13,000 teachers undergo test to renew licences

About 13,000 candidates participated in the May edition of the Teachers’ Professional Qualifying Examination conducted by the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria nationwide.

The PQE is a mandatory exam that teachers must pass to become registered and licensed to teach in Nigeria.

It ensures a minimum level of professional competence and is a requirement for TRCN certification.

The Acting Registrar of TRCN, Stella Nwokeocha, disclosed this while monitoring the exercise at the Computer-Based Test Centre of the National Open University of Nigeria in Wuse II, Abuja, on Saturday.

“We have a figure of 594 people writing at this centre. There are some other centres in the other states. All together, we are looking at around 13,700.”

She stated that reports from centres across the country indicated a hitch-free exercise, adding that due to the rescheduling of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, the PQE was shifted in some states.

“All the reports we have been having, they said they have completed the exams without any problem. We have not had any negative reports at the moment.

This exam continues tomorrow because of the JAMB issue. So, we have to shift the dates for those in Lagos and the South East. Some of them will be writing tomorrow, being Sunday, and at Enugu they will be writing on Wednesday,” Nwokeocha added.

Also speaking at the Abuja centre, Chairman of the TRCN Governing Board, Dr. Saliu Mustapha, praised the smooth conduct of the examination and the large turnout of participants.

Mustapha described the exam as a critical step toward sanitising the teaching profession.

He emphasised ongoing efforts by the Minister of Education, Dr. Maruf Alausa, to weed out unqualified teachers from classrooms through the use of technology.

“We are trying to make this IT-driven. We want to see that we have a database where all teachers will be found. As time goes on, we may have to make it public.

“So that if, for example, you have a tutor of Year 3 or Year 4 in your primary school of your children, you can go online to Google. You can see if she is on the platform of the TRCN. If she registers, you know whether she is qualified to take care of your children or not.

“A parent can do that. In a situation where we do that, people will know. They will hold the teachers accountable and the schools, especially the private schools, accountable to see whether these teachers are properly qualified or not.

The representative of the Minister of Education, Ismaila Adiatu, also expressed satisfaction with the conduct of the examination.

Meanwhile, the Director, Certification and Licensing of TRCN, Dr. Jacinta Ezeahurukwe, said the PQE results were expected to be released in a week time.

“The results will be out within a week. Once our delegates to the states arrive by Monday and Tuesday, we start extracting the results. And within the week, the management will look at it and consider and approve the benchmark. And then the results will be released,” she said.