From Jeff Amechi Agbodo, Onitsha
Registrar and chief executive of Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN), Prof. Josiah Olusegun Ajiboye, has decried the large number of quacks in the teaching profession in the country.
Ajiboye, who disclosed this while inducting 1,025 new teachers at Nwafor Orizu College of Education Nsugbe (NOCEN), Anambra State, said unprofessional teachers, otherwise known as quacks, committed many atrocities in the classrooms across Nigeria.
The TRCN registrar, who inducted the teachers during the seventh induction/oath ceremony at NOCEN auditorium, said that the council was determined to flush out quacks from the teaching profession.
Those inducted included graduates from Post Diploma in Education (PDE), Bachelors of Education (B. ED) and National Certificate for Education (NCE) graduands.
Ajiboye, who was represented by the director, Regulations, Accreditation and Enforcement of TRCN, Dr. Abikola Ahmed, said that the ceremony was the most important legal basis of admission into a profession and a condition for professional practice.
“We have sanctioned many teachers for unprofessional behaviour in the past. For instance, in the case of Adizata case in Kano, though he was not a professional teacher but from our end we directed the Kano State Ministry of education to withdraw his educational certificate. The mistake members of the public made is that they see every person in the classroom as a professional teacher. No, most of them are quacks.
“If you look at the number of atrocities committed so far, it is by people who are quacks and not the professionals. For instance, the one in Lagos, where a teacher beat a three-year-old pupil about 83 strokes of cane, which led to the boy’s death.
When we went into investigation about the matter, we found out the man is not a professional teacher.
“So, because of he is not a professional teacher, we have some limit but we are in court with Lagos State, who was joined in the case to ensure that only professional teachers are in the classroom.
“The way we checkmate quack teachers is that we have investigative panel and teachers tribunal. The panel has five members cut across every state and the secretary is always a lawyer. So, if we have a case that is too big to settle by the panel, then, we take it to the tribunal, who tries erring teachers. We also have the power to withdraw erring teachers’ certificate and license,” he said.
He commended the NOCEN for churning out professional teachers, saying that the college has been enlisted among institutions that have supported TRCN in the achievement of her mandate and in the march towards the professionalization of teaching in Nigeria.
“I urge the inductees to take the exercise with highest level of seriousness and commitment to professionalism. The oath is the most important statutory requirement for admission into any profession. It is therefore, an international practice and benchmark. Please note that any breach of the law particularly on oath, calls for sanction,” Ajiboye warned.
The Provost of NOCEN, Dr. Ifeyinwa Osegbo, charged the new teachers to be good ambassadors of the school and should not compromise the ethics of the profession and always sustain the standard of education.
Osegbo, who was represented by the Director of Part-Time Programme, Dr. Ndu Azubuike, urged the teachers to update and expound their knowledge horizon as well as utilize the various aspects of technological tools and materials.
“All these will facilitate teaching and learning that will in return prepare students to compete in the global world. Teachers should show dedication to duty. It is my prayer that the TRCN achieves these goals for which it was established with the cases and problems in the education sector notwithstanding.
She said that the successes recorded by the institution was based on the support accorded to it by the state Governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, Commissioner for Education, Prof. Ngozi Chuma-Ude, the management and staff of the college, who have vowed to make the in stitution one of the best in the country.
Some of the inductees, Francisca Okeke, Rita Obi, Innocent Onah, Chibuzo Ugwu, thanked the management and staff of the NOCEN for imparting knowledge in them to be teachers and commended the TRCN for accepting them to be professional teachers in the country.
“We promised to be good ambassadors of the college. We shall make the institution, the state and TRCN proud in the discharge of our duties. We shall bring our professional training to bear and try to raise the standard of the education”.