By JOHN ONAH, Abuja –
About 12,539 candidates have sat for the May Diet of the teachers’ Professional Qualifying Examination (PQE), conducted by the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) across the country.
This is just as the Council has warned state governments and owners of private institutions in the country against recruitment of individuals without requisite TRCN certification and licensing to practice as teachers across primary to tertiary levels of education.
Director, Certification and Licensing, TRCN, Dr. Jacinta Ezeahurukwe, who spoke with newsmen on Saturday during monitoring of the conduct of the examination at SASCON International School, Abuja, insisted that the teachers’ qualifying examination introduced in 2017 has come to stay.
Benue state made a surprise quantum leap with 1,416 candidates to top other states of the Federation and FCT as the state with highest number of registered candidates for the examination.
She said PQE, which is designed to test the professional knowledge of those in the teaching profession, was a prerequisite for licensing and certification of teachers before being allowed to teach in the classrooms in Nigeria.
Ezeahurukwe said: “At the stage we are now, we are making sure that every state, any organization that has to recruit any teacher from primary to tertiary, must ensure that only qualified teachers are recruited and for that person to be certified as a qualified teacher, you must go through these processes.
“The Professional Qualifying Examination for teachers who are to be registered and licensed as professional teachers in Nigeria takes place two times every year, Batch ‘A’ and Batch ‘B’. We take Batch A in May-June and Batch B diet in November.
“So, this year 2024, we are taking the Batch A of the set that have registered for the examination in May. This examination has started nationwide since Thursday. Some people took the examination in their states on Thursday, some others on Friday and Saturday being the main day, the examination is going on in all the states of the Federation and FCT,” she stated.
While giving statistics on the registration candidates for the examination, the Director revealed that a total of 12,539 candidates registered to participate in the examination nationwide.
According to her, about 650 candidates registered for the examination in FCT while the state that has the highest number of registered candidates happened to be the Benue State, which used to have very low number of registered candidates in the time past.
“Benue is just coming, before now Benue had been somewhere down the ladder but in recent time, the state has come up. Benue has the highest number this year which is 1,416 candidates and they started the examination yesterday. We make sure that we do not have too much crowd by batching them so as to have smooth and credible examination.
“Osun state followed Benue closely with 1,410. Osun used to be the first most often. Two states have the lowest number of registered candidates, Cross River 59 and Ebony state 69,” she stated.
She noted that the impact of the examination is being felt widely which is why the coverage of the examination has been on the increase annually.
Ezeahurukwe, however, observed that the total number of candidates who register for the examination has been on the decrease, because the Council has been able to register and licensed quite a number of teachers unlike when the Professional Qualifying Examination was introduced in 2017 and there was the surge in people who wanted to sit the examination.
She further explained TRCN now conducts professional qualifying examination and induction for prospective teachers at the point of graduation from Colleges of Education and Faculties of Education in Universities.
“Every body knows that you cannot just walk into a class and say you are a teacher. You must be registered and licensed by Teachers’ Registration Council of Nigeria for you to answer and practice as a teacher. It is also well known in Nigeria that you cannot be registered and licensed without you going through the professional qualifying examination because that is one of the prerequisite for certification as is done in all other professions. TRCN started PQE since October 2017 and it has come to stay,” she stated.
She noted that this examination is now recognized internationally after looking at the processes and found it to be very credible, adding that United Kingdom (UK) has also granted Nigeria among other five countries opportunity for their teachers to apply for Qualifying Teachers Status (QTS).
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