The Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) has said that Edo state was leading other states of the federation in terms of teacher qualification and training.
Registrar of the Council Prof. Josiah Ajiboye who disclosed this while speaking at the 2020 budget defence of the agency before the House of Representatives Committee on Basic Education said six other states were not doing well in terms of teacher education.
Prof. Ajiboye said the 31st December, 2019 deadline issued by Federal Government to phase-out quacks from the teaching profession in Nigeria remain sacrosanct.
He however did not disclose publicly the states with large number of unqualified teachers, but stressed that the monitoring exercise to fish out unqualified teachers will begin in January 2020 across the country.
He expressed confidence that the ongoing repositioning of the teaching profession will take teaching from normal scheme of service to a new level and will be able to give them their own specialized scheme of service where teachers will be motivated and able to enjoy the benefits of their services and ultimately be motivated to do better in the profession.
On efforts to improve the quality of teachers travelling outside the country, the Registrar said TRCN is a member of African Teaching Regulatory Authorities and also a member of the International Forum of Teaching Regulatory Authorities that regulate teaching in Africa and globally.
The TRCN, he said has established cordial working relations with all Development Partners including UNESCO, MacArthur Foundation on teachers education and other training programmes.
Chairman of the House committee, Hon. Julius Ihovbere applauded various initiatives and ingenuity of the Council, and harped on the need to improve its revenue generation drive.