From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
The Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN), has disclosed that only 1.8 million teachers have been certified by the council to teach in Nigerian schools.
The council said the issuance of 130,645 professional teaching licenses in the past year was responsible for the increase in the number of professional teachers, which was hitherto 1.5million.
It said it intensified campaign against the activities of quack and unregistered teachers whom it said were partially responsible for the drop in quality of education.
The council Registrar, Prof. Josiah Ajiboye, divulged the information in Abuja at a briefing to mark his first year in office.
He insisted the figure was not enough to carter for millions of Nigerian children seeking quality and affordable education, expressing fear that quacks and unregistered teachers might take advantage of the situation to make fortunes.
He cautioned whoever was nursing such plan, stressing that the council activated its machineries to track and disgrace any unregistered teacher found anywhere close to the classroom.
Ajiboye described teaching as a noble profession and encouraged interested and passionate persons to acquire necessary academic and professional qualifications in order to escape the wrath of the council.
He announced that the council made a landmark achievements in the past year, some of which were the issuance of 21 letters of professional standing to Nigerian teachers seeking opportunity abroad and periodic visits to teacher training institutions to enforce minimum standard.