teacher in Nigeria and anywhere in the world.

“So that is why this examination is very necessary and crucial; no professional qualifying examination, no teacher registration certificate, and no licencing by TRAN.”

Ogboso, however, noted that candidates who fail the PQE are given three opportunities to write, adding that no teacher who went through teacher education should fail the examination more than twice because it covers professional skills and the foundations of education that are taught in colleges of education and faculties of education in all the teacher education programmes.