By Joseph Erunke
ABUJA-THE Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria, TRCN, has said a total of 17, 602 teachers from across 34 states and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, would participate in its Professional Qualifying Examination, PQE, slated for Saturday.
The Registrar/Chief Executive Officer of TRCN, Prof Josiah Ajiboye , speaking at a press conference, Tuesday in Abuja, disclosed that out of the number, Osun state has the highest candidates with 1, 727 teachers followed by Adamawa with 1, 623 candidates, just as Lagos State trailed behind with 934 candidates.
According to him, the FCT has 850 candidates expected to sit for the examinations. In a similar circumstance, Ebonyi has the least number of registered teachers with 119 candidates after Bayelsa which has 128 candidates.
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Ajiboye who said the examinations would not hold in Jigawa and Ekiti states for this particular digest explained that they were unable to meet up with the 100 benchmarks for candidates registration per state.
“We are going ahead with our examination. In the last examination, we had over 46, 000 candidates that registered. But because of the pandemic, we couldn’t register many teachers for this diet. We cannot stop that is why we still have to go ahead,” he said.
He added: “This time around we are having about 17, 602 teachers that are going to take this examination in this October diet. We have an examination in about 34 states and the FCT. Only two states – Jigawa and Ekiti are not going to be involved.
“The examination will take place from 12th to 14th of this month. Why we have arranged it that way is to give latitude to make sure that we are Covid -19 compliant. We will be able to batch the candidate and they will be able to come base on the time allotted for their examination not that everybody will be at the venue of the exam.
“They are going to be given a specific time for their examination and that is the time we expect them to come to the venue of the examination. We are going to batch them and we are going to make sure we comply with all the Covid-19 protocols in terms of physical distancing, hand washing, and sanitizing.
“We are going to make sure that all these protocols are complied with as stated by the Presidential Task Force on Covid -19.”
Speaking on the deadline for teachers registration with the TRCN, the Registrar maintained that the Federal Government would not go back on its stance on regulating the teaching profession, adding that only qualified teachers will be allowed in the classrooms
“We are not going back on that deadline. It is just because of the Covid -19 that we have slowed down. The first report that was written by our monitors in February and March has already been submitted. We are looking at it now. There is no going back.
“Countries that have been able to get their education right have been able to do two things; they have been able to place the learners at the center of their education and the second is the quality of their teachers.”
