By Temi Ohakwe, Abuja
Nigerian Teachers are now being sought after globally.
The Registrar of Teachers’ Registration Council of Nigeria, Prof Josiah Ajiboye, made this known during a one-day Capacity Training Workshop for Education Correspondents Association of Nigeria (ECAN).
Prof Registrar also said that since the beginning of the Year 2021, he has signed about 100 letters of Professional for qualified Nigerian teachers who secured teaching jobs in Canada and other parts of the world.
He stated that teachers trained in Nigeria are becoming highly competitive, he added that government at all levels should do it best to attract them to stay back home.
Prof. Ajiboye who emphasized the approvals given by President Muhammadu Buhari, on repositioning teaching profession in the country ,call for adherence by the State government as well saying, States are the largest employers of the teachers.
According to him, “Mr President has started with that in 2020, if we can be able to follow through this, I believe very strongly that the trend of our teachers leaving the country will reduce”
“At the Federal Ministry of Education level, the circular has gone out on 65years of teacher’s retirement, Federal teachers will benefit from this beginning from January 2021, some of the approval will wait till 2022 but we will continue with the implementation”
He assured that with the approvals given by the President and with it full implementation across the country with the cooperation of states, more qualified teachers will be retained in the system.
“We don’t want our qualified teachers to leave Nigeria but for those that are leaving, they are being rated at par with their colleagues abroad”.
Also speaking at the event, Dr Abimbola Okunola, Assistant Director in the council, said that the teaching profession has been rated more critical than any other profession in the world, hence the need to attract the best brains for the practice of teaching in the country.
“In the honourable court of France, only teachers are allowed to sit on the chair. In Japan, the police force has to take special permission from the government to arrest a teacher for any reason”
“In Korea, only teachers enjoy the privilege of a minister and in Germany, teachers are among the highest paid civil servants.
He, therefore, emphasized the need for professionalism as the secret behind the success or collapse of any vocation, hence the need to critically take professionalism seriously in the teaching profession.
On his part, Dr Magaji Waziri, Assistant Director, Department of Planning, Research and Statistics in TRCN, said that the country has been flooded with unqualified manpower which had lowered the quality of teachers in the system.
Waziri maintained that there was therefore the need to set standards at all levels while ensuring quality teaching and learning through monitoring and supervision of teacher education programmes.
Also speaking at the event, Chuks Ukwuatu, Chairman of ECAN, called on journalists to ensure adequate reportage of education stories to foster development in other sectors.
Ukwuatu commended TRCN for its role in ensuring excellence in the education professionalism of teachers as well as maintenance of teachers’ quality.
He also appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to renew the appointment of TRCN boss to ensure continuity in transforming the nation’s teaching profession.
