The Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria has come down hard on some proprietors of private schools, saying they contribute to the poor standard of education by employing quacks as teachers.
It accused the private school owners of allegedly promoting quackery to maximise profit.
The council’s registrar, Prof Josiah Ajiboye, disclosed this in an interview with newsmen over the weekend.
The TRCN is an agency of the Federal Ministry of Education of Nigeria which has as its major mandate regulation and control of the teaching profession at all levels, both in the public and private sectors.
The registrar accused some private school owners of unleashing just anybody on pupils in the name of hiring teachers.
He said while a large percentage of teachers in public schools are well-trained and qualified, the same could not be said of private schools.
The TRCN had earlier said about 90 per cent of teachers in private schools in the south-western states of Ogun, Lagos, Osun, Oyo, Ondo and Ekiti were not qualified to be registered with the council.
Shedding more light on this in an interview with Sunday PUNCH, Ajiboye said, “Based on a survey carried out by a consultant working with the TRCN, about 90 per cent of teachers in private schools in the South-West are not qualified to be registered with TRCN.
“If this is the situation in the South-West, you can imagine the preponderance of unqualified teachers in private schools in Nigeria as a whole. Whereas a large percentage of teachers in public schools are qualified and have registered with TRCN, the same cannot be said of teachers in private schools.
“The TRCN has focused on mobilisation of teachers in private schools to first get qualified by registering for Postgraduate Diploma in Education or Professional Diploma in Education as the case may be, to make them registrable with the TRCN so that they can be certified.”
The TRCN also called on states to vet the list of teachers before registering new schools. It stated, “TRCN is following up with the state governments that register these private schools to make available the list of their teachers as part of the conditions for registration. Before your school is registered, let us see the list of your teachers to be sure they are qualified, registered and licensed by the TRCN.
“We have also embarked on enlightenment campaigns among private school teachers to promote professionalism at that level.”
While knocking some private school owners for promoting quackery to maximise profit, Ajiboye added, “It is a truism that some private school owners promote this quackery in teaching, because they want to maximise profit. They could just employ just anyone and unleash them on our children. We have been having discussions with private school owners to discourage such practices. Yes, indeed, government alone cannot provide education to the teeming population of Nigerian children, private participation is a welcome development.
“However, the commercialisation of education must be discouraged. Competent and qualified teachers are sine qua non to quality education.”