Gabriel Dike
The Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) and key stakeholders in the education sector will gather in Abuja next week for a two-day workshop to review the Professional Standards for Nigerian Teachers (PSNT).
The workshop to review the PSNT document will hold from April 1 to 2 and participants are expected from the Federal Ministry of Education and its agencies, International Development Partners, deans of faculties, institutes of education, provost of colleges of education, TRCN Governing Council members and other professional.
A statement by the organisers of the workshop said the Professional Standards for Nigerian Teachers came as a result of sustained efforts of the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) to raise teacher quality and ensure professionalism.
TRCN said the standards consist of four themes broken down into 36 sub themes and 84 standards which are essentially performance benchmarks for appraisal of professional standards of teachers according to their categories.
According to the council, teachers’ standards are one of the key dimensions that are critical to any comprehensive policy, thus in her stride to march Nigerian teachers to global competitiveness, TRCN in 2010 developed and presented to the public the Professional Standards for Nigerian Teachers.
The council noted that over the period some vital issues that require to be considered have developed in the teaching profession thus the need to review the document owing to the emerging local and global issues.
It said: ‘’Realizing the importance of the knowledge and practice of the standards on the teaching and learning outcome and the fact that PSNT was published in 2010, TRCN is compelled to review and reprint the standards for teachers at the basic and post basic levels to have a copy each for their guidance in the practice. This would go a long way in improving the quality of teachers and strengthen the basic education levels.
‘’In view of the status of the Professional Standards for Nigerian Teachers as a national bench marking document, it requires the engagement of experts from the education agencies, tertiary institutions and development partners.’’.
Among the partners and stakeholders expected include Teacher Development Programme (TDP) UKAID (for Technical support), USAID, UNESCO, NATCOM UNESCO, British Council, University of Ibadan, University of Nigeria Nsukka, Alvan Ikoku Federal College of Education, Ahmadu Bello University, College of Education Hong, University of Abuja, President, National Association of Proprietors of Private School (NAPPS).
Others are President, Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Secretary General of NUT, Universal Basic Education (UBEC), National Teachers Institute (NTI), National Universities Commission (NUC), National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE), National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA) and the Lead Consultant, Prof Steve Nwokeocha, Director Academics of African Federation of Teaching Regulatory Authorities.