The Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) has rescheduled its Professional Qualifying Examination (PQE) for teachers in Zamfara and Sokoto states over security concerns.
TRCN’s Acting Director of Certification and Licensing, Dr Jacinta Ogboso, made this known on Saturday while supervising the conduct of the examination in Abuja.
She said the examination would be conducted in the two states either online or at designated centres as soon as the security situation improves in those areas.
The acting director disclosed that 151 candidates registered for the PQE in Zamfara while 125 candidates registered in Sokoto out of the 9,204 candidates, who registered nationwide.
“We have to reschedule the examination for Sokoto and Zamfara states because we want to be sure of the security situation.
“They are going to either write online or we find another time,” she said.
She disclosed that 663 candidates sat for the examination in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
She further disclosed that the figure is less than the number of candidates who wrote the examination in previous years, saying “this is due to the fact that many people sat for the examination in those years.”
She urged teachers who are yet to be identified as registered teachers in the country, to take advantage of the PQE and get registered.
On the successes registered since the commencement of the examination in 2017, Ogboso said the exercise had been very smooth over the years.
On measures to check malpractices, she said the council had put in place a process of accreditation through a platform developed by Information and Communication Technology (ICT).
She said the platform is designed to detect the actual people who registered for the examination to avoid impersonation of candidates.
“Inside the examination hall, we have our officers who go round to check each person to ensure that the photograph of that person is the same with the person writing the examination.”
She added that the rise in applications experienced at the peak of the PQE was due to the rush to meet the deadline of ensuring that only professionally qualified teachers are allowed to teach.
“In 2019 and 2020, we recorded 69,000 and as high as 100,000 in some years.
“That was at the peak of the registration when TRCN wanted to enter into the implementation of unqualified people leaving the classroom as had been mandated by the Federal Ministry of Education,” she said.
Earlier, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Mr. David Adejo, who also monitored the exercise in Abuja, said teachers who have not registered to write the PQE are not teachers as far as Nigeria is concerned.
“In the medical profession, after your university, there is a compulsory exam you must pass before you become a doctor.
“So, those who have not passed through this process are only at best impersonating and government cannot allow that going forward.
“We need to standardise the teaching practice and this exam is one of the things that will do that,” he said.
